Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control (ie. it was a Saturday morning), Duncan, Aymen, Mike and I were about 3/4 of an hour late to the Toolangi Forestry Discovery Centre where we were meeting the others. The other three were happily discovering the forest and drinking coffee when we arrived. We quickly filled bottles, and agreed on a general route concept. Start at the quarry, and try to get further into the loop that we attempted on Melbourne Cup Day last year. We set off, following the cloud of dust that suggests the recent presence of Nutty's Commodore.

It is not clear why Nutty waited until the trailhead to change from semi-slicks to his Factory DH tyres. Toolangi is lovely wet forest, and it had been raining, so the DH was a sensible choice (for those with a quiver of tyres in their boot). Only the timing was questioned.

With bikes finally assembled, shod and tweaked, we began the climb.

The Quarry Road is a little used firetrail, and the surrounding forest is starting to make an attempt to claim it back. A few logs down, and lots of overhanging shrubbery. The overnight rain had stopped, and the cloud was keeping the temperature comfortably cool. Perfect riding weather.

As the track got steeper, it became more and more slippery. Several spectacular losses of traction. Nutty turned back for a second attempt at a few sections, then cheerily zapped past the rest of us grinding up the track.

About 6km and maybe 200m altitude later, the track opens out on the main dirt road along the ridge. After a brief, disjointed conversation with a strange woman in a Landcruiser who seemed lost, we turned right and continued to climb. Around the gate, and up the spiraling firetrail to the summit of Mt St Leonards. Mike was getting pretty sick of climbing, and switched his Klein Mantra dualie for Nutty's Avanti hardtail for the last grind to the top.

The cloud had lifted a little by the time we got there, so the view from the fire tower on the top of St Leonard was spectacular. On the edge of the escarpment, and higher than anything you can see. About 10km distant, and a kilometer below, is Healesville, with the Dandenong Ranges behind.

The direct route back to the road was chosen. A steep, wide clearing, with a rocky singletrack leading straight down. A few big endos in the baby-heads at the top convinced some of us to drop our saddles a touch. Nutty spent a few minutes trying to find a wayward waterbottle, then I spent a few minutes dealing with a pinch flat on my front tyre. I think everyone else made it in one piece.

Fast downhill back along the road, past the entrance to the Quarry Road until we reached the entrance to the Tanglefoot Track. This track is what the world needs more of - bike-legal walking tracks. Really wet and slippery, very overgrown in parts. It seems to have been recently worked over by one of those little singletrack-sized bulldozers, so it's not technical by way of log falls, erosion gullies or rocky dropoffs. It's just very steep in parts, and the loose wet mud makes life really interesting. All of the tyres got so full of mud they looked like slicks. At one stage, Nutty's front tyre grew to the point where it wouldn't turn through his brake arch. Slow progress, so not enough speed to throw the mud out.

My rear deraileur had a chew on a big stick, which twisted it back in a scary looking way, but didn't do any real damage. It kept throwing my chain into the spokes for the rest of the ride, but a quick fiddle with the limit screws when I got home fixed that. My front deraileur was also having a bad day, and didn't want to make quick drops down to granny ring. Quite a problem on steep, undulating twisty singletrack. I ended up riding a few km in bottom gear, spinning like a trackie or coasting on the flats and descents.

Jag flatted his front tyre, and the cheap breaker link of Aymen's chain did just what it was made to: break. SPuDs filled up with mud from repeatedly clipping in after walking up rediculously slippery steep bits.

We passed the occupants of the lost Landcruiser, who seemed to be just as lost walking in the bush, and token pleasantries were exchanged. We also came across a ranger, chugging through the bush on a little 4-wheel motorbike thing. He gave us space to get past and gave track directions, so we must have been allowed to be there. He looked like the sort of guy you wouldn't want to run into if you weren't allowed to be there.

We were all pretty sick of muddy uphills and undulations by the time we got to the track intersection, and pointed our bikes down Myrtle Gully Track.

Nutty advised us to put long sleeves on if we had them, as his experience had shown that the overhanging branches on this downhill singletrack could make one very itchy. I pulled on my sexy fluoro yellow rain jacket, which proved to be a good idea.

This track is where the leeches came out in force. Silly little animals. They like warm places, because that is where they can get a feed. Nobody ever told them that brake-heated MTB rims don't count. A couple latched on to us, and Dave found a monster on his ankle when we got back to the cars.

There were lots of trees down on the track that needed to be lifted over, which spoilt what could have been a lovely gentle downhill singletrack. A few nice rocky bits, a couple of mud baths, a few ridable treefalls.

We regrouped at a new looking wooden bridge. A very short uphill had us at a gate, and suddenly out from under the canopy, and back at the cars at the quarry. An exhausting 20km, at an average speed of around 10km/h. A brief leech hunt-and-destroy session, and dusting of loose mud from bikes before loading them into and onto cars.

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