[Report by Dennis Dorman with inputs from Peter Ross, Al Mason and Ken Robinson]
Wow! After three consecutive years of the High Country Ride (HCR) having torrential rain and some snow, the forecast for the 2011 annual HCR put on by the Australian Motorcycle Trail Riders Association (AMTRA) from our property in the Buffalo valley near Abbeyard, was for fine, mild and sunny weather. The HCR has traditionally been held over the weekend around ANZAC day, but because of the clash with Easter and the school holidays this year, the event was held earlier, over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd of April. Maybe this helped with the weather or maybe we were just luckier this year, but it was an absolute ripper of a weekend! With blue skies and resultant fabulous views across the high country along the ride route, this 15th annual HCR presented some near perfect riding conditions. The new shed was complete this year and provided a fabulous facility for the event with over 220 entrants.
Thursday 31st March
Several of us AMTRA volunteers made the long journey up from Melbourne or down from Sydney to be on site Thursday to start the laborious task of setting up for this major event in the AMTRA calendar. Of course there was also the advantage of being first in to select some of the prime camping sites set aside for volunteers for the weekend. There were even a few entrants who took advantage of the great weather and arrived during the afternoon to set up their camps in their preferred camping areas.
Boots (Rossi) turned up with the Macfarlane 60Kva Generator, so it was on to get it wired and tested for all the lights, toasters and Bill’s 3 Phase 121 Gigga Watt Cooking Oven. With some help from some temporary apprentices, P-air and John T had the generator up and going that gave us lights for the evening and lit up the shed so brightly that sunnies would not look out of place. After a few refreshing drinks we all had a reasonably early night in preparation for the big day on Friday to complete the set-up and to start greeting entrants.
Friday 1st April
As usual the Generator woke us around 6ish so it was time for breakfast. After Breakfast it was down to the small shed to get the gear to set up the scrutineering and registration tents so they were ready for the punters to arrive. The rush was on for entrants to select camp sites and get set up for the weekend and there are some terrific camp sites available.
All of the AMTRA volunteers worked at getting the kitchen, beer stall, food stall and dining marquee ready. Around 250 entrant show bags were filled with goodies. As it is with AMTRA, everyone soon found or were given jobs to get ready for the punters. Before we knew it, it was time for the entrants to be signed in and bikes inspected by our scrutineering team.
By dinner time the setting up was complete and there was a steady flow of entrants arriving. Business was brisk selling hot dogs, dim sims and drinks over the bar. The excitement among the crowd was building for a great 2 days of riding.
After considerable discussion and debate within the club, it was decided that this year we would run with a fully arrowed course, rather than the traditional route sheeted navigation ride. This meant that a few of us had to go riding on the Thursday afternoon and Friday to arrow the courses for the Saturday and Sunday loops. It was tough work but somebody had to do it.
Saturday 2nd April
It was a cold morning but still no rain. The route for Saturday was around 160 km and took in Schultz, Mt. Selwyn, Twin Creeks, Buffalo Divide, Mt. Buggery, Dozer Brown, Buffalo Divide and Cobbler Lake tracks. Lunch and fuel were provided on the shores of Lake Buffalo.The pre-sweeps headed out the Gate at 7.15am and out into the "Arrowed course" for the first time for this event. Pat and his small team did a great job of arrowing the course.
From my position at Control Point 1 at the top of Schultz Track, we soon started to hear of the carnage with bikes down all over the track. With loose rocks over several sections of this track, riders are presented with a challenging but not real hard hill or two. However if there is a downed bike and rider in the way it can be a different story. Momentum is key in this terrain. Some sweeps soon arrived to help clear the carnage. The sweeps got stuck in pushing, pulling and riding multiple bikes up the hill as well as assisting with some flat tyres. Meanwhile it was fairly quiet up the top at Control Point 1, except for a Honda XR400 with a flat tyre and buggered rear wheel bearing and virtually no rear brake pads. Given our location we decided that it was best to fix the flat and limp the bike back to camp with an escort via a shorter and easier route. A safe return was achieved, but the lesson here is don’t trust a borrowed bike unless you check it out thoroughly yourself first!
With clear blue skies the views as the ride climbed up Buffalo Range Track were spectacular. This is what riding in the High Country is meant to be all about.
Along the way to lunch and the fuel stop a few more struggling riders were encountered and assisted by sweep groups. A bike that had ventured over the edge of a cliff and landed somewhere near Bendigo was retrieved. Bike and bruised rider were ferried out in a 4x4 ute. News we were hoping not to hear came over the radio of another incident. “We have a rider with a broken leg” It was then time to get serious and set AMTRA to work. With Cam being the best bloke around for first aid, a sweep team headed off with him and headed for the injured rider. On arrival Robbo was already there with his 4x4 ute protecting the injured rider until help arrived. Robbo and Cam started work whilst the rest of the sweeps slowed traffic, prepared Robbo's ute for the patient and got Ambo information sorted out.
The Buffalo River crossing, lunch and fuel were next.
On arrival at the river crossing leading to the fuel stop, it was clear that there were a few issues. Zeb was in the middle of the river helping out struggling riders, and from what I heard, he was there for hours. Bloody good effort Zeb!! Some help was provided de-watering drowned bikes, lunch was consumed, bikes refuelled and all were off on their way back towards camp and the promised roast dinner. A couple of riders missed an arrow and went the wrong way, but they were found by our sweeps and finally all were back at camp for hot showers, liquid refreshment and dinner. There were lots of very weary looking people around on Saturday night, but all still with smiles and some great stories. Everyone got a good feed and even some ice-cream. The night rolled on and the big screen was running strong with riders stacking on Schultz Track, with massive cheers when riders threw their bikes away and hit the deck on those sharp rocks. Did I mention that there are a few rocks on these High Country tracks??!!!
The usual lucky rider number prize draw and raffle draw were done during the Saturday night festivities. The bar area within the new shed worked very well this year.
Sunday 3rd April
The route for Sunday was around 105 km and again took in Cobbler Lake, Buffalo Divide, Mt. Buggery Buffalo Range and Schultz tracks but in the reverse direction. Another fine sunny day in the High Country. How good is that!!!
Once again the Generator woke most of us around 6ish, and the pre-sweeps stumbled down to grab a quick egg n bacon sanger and a cuppa then geared up for the Sunday Pre Sweep. As they climbed Cobbler Lake Track P-air hit the air horns on his big bore Berg quite a few times just to make sure everyone else was awake.
As most of the tracks had been used the day before, there was a good line to follow through the rocks. My sweep group pulled up at the end of Buffalo Divide Track and there was a KTM with a front sprocket with very vague bumps where there were once teeth. Believe it or not, Ken had a spare and soon we had a very happy customer who would have missed out on the second half of the Sunday ride. Having a good 17mm ring spanner was essential for removal of the old sprocket and they are also an essential tool on many bikes for removal of the drain plug on the bottom of the carby – everyone should carry one! It would also be a very good idea if riders came with bikes prepared for a two day ride. At the crossing of the Buffalo River we again stopped to assist with dewatering a bike, although the crossing was wide it didn’t seem to cause many issues.
There were a few scary moments when we heard on the radio that there was a head on crash and a few other injuries, but with good sweep riders and 4wd back up, everything was being well looked after. The first sweep group at the scene of the head on found that radio communications were not great, so a sweep rode through till the next check point to make sure all the info had gotten through. An action plan was in place to get a helicopter to the injured rider. The badly injured rider was not one of ours, he was in a separate, small private group going the other way, which again highlights that we are not alone out here and you should ride with the expectation of on-coming traffic at any time!
One rider had an argument with a tree – he was fine but he had a broken front axle. There was just enough to let the first clamping nut hold on to the axle, but only just! To make it a little safer to ride out, a socket drive was strategically cable tied into the end of the axle to buy the rider some extra time in case the axle failed as he nursed the bike back. (Avery inventive repair by Dave S)Most of the punters took off before dark. Serge had put together all the leftovers for the volunteers to have for dinner and then it was on with the old HCR videos. Everybody was thanked by Matt for putting in a good effort, and then we all went to bed.
Monday 4th April
Fine, sunny weather again. What a perfect morning to complete the pack-up and clean-up of the property and start the long drive home. It is not only the sweep riders who assist with rider safety, but also those hardy souls who man the gate for long hours to make sure that we get back all the riders who left earlier in the day. [There were many others who also did important jobs and are thanked for their efforts but they were not captured in photos.]
Thanks must also go to some new and our many long term loyal sponsors: Dirt Action, Insure My Ride, Force Accessories, Safari Fuel Tanks, Riders Edge, B&B Off Road Engineering, Hydrocell, Dirt Bike World, Chad’s Off Road Setups, Bikes and Bits, Alpine Motorcycles, Barkbusters, Eat My Dirt, Clockwork Media and Short Stuff Screen Prints.