You have to love rides that wind up being implanted in your memory bank. Like my first ever trail ride in the Victiorian High Country. I’m showing my age here, but it was a Honda media junket ride at the very start of 1997 for the local release of the then brand-new Honda XR400R and XR250R thumpers. Honda hired a local expert as tour guide for the ride, who, rather appropriately, was called ‘Trail Boss’. Talk about a character, but he certainly had a vast knowledge of the myriad fire trails and tracks that criss-cross the high country.
Trail Boss gave us day after day of endless mountain riding that at times had us desk jockey journos from north of the border crapping our dacks over the eye-watering descents and fast-flowing river crossings littered with bowling balls. He would ride and navigate from memory, only ever occasionally stopping at an intersection of overgrown tracks to pull his dog-eared topo maps out of his army-issue khaki backpack to confirm his way … while lighting a Drum roll-your-own as he pondered the trail treats ahead.
They were solid days of at times challenging trail riding, where you had to stay on your game the whole way — or else. Disappearing off the side of a mountaintop trail, endo-ing down a gnarly erosion hump or drowning your bike in a thigh-deep water crossing were not options you wanted to entertain.
But then each night a fabulous pub feed would await, accompanied by pots of VB and endless sessions of bench racing. Good times, for sure, and I’m rapt to say every trip back to the Vicco High Country since then has similarly delivered the goods.
EXPLORING FOR GOLD AND EXPLORING FOR GRAZING PASTURES LED TO THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN THE HIGH COUNTRY OVER A CENTURY AND A HALF AGO
GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS
What makes the Victorian High
