Paul Petch

Richard’s visit. Ride four. Craigieburn (Photo rich!)

After some last minute emailing/ phoning and car shuffling 4 of us took off for the Craigieburn Forest Park and in particular the Lyndon Saddle Loop. Soon after leaving the carpark we realised that we had taken the wrong track… but decided to keep going and find out where it took us… I mean…. what is adventure without some exploration? :D

After over an hour of steep climbing, Richard was already feeling the pain, which was understandable, but worrying as we had just started out :/ After some food stops we kept on trucking and we continued to go up and up and up….and then taking a lush green forest track (which of course went up) we arrived at a really nice ski lodge! The lodge was tucked away in the forest with a magical feel about it….we took sometime to explore while we waited for poor old Richard who by now was really struggling. We then headed off and up a steep rocky 4WD track that none of us could climb on bikes… so at this point we pushed…. and pushed until we met some people in a hut overlooking the mountains.

When we asked for directions to the Lyndon Saddle they looked gob smacked and explained that we were in the wrong valley and had to climb up over a ridge in the distance…..which was near vertical scree! They also offered to take our details for when they had to call the rescue team….lol! Once Richard heard this.. he kind of freaked out a little as we stood suffering from the thin air and laughing while “trying” to put his worries to rest. James, Brent and I headed to a running stream on the mountainside to fill our bladders while Richard laid in shade and ate :) We all added more sun block and headed towards the scree slope…. and headed upwards once more. We had given up riding at least 30 minutes ago now… and we were slowly pushing the bikes up while laughing like crazy people being baked in the heat of the day.

Before the ridge we came to another scree slope which was again looking fairly vertical. With Richard at the bottom rambling something about his knee and how F&*King crazy we all were and how over it he was… off we went. Laughing at each others waste of energy with a one step forward and then a “lift the bike and apply brakes to pull upwards and repeat” kind of motion we slowly made it. Meanwhile Richard had stopped a couple of walkers who were pointing in the direction we were heading and off he went towards a better defined track! DoH! Something told us that the directions that we had been given by the people near the hut were more entertainment than fact!

Onwards we climbed pushing the bikes….until we reached a green “rolling” ledge to our left with a massive gully to our right and views to die for! What became obvious to us now from this view point was that the scree that we were heading towards was going to be to hard to climb up with 15KG bikes (and Richard!).. as it was vertical! We stopped for more food and photos while working out our next plan of action…..and decided to at least try and ride across the green ledge that would bring us to the vertical scree. Half way across, we cut our losses as it was more “wheel catching” grass than “rolling meadow” and we wanted to get some descent time so we back tracked to then hit the 4WD tracks that were ankle deep in scree in most spots.

I’ll never forget what happened next. My left foot just seemed to come loose as I was hurtling down the top section and no matter what I did.. it just would not find the pedal! Locking up I had a look to see the spring on the Crank Brother Candy pedal was in half! F&CK!!!! (I won’t bore you with details, but I’ve killed 5 pairs of these things in less than 16months…… but this I promise will be the LAST candy I ride!) Anyway, I managed to make it to the bottom without incident (with a distinct smell of burning disk pads) and the Marin just loved the rocky tracks downwards…..but what was I going to do for the rest of the ride unable to fix my left show to the pedal? Stopped at a grassy track that was signposted “saddle walk” we ate and worked out a plan for my situation. Zip ties? Gaffer tape my foot to the pedal? take off the cleat so I could at least work out a positive contact with the pedal??? and then I thought of strapping my foot using something tougher than zip ties…. maybe a camelbak strap from the chest part of a pack? James donated his (thank you sir!) and we bodged a loop that surprisingly kept my foot from slipping forward! (well kind of!)

We then climbed up the grassy track which required some bike pushing on most parts in the second half….and by now Richard was close to exhaustion and I heard him shout out “I’m just going to take a break” but I was in the zone turning the pedals and stopping would have turned my legs to “off” so I told him that we would wait just around the next corner. Once he caught us up and many jokes at his expense and another round of One Square Meals we decided to push the bikes from this point so Richard could get a breather. Just looking at him made us tired… and even pushing his bike was hurting him alot.

Coming through the tree line we all chuckled, sniggered and laughed as someone was going to have to tell Richard that we had another near vertical scree face to climb up to a point in the distance. Once he had caught up and saw what was ahead…he just folded. Regardless, we were not going to let another climb beat us and after Brent and Richard expressing their concerns (with many you’re Dreeeeming jokes) James and I ignored them and pushed on. We made it to a spot where we could take another breather and get a much better idea of the next step….. but where was Richard? Well…. Richard was “bike-less” half way up the track and just staring into space…..he was munted. We shouted down to see why he had walked up without his bike and he was silent…..and we giggled….and then shouted some more for some kind of response. With some rambling & mumbling came the words nice and loud…. ” I AM F%*KING SPENT!”. Of course we then just fell about laughing….. which in reflection was not the best thing to do…. but we were maybe 6000M up, feeling kind of special and had been climbing for nearly 6 hours….so it was hilarious!

After 10 minutes or so Richard started to walk up towards us and once he arrived just stood with his hand on his hips and said (in a deep Aussie accent) “look fellas- I’m not going to get carried off this mountain in a helicopter like you crazy f*ckers so I’m pulling the pin.” Of course we just looked at each other and fell about laughing…. and the more we tried to control ourselves the worse it got! After getting our shit together we decided to carry on upwards to the peak while Richard headed slowly back the way we came to the car-which was a quite straight forward route if you took thing easy. (as a side note here.. we would have not let Richard go alone if the track back was as tricky as the one we were jus about to climb and descend!!)

After letting one peak beat us… we were not going to let another one make us turn back… I mean we were so close. Some 400M, and the old “two steps up and stop to get our breath” approach and nearly an hour later we made it to the top! What a fantastic view! We could see the ski village and the scree line that would take us to the trails and Lyndon Saddle (including the “luge” descent) but the last climb had taken way longer than we anticipated and the temperature was now falling close to dusk. After gloating over our achievements and our insanity.. we took off back down the way we came… and this time we were not going to push our bikes!!!

The scree descent was amazing and was unlike any track that I had ridden before… near vertical in places with loose rocks, fine dusty parts and a mixture of larger sharp rocks for good measure. Add a few rocky drop offs and grassy mountain side lines with vertical falls if you mess up…. and you have a fantastic trail! I’ve never stuck my right leg out into scree to act as a brake before… but it worked on this stuff when your brakes don’t!! Before we knew it…. we were zipping down the green and grassy track that had so kindly broken Richard just an hour or so ago……and boy did we get up some speed!! Add low branches, parts of the track that fell away leaving a line no wider than a foot and lots of trail litter… oh… and a left foot “kind of” strapped to the pedal it was not bad at all. Before we knew it we were on the hard packed 4WD track and at the carpark. With some stories, fish and chips on the way back and a real sense of achievement it was a brilliant day out! A massive “hats off” to RIchard too…. I mean this was no Melbourne Latte sipping coffee shop ride.. and he held his shit together very well especially after a hard week of riding! Nice one mate and welcome to the South Island!!! :)

Did we get to ride the Lyndon Saddle Loop and the infamous Luge downhill? Hell no. Was it an adventure that we will never forget? Hell Yes!!! :D

Apologies for so many photos…. but I have to share these!

Richards notable quotes of the day:

My nuts are numb again!

I AM F%*KING SPENT!

I had never spent a whole day in the granny gear until today

Look fellas- I’m not going to get carried off this mountain in a helicopter like you crazy f*ckers so I’m pulling the pin

F&*K off.. you are not having my survival bag… I might need it

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Related posts:

1. Richard’s visit. Ride five. Port Hills to Taylors Mistake
2. Richard’s visit. Ride two. Port Hills
3. Richard’s visit. Ride one. Port Hills
4. Last of the summer mountain biking – Craigieburn
5. Richard’s visit. Ride three. Bottle Lake Forest

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 8:37 am and is filed under Bike Rides, Featured and tagged with brent, craigieburn, epic, marin, richard, turner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.