Go G.I.R.L. Parklands Ride Summary

Go G.I.R.L. Parklands Ride Summary

Times are a- changing…, whilst Ben aka Bushrangers President, took a few Rookies for a ride from the Radar Hill side, we were full house at the Atkinson Rd side entrance of Parklands. This demonstrates women are stepping up and choosing to go to the next level in their riding and what better place to start than our treasured Parklands. Nicci Orr and her girls from Brisbane joined us along with some new and old faces. So after the traditional before the ride photo, 14 of us rode single file to the trailhead.

“Were you sitting down?” “Did you faint?”

Yes you heard me correctly, 14 ladies turned up for an Intermediate ride requiring reasonable fitness and some technical ability. This is definitely, a record for us and shows conclusively that GoG.I.R.L. (Get Into Riding Ladies) is working.

We left the doubts of, “Am I fit enough?” and “Am I good enough?” on the street and headed into the Park. We began with Phoenix, straight into a flow trail simply because it is a joy to ride. Next we climbed up new and improved Double Dabs with its tight switchbacks, the first of many hills. After a quickie in the Meadows, we showed we could Go the Distance and do the Whole Ho Chi Ho, stopping at the beginning to check out some impressive log stacks. Well done to Nicci, Di and Kelly for confidently showing us how it’s done. The next TTF (Technical Trail Feature) was after the Pinch, which most ladies had a go. From Radar Hill we were not Rookies and mastered Cancer Tree. Serpentine proved too much for one, but all the others took M1 safely home. Thankyou to Tania Marks and Sonja Wilson for the team effort in leading and getting us all back safely.

At times we made have scared off some birds with our squeals of delight. But letting go of fear and taking your riding to the next level should always be celebrated.

There is never any pressure and our journey is unique. Sometimes it is the next time you find the courage to give it a go and when that happens you realise it was bigger in your mind (Note to self, ride the log on Phoenix, it will be a lot faster when you can). Maybe it took some time to get there, never mind, it’s all the sweeter when it happens.

Four weeks till Chicks in the Sticks so if you are participating don’t forget to network and get some training in.

Till next time, see you on the trails.

Susie Hume
Women’s Advocate