We had a group of over 30 riders today. All were ready to enjoy the awesome single track within Plenty Gorge Park. Sean, Guy and Adrian from the Plenty Gorge MTB Club showed us around the trails and made sure no one got left behind.
The ride started out with the trail "Switching along Roo's Trail" and also "Jess's track", which had great flowy sections and smooth switchback climbs.
We then rode along Dry Creek Bed Track to the right of the water tank.
One rider ended up with a puncture, which ended up splitting four of us from the main group.
While the main group carried on, the four riders left behind tackled the flat tyre and ended up sourcing a tube from the car park. We were ready to go after 10 minutes and began trying to navigate our way to the main group, but had to stop once more to try and fix a disc brake rubbing against the pads.
Four of us kept on riding and eventually rode just in front of the main group while the main group took on some extra distance and jump trails.
Once we had all re-grouped, we rode through some more technical and rocky sections along a ridge near the river. This part was challenging for quite a few riders and left many walking their bikes after repeatedly smashing their crank arms on rocks.
Riding through more single track, the group gradually began to split into 2 groups- for those who had more leg speed in them and also for safety/trail etiquette reasons. A fun section was a steep drop followed by an even steeper climb. Tim (LDTR social ride organiser) didn't quite make it up the climb. The rider in this POV video may (or may not) have though...
One of the standout trails was Goat track, which ran along the side of a hill/ridge/cliff/massive drop. We didn't want to have any mistakes happen here. This was one of the stand out tracks in terms of views and having to concentrate on where you pointed your wheel.
After Goat Track, was a fun little drop section which a couple of us tested out.
It was getting near the end of the ride and we had one last section to ride through. Riding in an open grass field was a rad experience and something which mixed it up from the trees.
Despite a few crashes and some tired legs, the few hours on this ride made everyone (we assume) wanting to return soon.
The overall ride from today was approximately 20km. View the ride through Relive here: https://www.relive.cc/view/767081273
LDTR would like to thank Plenty Gorge MTB Club (Guy, Sean and Adrian) for their awesome tour guidance around the park and for leading the social ride.
We had a great time and look forward to riding there again and to also host the Plenty Gorge crew out at Lysterfield Park in the future. Big thanks to Tim B for organising the social ride today.
