Woodend Pinies

Not much happens on Good Friday so it was off to Woodend to ride the Pinies for the Sharp boys, their cousin Geoff and me. Steve and I had loved the Pinies section of track used for "The Duael" so we took advantage of the Easter break to pay it another visit. Cousin Geoff was visiting from Queensland and had brought his Trek dually along with him as he was keen to experience some more of the great tracks we have in Victoria.

Geoff showing off his QLD riding boots

Now when we had raced "The Duael" it was cold and windy but there was no rain and the track was near to perfect. Unfortunately Woodend has had a bit of rain in the past week and the track is a whole lot different to ride in the wet. Due to the undulating nature of the singletrack there are lots of depressions to fill with water and quite a few wet and slippery tree roots. Now all this didnt slow Alexander down (especially when I loaned him the Felt for a lap) but it did throw Steve and I out a bit as all our "fast" lines were redundant. However we managed to safely negotiate our way around and still have fun.
We resisted the urge to sample any of the many magic mushrooms that were growing throughout the forest however there were a few enlightened people collecting them for "medicinal" purposes. As we came out of the forest we came across two other MTBers getting ready for a ride. They looked a little bit different to your average rider but we couldnt put our finger on what it was until we checked out their rides, they were riding 29er single speeds. We wished them luck and decided to explore one new bit of track before heading for home.
The new route headed us back towards the old highway and started off with a nice downhill. We noticed an old jump with the ramp facing the other way and worked out we were riding the track the wrong way but we carried on regardless showing true MTB spirit. A bit further along Alexander spied some old elevated track so we dismounted to do some exploring. It appears that many years ago someone had gone to a fair bit of trouble to build some wooden rails off the ground. Sadly it has fallen in to a sorry state of repair and although we offered to lift Alexander and his bike up on to it to see how sturdy it was he declined our offer.
We went back to our bikes and rode the rest of the track that brought us out on to the side of the highway. There was only one thing to do and that was to ride the track the right way. This was a much more enjoyable way to go and before long we were back at the cars with four very muddy bikes and riders.
As we were loading our bikes back onto the cars Geoff and I noticed some dark clouds coming in so we picked up the speed and loaded everything on as quick as we could and took refuge in the car. However the Sharp boys hadn't noticed what was coming and had spent some considerable time changing into their street gear before packing everything up. It was about then the rain started and the boys got a little wet. Geoff and I tried not to laugh too much in case they saw us but we did manage to sneak a little picture for you.



Looks a bit wet out there!

 After that it was off to the Woodend cafe for a healthy lunch of fish, potato cakes and chicko rolls. Steve assured us that there was no real meat in Chicko Rolls (invented in Bendigo) so we werent acutally breaking any religious traditions.