Oct 2007

Ratchaburi, 27/28 Oct 2007

Ride report

Ride:- 278/279                        27/28 October 2007. Location:- Pavothai Museum and Resort, Suan Pung, Ratchaburi.Hares:- Adam Batty and Fredrik OhrnScribe:- Jan Maarten "Butt Clincher" PersynIn his endless wisdom, the R.A. Poopa Scoopa decided to have the write up written by a one day rider. And so it will be.The hares had advised to book the rooms at Pavothai Museum well in advance. Apparently there was only limited number of rooms available. Arriving at the location however, I noticed no rooms at all! There was a museum, and a river, yes. And looking a little better, there were boats too. But rooms, no haven’t seen any. Anyway, I hope everyone slept well and didn’t get seasick that night.The hares were largely appreciated for their great first Hash, especially because as two non French Rooky Hares, they volunteered to fill the gap of the original French hares who finally weren’t able to hare for this ride. Haring in Ratchaburi makes it challenging to change the word Rooky into Rocky.The Saturday ride was briefed a short one of 35 km only. With their lovely innocent faces, the hares forgot to mention none of these 35 km was paved, or horizontal. Great stuff! These uphill trials really asked for good gearing and pedaling. The two waterstops served their purpose very well. According to the hares, we might encounter a third waterstop run by a drunken guy at the bridge near the end of the ride. Unfortunately he wasn’t there. Probably he got through his stocks of beer before we came by. Tracks can generally be categorized in paved road, dirt road, track, single track and since this ride a new one: invisible track. Completely covered by jungle these so called tracks are only accessible for pigs. Anyone on a mountainbike will do 1.50 meters in height or more. Some of the trial however, had a height of no more than 90 centimeters; piggy trials. It was impossible for any rider to get out of there unharmed. Sunglasses, gloves, ripped off jerseys, a lot was hanging in those bushes after a while. That bush was so thick and grew so fast, a gap of more than one meter between bikes was immediately  taken back by nature with pointy thorns, sticky leaves and ropy branches. I guess Chris ”Pencil Flasher” Byrd sold lots of jerseysafter the ride.Some watery elements were there too, and some took the occasion to show their experience as former ballet dancer or circus performer by doing some brilliant rolls over the handle bar.Enough about the trial, let’s talk about the “F” trial. Although thistime the F didn’t stand for French, there were quite a few of those on the entire ride. One of the FRB’s thought he had cracked the code how to recognize an FT; once riding on the F T, he saw significantly shorter distance between paper than on the real trail. While a 100 meters would normally be exactly the same distance on a trial or an F trial. He ended up riding all the way to each FT sign.The circle was most enjoyable. The new riders and visitors were mostly still on their bikes when called for. Returners were called in, even after having returned months ago already. The GM loves returners, and who wouldn’t? But why does he love Santa Cruz riders so much? Is it the riders or is it the bikes? We’ll probably never know. And everyone can have his or her own thought by seeing all these Santa Cruz bikes together in the circle. And look at all that new stuff people bring to the hash. Lots of down downs in new shoes, and bikes. More down downs were allowed for pretty harmless reasons, until of course, Weed eater decided to call for his famous pisspot of the ride. Easily 4 candidates were identified and entered the circle. Knowing what was going to happen didn’t put any smiles on their faces. Especially Annie “Agony Aunt” and Paul H. thought they could escape easily, and they almost did. Finally they got help from an unexpected side. The pisspot-announcer made himself candidate by admitting not to have the pisspot in his possession! Whoooo from the circle forced him to put himself forward as a candidate and to call for new pisspot elections. Needles to say who was emptying this one.I trust the Sunday hangover ride gave as much satisfaction to everyone as the Saturday one. Thanks to the hares and see you all again in November.

Saturday

32.91 km, 586.0 m
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Sunday

21.3 km, 238.0 m
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