When Left Is Not Right

We recently competed in the Highland Fling, an epic 100km mountain bike race held not too far from home. Due to our current lack of form, we entered with a friend from work as a 'Flinging Threesome'. Each of us tackled one stage of the race. While Marty lucked out with 57km of grueling hills and lots of fire trail I managed to score the final stage comprising 32km of mostly fun and technical single track.

The Support Crew

The race briefing for my section mentioned a fork in the road, you could go up to the left (short and steep with rock steps that you needed to ride) or you could go right (slightly longer but a more gentle gradient and much more rideable). I made a mental note to remember to go right. But as I waited the four hours to be handed the team baton I couldn't stop thinking about 'going left'. What was it like? Was it really as bad as they said? Would I be able to ride some of it at least? Was it even difficult to get off and walk your bike up? In the end I succumbed to the realization that I wouldn't be going right at all. Going right would mean that I'd never know what left was like. I didn't care if I walked my bike the entire hill or if I lost 10mins in the process. Left just seemed so much more exciting. How could you not? So left I went. A satisfying decision.

A similar situation occurred Friday night. We'd decided it was time for a bit of a hiking trip. Saturday we would get up early put the kids in the hiking packs and head off on an adventure. After a bit of research there were a couple of great options but we had our heart set on exploring 'slot canyon' in Bungonia National Park. It's apparently quite spectacular, being the largest slot canyon in Australia with 600m high walls. It is also very remote and only accessible via a few pretty steep and slippery walking tracks. We read numerous comments about the tracks on bushwalking sites and did everything we could to justify why we'd be fine. In the end we went for the 'phone a friend' option to ask if it was possible. I can't remember if the reply was in capitals, but lets go with that for the effect, it said ABSOLUTELY NOT. Coming from someone who knows the track well it sort of sealed the deal. It would have been an amazing family adventure and a special place to explore but it really wasn't worth the risk. So we settled instead on going 'right' and have just got back from a great hike down to McCallum's Flat on the Shoalhaven River. More of that little adventure to come. We'll leave Slot Canyon for another day when we're not carrying such precious cargo.

Before