Sunday 26 February – Mooney

Mooney is an *excellent* mountain bike ride. There are now quite a few good ‘uns (rides, that is), but Mooney is definitely still up there as one of the all time greats.

Five of us set out this morning, in near perfect conditions. Mooney is one of those tracks where it’s theoretically possible to get from the beginning to the top, without once putting your foot down – and today was the sort of day you could pull it off: the track was clean and dry, the various rock beds were dry and not slippery, the loose rocky climbs were all do-able, and we were even able to get from one side to the other of the creek crossing (Rees’ “moonscape”) without a dab. But, unfortunately, no-one did it…

The main climb itself was hot (surprise, surprise!), but that was just an excuse – each person put a foot down for absolutely no good reason other than simple lapses of concentration. That said, it was still an excellent feeling to make it from the creek crossing to the top of the climb with just the one foot down… (and, taking the technical view that when we had to stop to climb over a fallen tree - that didn’t count!).

Once we got to the top (the water towers), we figured we would throw in the Orchard before stopping for a bite to eat – which was probably a good thought, but left the weaker ones amongst us pretty tired and hungry by the time we got back. However, all thoughts of a food shortage were banished when Brian finally came back to start acting his age – with a big attempt at Rock Brian (the previous attempt made for much better footage, and is to be found here). Rees gets a special mention for massively increased fitness – clearly, the mid-week sessions are paying a dividend. That just leaves, as always, Stephe bringing up the rear…

Whisperer seemed keen to take Doug on, on the big drop back to the creek crossing – but Doug showed his mettle, even with an eye issue that means he’s lost lots of depth perception. Proving that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, Whisperer was heard to remark that Mooney was “cute ‘n all, but a bit loose and rocky for a real ride”!

Doug also scores a gold star for being the *only* person to take on and cross a very full smart-arse creek at the start of the ride (the tide was well in, on the way out today).

Photos up here (with just the one video of Brian):