Ringtail Forest Ride Summary and the Mud from Hell
Hello ‘rangers!
Well what a lovely day for riding! That bit of rain last night had me worried but we ended up having beautiful weather.
Twelve intrepid Bushrangers met up at the cricket grounds in Tewantin and we were prepped and eager to go at 7.30am sharp. Ride leader Ben gave a curt ride briefing (he used his big boy voice) and told us that this ride was not going to be 35km but actually closer to 45km! OMG!! I hear you say. But do you think any of us whinged about this extra workload?!…. well, yeah, there actually were some groans – but we sucked it up and started riding because WE LOVE TO RIDE! (bonus points for sneaking club motto in, aww yeah!)
It was!
We rode down Mackinnon Drive and then into the single track that runs alongside it which John called “The sunken gardens” (cool name!). We went up Old Tewantin Road and then into the trails throughout Ringtail forest. We were planning to go down the old enduro trails beside Louis Bazzo Drive but we went down a different trail instead and… it…was…AWESOME!!! This descent (which I will know refer to as “the awesome bit”) was quick, loose, rocky and full of those seducing water-bar jump things. You know the ones, they fill your head with 3rd person imagery of you leaping into the air, doing a “sick” 360° and then landing to a thunderous applause while maintaining your sexy cool face. This hill was so awesome that Chad’s wheel got buckled by the amount of awesome!
We then rode through some pine forests which had a few kilometres of sandy roads where the fatbikes just gracefully rolled over the stuff. I even got to use my joke where I innocently say “Is this sand?” as everyone tries to slip, twist and turn through it all. That joke just keeps giving I tell ya!
After the sand we had to stop to repair a puncture so we took a moment to chat and watch Chad do his Borat “mankini” impersonation. It was also a good time to enjoy the majesty of a freshly logged forest, you could just stand there all day and soak in the feelgood ozone of tree corpses.
Soaking in the ambiance
The mud stunk soooooo bad!
We then made it back to Mackinnon drive and headed back to Tewantin looking for a mystical trail to take us around the Noosa Waters estate. I think we missed it again but we did find a trail that took us through some of the worst smelling mud EVER! If I were a religious man I would say this is the mud given to sinful potters in hell! It was like riding through a septic tank or when Luke Skywalker had to sleep in a Tauntaun. While I write this I can still hear my bike outside sobbing.
But anyways, once through the mud we were on the banks of the lovely Noosa river were we had a short break before trying to trail blaze along the river’s edge to get to the Ferry. Unfortunately we came across a creek which we could not get over or around. So the group turned around and went back through that mud again. But special mention to Chad and Toby who continued to trail blaze a bit further once the other guys decided to go back, that’s the sort of hardcorenessness we like!
So we got back to cars after around 4 hours and 42km. We then went to Cafe Doonan for some coffee and food (FYI – the “Frangipani” tart did not taste like frangipani flowers).
Thanks for the adventurous ride everyone. I had a great time and I hope you all did too.
Michael
Club Secretary
