Today I rode over an Emu!?!

I hope that title would get Peoples attention, although it is a bit of a stretch of the truth. Behind the Farm house there is a 1.5hr climb that is as steep as all hell and the Summit of the hill is called Mt. Emu. That was my challenge for the day and it turned out to just that....Challenging.

Back in the dream time Dad (the old man) ran up to the saddle of the hill in around 50min and today I rode it in 45min and I wasn't fluffing up the climb, in fact it was the first time I have climbed it all in middle ring. So it just showed me how fit the old man was back when he was doing crazy things like marathons (on foot, not on bike).

After getting to the saddle, the climb then dose a few undulations until the final two STEEP pinches to the top of Emu. At that stage Larry was starting to talk to me and I had to reluctantly slide the grip shift into '1' on the front. One of the pinches I couldn't ride and I would offer a lot of money to see someone ride up the whole thing. It was super steep including a smattering of big lose rocks then just to make it interesting it was super off camber. After attempting it five or six times and getting no wear I declared it impossible and swallowed my pride, finally walking the hundred meter section of grueling fire road. Not to long after that b*$#h of a hill I had mounted the Top of Emu.

I have just worked out how to download photos off my phone...They are really good quality shots.

If you get out a magnifying glass you can see my bike and the beautiful valley bellow.

The down tube of the RXC Team and TORQ nutrition bottle.

The top tube of my sweet ride and one of the few stickers I have on it.

After a short break to take in the sights I started to pinn down the fire road decent, with some big water bars I was able to steal some Air. I came pretty close to drifting off the side of the mountain a hand full of times but thanks to the wise words of Nathan Rennie ('Keep as high as you can on the trail, so if you start to get behind a corner you can keep on the track'...or something along those lines.) Thankfully I was able to keep it rubber side down and my shoulder in its socket.

At the bottom of the fireroad I filled up my water bottle at mountain creek, (the base of Mt. Bogong) and headed back to the shop along a sweet as little fire road shortcut. Throughout the ride I was cranking some sweet beats through my iPod which kept me entertained. A t the end of the ride i was left thinking, I love a good mountain bike trail ride on a hot day, it really refreshes my mindset about riding. I also love forgetting to leave clothes at the shop and having to buy some shorts off the rack..ohh well that's life when your as unprepared as I am.

Here are a few more micro photos off my phone for your viewing pleasure, they are random as you will soon see.

Just a photo from last year after a mud ride...I'm angry because I'm all Muddy.

This was my first cover page in the local newspaper 'This week' the photo is from the Mitta to Mt Beauty in 2006.I found this random photo of me and my mate Sean. It made me laugh so I wanted to share the joy.

So that's all the news from up here apart from the six hour, but the boys have done a good job on covering that. Next year we should have a billion more people because the course was so sick.

Keep turning circles.