The Inaugural Howling Good Time Ride

I had so much fun at last nights "Howling Good Time Ride" that I felt it deserved a little more than a note in the forum. I know, we didn't actually go on the Full Moon but I feel the atmosphere on the night, created largely by the weather, justifies retaining the name.

Our intitial plans were obviously to make the most of the natural light provided by the glow of a full moon, Christine still maintains that this would have been more than adequate. Our hand was forced though by the weather, with forecasts of storms developing, rain periods continuing Thursday with gale warnings along the coast, had memories of last months aborted attempt by the "fine weather brigade" flashing through my mind. This and the fact that Rob's bargain buy of the month lights had shown up in time for him to shine up made a fairly unaminous decision to move the ride forward a night easy...

Showers started early in the evening, a little earlier than I had hoped, and it looked like our best made plans were to be thwarted again. A call from Rob as I headed off from home had us both reporting light rain, but we decided to head up anyway on the presumption that it wasn't raining at Terry Hills. Despite my "no-one could get lost with those directions" to the assembly point I actually drove past and had to double back. A note for the future, the turn off is just past the start of the 40km/h school zone sign. First there, I headed for the saftey of the well lit end of the street, thank goodness for school security lighting. Rob, followed soon after and parked at the dark end of the street closest to Booralie Rd and hence this became the meeting point. By the time I got ready and rode up to join them both Greg and Christine had joined Rob. Greg was already most of the way through repairing a flat tyre under the light of his Mega Beam 50, most impressed Greg. Craig showed not long later and after a little comparing and admiring each others light systems we were almost ready to head off. Only the task of attaching Christines borrowed LED head torch to her helmet to go. Rob and I both thought it would be best suited under her helmet, a little problem of hair getting in the way put an end to this. The moment saved by Greg again with him producing a roll of duct tape to attach the light to her helmet, I swear the boy must have been a Boy Scout. A quick test of all lights revealed that these efforts were probably not necessary, she had flat batteries.

It was with a little trepidation, on my part atleast, that we finally got going, just as a few spits of rain began to fall. The precipitation soon abated and it was not long into the trail that we debated if there was enough light from the moon to turn off our artificial illumination, and so the lights went out! Even with the clouds rolling in, the moon a night away from a being full, and not yet being at its highest point, you could actually make out the trail, not the rocks, branches or bog holes mind you, but certainly the trail. Maybe Christine is onto something here. No not a chance, I was the first to grab the light switches again, followed soon after by all who had working lights.I think in our own little way we were all pretty happy with the lighting systems we had assembled. The warm glow of Gregs Mega Beam shone the way for us all on more than one occassion. My handle bar light did more than I had expected, my helmet light on the other hand, whilst probably bright enough, shone too wide a beam to do the job it was designed for. Rob's lights worked well and I think he was hapy with his helmet mounted dive light, although a little adjustment at the look out would prove to make a large difference to its use.

By the time we reached the trail junction, the one, and probably only short coming of Gregs lights reared its head. He needed a battery change. In his defence he did start with the small battery and used about half its life rectifying his flat tyre. This in a way proved usefull for a few others as they made use of the stop for a call of nature, strange I didn't think asps were active at night. As we headed off along Long Track both Christine and started to talk about turning at the first lookout. The showers were falling down with a little more consistency now, OK it was raining but we pressed on. Again the lights did their job quite well although one thing I found was that it is hard to differentiate between loose and hard packed sand. We did stop at the first lookout, for another photo op, but didn't stay here long. Christine and I were talked into heading further out towards the trail end. I don'tknow, but the trail seemed to be shorter this time around, maybe its just that at night you tend to loose the familiar trail side points and focus more on the trail itself. That short sharp hill beat all but Rob and Craig, Greg and I blame a loss of traction on our defeat. Before we knew it we were at the end, just as Christine was starting to gain a little confidence riding with Gregs light illuminating the way, almost to the point she didn't stop in time. Rob, made a similar comment as he hit the end. A few more pics, some light comparisons and we were soon on our way again. A short stop at the top of the first climb for me to clear a branch caught between chain rings saw what was probably the closest thing to a disaster for the night. I almost snapped Craigs brake lever off as I righted my bike, sorry mate. The rain continued, and so did we. It wasn't long before I started to drop off the back, a low fitness base and no rides for three weeks really take their toll. No chance of getting lost though, with my back brake starting to squeal everyone new exactly were I was. At this point I have to say that for someone that was riding without lights of his own, Craig rode like a man that should be swabbed, often leading the way at the head of group, he did later comment though that his upper body was alot stiffer than usual from grabbing the bars a little harder.

We were all soon back at the cars, seeking the warmth of dry clothes and a little shelter from the weather. Christine is right, timing was perfect, it really started to bucket down soon after. I think the best thing about the night, apart from the uncertaintity of what's making that noise in the bush beside me, was that it truely was a great social ride. Pace was a little slower than usual and the desire to share lights with those that didn't have them gave us all a great opportunity to chat along the way. I think the overwhelming enjoyment by all will have us all back out there again very soon. A huge thanks to all for what was probably one of my most enjoyable rides to date, despite my obvious lack of fitness. I'm sure pace will probably pick up a little as we all get a little better equiped, and this probably won't be a bad thing either as the adrenalin will probably kick in a bit more. For now though, lets just get out and enjoy what we have as often as we can.

Stuart

PS I'm sure photos will pop up soon