The Easter weekend had arrived the boys and I decided that it
was long overdue for a dirt bike ride. However we had not reserved ourselves a
place anywhere and with Easter only a day away it was becoming difficult to
find a bike park that had not been booked out. However just when all seemed lost and we were about to
resign ourselves to the fact we had left it too late our mate Steeley came to
the rescue stating that he had managed to book us into Glen Echo Dirt Bike Park
for the weekend.
‘Where is that?’ was my first response, having never heard
of the place before. ‘Its 58km north west of Gympie,’ said Steeley. ‘Alright,
sounds good to me lets go.’ So we were off, five weekend warriors cruising down
the Bruce Highway on our way to dirt bike nirvana. After a long three hour drive which included getting lost
briefly and Dane having a short lived flip-out over his van’s clutch
not-playing-up (turned out to just be a loss of traction), we arrived at Glen
Echo around 7pm, just in time to check in before the office shut.
Once riding and camping costs had been taken care of we went
to find a camp site. Being Easter the park was packed, forcing us to settle for
the first spare patch of ground we could find – right next to the motocross
track – score! Setting up in the dark is never much fun, especially when
only Steely remembered to bring a torch. However this slight error of judgement
was soon forgotten after unloading the esky and cracking open a few cold beers.
The next morning we were awakened to a frosty dawn by a
petrol alarm clock as the sound of a lone four-stroke being revved wide open
echoed around the park. The riders obvious sole purpose in life was to wake the
entire park with his bike. After cursing the mad-keen rev head we ate a rushed
breakfast and geared up for the ride.
Not wanting to wait any longer than I had to I jumped on my
bike and took straight to the motocross track, quickly putting a few laps under
my belt. While cutting laps I briefly glanced back at the camp site to see my
mate Trevor bright red in the face, kicking the guts out of his KTM 250
two-banger to no avail. Being a fellow two-stoke enthusiast I instantly figured
it was most likely the spark plug. I cruised over to Trevor and suggested he
change the plug, only to be told that he didn't have any spares. So after some
rough treatment to the plug involving pouring petrol on the tip and setting it
alight we got Trevor’s bike going.
Finally all of us were ready and our bikes were all running.
After some quick deliberating we decided to try the enduro loop first. The
track turned out to be tight and mostly single-file only, with some rocky hills
and a few slippery grass gullies thrown into the mix.Trevor became the first
casualty of the day after discovering just how slippery the grassy sections
really were as his front wheel washed out from under him, causing him to land
on his side in a tangle of weeds. After waiting for Trevor to recover from his
spill we took off again and ran straight into a small heard of cattle who
obviously thought the track belonged to them. Reece took advantage of the cow
poop ridden track to try and flick crap at any one he could get close enough
to, resulting in the front of my bike being covered in little crap particles.
Thanks for that mate, karma is a bitch so watch your back.
The enduro loop turned out to be disappointingly short so we
decided to go back and ride on the main motocross track which was split into
two parts, with a shorter and longer section to choose from depending on how
tired you felt. The main track had potential for some big jumps but many of the
up-ramps were too rutted out and deformed to allow you to really launch your
bike, however the soil on the track was loamy making for some fun berm blasting
action shots.
We found a fun tabletop jump on the track which turned out
to be ideal for hucking a few tricks over. I settled for busting out a few
heelclickers over the jump while Dane threw in a few whips and Reece tried to
endo his bike over the table top without much success. Our circus antics
attracted a few people with cameras who starting taking shots of the idiots on
motocross bike who thought they were freestyle superstars.
Towards the end of the day after a big session on the
motocross track we headed back to camp and settled down in our camp chairs with
a beer while watching a few of the keener riders that were still riding as the
sun began to dip below the horizon. It had been a fun days ride and we were not
looking forward to going home tomorrow. Fortunately there were many better places
to ride closer to home than Glen Echo but it was a worthwhile trip all the
same.
Reuben Franklin
If you or your mates are keen to go riding here check out
the Glen Echo Park website at: http://www.glenechopark.com.au/
