Saturday was a historic first riding of a fantastic new bit of track I walked a couple of weeks ago. Those taking part were Fruitbat on his schiny new schwinn dually, me on my butt-ugly old cleanskin hardtail, and non-listees Duncan and Matt on older and newer specialised duallies respectively.

It was a fantastic start to the day when we went to load up the mighty sports magna, and found it with a flat. We could have taken Matt's car, but it's a bloody long way and I tried to convince Matt and the Bat that LPG is a good idea and that they should change my tyre for me while I finished getting my shit together and worked out where Duncan was. It worked.

We ended up taking the Batmobile as well, for a bit of extra comfort, and set out on the long drive to Blackwood. JJJ Bendigo is the strongest signal in Blackwood even though it's actually closer to Ballarat. Gold country.

"Anna Woods just got 4th in the TT" announced Fruitbat as he stepped from the Fairmont at the Garden of St Erth carpark. "I guess she's just crap".

I walked the 9km river loop a few weeks back, and immediately announced this inaugural riding on my return. It was interesting to see how the ride stacked up to my expectations. I knew it was going to be reasonably tight and technical, in the way of Blackwood singletrack, and it turned out to be a bit more interesting than I had thought.

The tracks mostly follow old goldrush-era aquaducts, where they cut and built channels on the sides of the hills to funnel water to where they were digging holes. Following these, the majority of the track is very level. But they weren't built to be cycled on, and they have had 100 years to fade back into the bush, making them a bit harder to ride than your average canal towpath. Lots of very tight squeezes between trees, and an unpredictable surface that kept our attention away from the incredible scenery we were riding through. Rather wet trail at times, but you get that when it's been raining for a week. There were a few treefalls that could have used an appointment with a chainsaw, but they gave us a chance to get our heads up for a look around as we lifted over.

At the halfway point, the track met up with the upper Lerderderg River, which it had been following upstream for a while, in a lovely little wet ferny gully. Snakes were consumed to celebrate before we shouldered bikes for the staircase out. I had considered doing the loop in reverse, as I had walked it, but we all agreed that this staircase would be a criminal waste of elevation, even if it was doable which seemed unlikely.

The track back was more of the same. At one point we rode through a 30-degrees-from-vertical slot between two big slabs of granite, slightly more than handlebar-width apart. The track went underwater for a few turns. A technical rocky approach stage to an interesting creek crossing looked doable, until you saw the 10 steps up the other side.

It was a reasonably fast ride out, ducking around cunningly placed trees and rocks. A couple of short staircase climbs were cleared, relying on momentum to push us up the dodgy part in the middle of the manouvre where you need to unload both wheels at the same time.

Back to the cars, then in to the Blackwood store for something that would pass for an early lunch. I'm pleased to announce that their vegieburgers are significantly better than their hamburgers, but that wouldn't be hard.

After lunch was the Main Course, the 9km each way out-and-back that we all love so much, known only as "Lerderderg". Anyone who pays attention to maps or signs might call it "Byers Back Track", but we'll leave that to the pet ants.

Matt and Fruitbat had never ridden Lerderderg before. At every stop, Fruitbat was wearing an even bigger, even sillier grin than normal, and shaking his head in disbelief. Duncan set the pace on the way out, shooting off ahead. I was cranking hard, pushed along by the Bat breathing down my neck. Matt was a few seconds behind.

The track is similar to what we had been riding this morning, but faster by virtue of being more open, and mostly cut into the side of a couple-of-hundred-metres-deep gorge. It's a mind game, with steps, drops, rocks and roots appearing out of nowhere as you grind through in the middle ring. There is absolutely no need for a big ring at Lerderderg, and Granny is only called for the obstacle sections. Most of us tried to break open a few rocks with our SPuDs. I got a bit concerned by the occasional rear rim impact I was feeling, so pumped my tyre up into the heady upper 30's.

The site of Duncan's big stack last ride was not looking too impressive, just a hole full of water. The helmet-denting rock was two far into the murky depths to really be made out.

My big stack site is just as ugly now as it was then. When you're riding along a narrow track on the edge of a 200m gorge, you don't want to clip a bar-end and lose your line and balance.

The rocky granny-ring climb at the end had us panting. Matt and I were both tentative about the big descent down to the causeway and the long climb back up, but gave in and did it anyway. The descent is a lot of fun, as long as you can keep traction with at least one wheel. The dirt road climb sucks. I should have stayed at the top and waited.

Fruitbat chased Duncan on the ride back, but I was getting too shagged to bother. I didn't even attempt some of the nice techy sections that I get a buzz out of clearing most of the time. Just before the end, Matt and I stopped to have a look at an old mine, which just branches off the track and disappears into the hill. Way too dark to go far into without lights. I've ridden Lerderderg at least half a dozen times, straight past this big gaping tunnel, and never noticed it before.

Back at the cars again, Fruitbat came through with the goods - fruit bread and cornflake cookies. Legend.

I challenge anyone to find better singletrack, anywhere in the world, than what we rode on Saturday. Especially 30km of it in the one place. It's not just a linked series of trials sections like the Waterfall- Audley sandstone munching track, it's just A-grade mountainbiking, and has something for everyone.

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