Ewen Maddock Dam/Ferny Forest ride summary (01/01/2017)

Ewen Maddock Dam/Ferny Forest ride summary (01/01/2017)

Our regular readers might remember a summary from November that tried to poetically describe (rather beautifully if I do say so) how hot it was that day. Well I believe last Sunday’s ride was hotter than that. However it was a stealthy heat because you only felt it when you stopped moving,  like WHAM! and your standing in a melted slush puddle that was once your will to live. But while you were moving it was OK so like Dory says in Finding Nemo – “Just keep swimming” (that’s a little pop culture reference to show how “hip” we are to all the young kids).

The rider turnout was pretty good considering it was the day after New Year’s Eve – no one smelt like grog or a bathroom floor (well no one apart from me anyway but I blame my Old Spice cologne). We started from Maddock park as usual but instead of the typical ride through the dam trails, Dularcha railway tunnel and then coffee at either Mooloolah or Landsborough we went along a sneaky shortcut from the dam trails over to the Ferny Forest trails. The shortcut meant we only had to be on the Steve Irwin Way for about 100m and we could be on the inside of the safety barrier away from the cars. It worked great and no one died so that’s a good win I guess.

Due to our President being knocked down suddenly with manflu, I was the intrepid ride leader (I get a stamp now right?) and I promised everyone that there would be a coffee van at Ferny Forest. But alas, the coffee van was not there that day. I swear, the look of disappointment and loss in everyone’s eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life. We’ll try again next time but make sure you check it out if you do a Ferny Forest ride anytime soon. But it worked out well because it was getting real hot now and each of us got to do as many loops of Ferny Forest as we wanted and get a good ride in before we headed back to the cars a bit earlier.

Some notable events and learnings were:

• Al found a rather large gum tree (seriously, it was huge!)
• New riders Terry and Yvette did great and had fun
• 

  143mm long pedals. Clowns can rejoice!

  There was a fat bike thre called a Surly Wednesday and it had big pedals (again, seriously huge)

• Facebook lies
• The Old Spice advertisements lie

Thanks for making the first ride of 2017 a good one everyone and thanks to QPWS and Seqwater for the great trails.

Seeya next week!

Michael “Hello Ladies” Johns
Club Secretary

PS: Thanks for the photos Brad