YPR#35 Yarra Flats to Westerfolds Park
Hay, Alan and I headed out this afternoon for a few hours along the Yarra Trail. I hadn’t been out there for a while so it was good to visit these tracks again. We started out on the easy singletrack and everyone was riding together – all good. I started throwing the bigger drops at Hay and I was surprised that he was basically following me down everything. I know that in my first few rides out on the MTB I was always tentative on anything that looked slightly tricky.
We continued out along the tracks around the Yarra Trail without any major incidents. Continuing past Rosanna Golf Club, I was following along behind Alan and we were getting towards the end of a section so I did a sprint past him yelling, “Yeaaahhh”. I overcooked the next corner though and went down in a dusty heap so it was more like, “Yeeeaaahhh….. UUNNNPPPH!” First crash.
Following that, we continued along the trails to Westerfolds Park where we got on a very narrow trail that follows the path and the bridge – Keith and HYG will know this bit. Riding along this narrow bit of trail, I made a mistake and slipped down the wrong side of the trail. I think I rolled twice and ended up about 4 metres down the embankment. So lucky I didn’t hurt myself badly and so lucky that I was stopped by the trees, otherwise I would have kept rolling and probably ended up in the river. Second crash. Since I was riding at the tail of the group, it took a few minutes for the other two to realise I’d gone down. In the meantime, I was trying to get myself out of there without assistance. Good thing the other two came back because I wasn’t having any success.
After that incident, we decided to take it a bit easy and stick to some easier trails. After a quick stop at a cafe to grab a drink, we headed back along the sealed paths. At one point as we were coming down the hill with a bit of speed, Alan made a last second decision to turn left. I wasn’t prepared for it and had overshot the turn so I made a sudden stop. Hay was right behind me and must have locked up his brakes. I just heard tyres sliding and turned around to see Hay doing a very stylish body roll dismount. 8.5 out of 10. Third crash. Very lucky he didn’t come out of that crash with any injuries.
The rest of the ride was incident-free. As is usual everytime I hit the Yarra Trails, I came out of this ride with some injuries – scratches on my left arm, both knees, right ankle, chainring marks on the OUTSIDE of my right leg, bruise on my head, jarred neck.