An antiques and collectables fair has been on at Maldon this weekend, strangely including two fossil MTB guys who ended up on Mt Tarrengower’s downhill Valley run admist a sea of downhilling youngin’s.

Julien and I headed out from Castlemaine, the plan being to ride to Maldon along the trails that follow the railway and while we were out there check out a downhill trail or two on Mt Tarrengower before heading back to Castlemaine.

I waited for an hour or so the other day at the old Muckleford Station and the steam train never showed. Today we lucked it, arriving at Muckleford at the same time as the train. Cool.

After a brief storm and coffee in Maldon we were primed to climb Mt Tarrengower and sample some downhill runs. I tell ya, climbing Tarrengower on an MTB is MUCH easier compared to on climbing it on a unicycle. Low gear on the Mojo’s 1×10 drive train proved to be the perfect ratio for a cruisey ascent.

With a bunch of trails closed across Victoria due to the recent rain it turns out that a couple of shuttle loads full of downhill guys were also at Tarrengower. Lots of cool downhill bikes, lots of safety gear, lots of youth. Fun to experience the downhill scene first hand. Russ from Woodend Cycles was there and gave us the skinny on which runs to check out first and that we might need full face helmets and don’t go down THAT run, instanly creating a mental note ‘must go down that run some time’.

I’d only ridden at Tarrengower once before, close to 15 years ago, when it was just descending on 4wd dirt tracks.  The run down Valley was a real eye opener, lots has changed since then. Valley features beautifully built stone walled berms, lots of jumps, a smattering of muddy wet sections, but mainly lots of loose rocks and lots of ruts. Lots. Lots and lots. The trick I guess is knowing the trail and being on the right machinery, then using speed to float over track. Being young and crazy probably helps too. We came up pretty well short on all those things!

Anyways we had a bunch of fun, and stopped part way down the mount at a jump to watch a few of the guys in action, including one tail whip that almost gave me a shave. Standing too close to the trail I guess, though it was good to see that unblinking saucepan eyes were the order of the day, not just for fossils but also for the young and crazy downhillers 😛

Job done the two MTB fossils headed back to Castlemaine… all that knitting to catch up on. It’s a bitch but someone has got to do it. Now if only I could find my glasses…