You guys really got out there back in the day that’s awesome I wish I was better at remembering to take photos 
Kerry is that the same ossa you ride now?

That looks like your Alpina leaning against the hut in the Pinnacles photo Kerry.

Chappa, 
Thanks for your comments. No, it's not the same Ossa. I bought mine off Leigh Bradstreet ( an original AMTRA founding member) early '77, previously rode Bultacos. (360 El Montadero, 250 Sherpa T, and the Alpina 250 which I rode from '74 to '77)  Robbo bought his Ossa Super Pioneer with Leigh when they first came out in '75 and rode it 'til his bought his PE, I think. I sold my Ossa off in 1979. Rode continuously from '73-'78, then a few rides after that on borrowed bikes, including Ian's PE! Moved on to bushwalking, ski touring, climbing and a bit of mountaineering!  New Ossa came about a few years ago as an itch to revisit trail riding and get into Vinduros after a 37 year break from bikes. Harrow last year on the 'new' Ossa Super Pioneer was my first ride in 37 years! Going through the 500 odd old slides has brought back some great memories, AMTRA rides and friendships, adventures and those 'shining' times.  The 'itch' has me now garaging a Bultaco 350 Alpina, a Sherpa T and a second Ossa which I will be moving on, one Ossa is enoug!!! (fair bit of nostalgia involved in all of this, although bikes today are a tad more sophisticated....suspension to name one!!!_)

Ian, please correct any inaccuracies- slide details are accurate I believe as I had labelled slides at the time, luckily. Still a lot to go! Memory has to go back a long time! (Kalatha Camp enduro,  Mt Despair, Kawasaki ,<18 years???)
Alpina  at the Pinnacles may not have be mine, yellow strip on tank was a 350. Bruce Harvey-Fuller, George Cook, Lawrie Godfrey ?...all had 350s, but my 250 Alpina would have been lurking there . Enjoyed the catch up at the HCR  after all these years and chewing the fat on those 'shining times', adventures (and misadventures!) and rides we did with AMTRA.

kerrywill wrote:
I rarely labeled my photos so have to rely on memory which can be a little cloudy after around 45 years. 

You took many more photos than me as I was usually to lazy to stop and take them. 

Great read, great photos, wish I was there!

The colour you get out of slides is so rich.

Can some of these photos get put on the slides at the front of the website?

Tim D wrote:
Serge can but he will away for a few weeks.

Is that a PE you're riding Ian ?

Wiggy wrote:
No, all those photos are of an Ossa David.

 
Early Days with AMTRA  in the Wonnangatta 

My first ride into Wonnangatta Station was in early December 1973, a 2 day ride carrying food, petrol and camping gear on the bike. The ride was led by Leigh Bradstreet, an AMTRA  founding member and Club Captain for several years. The ride started from Sheepyard Flat on the Howqua River. Names I remember as participating were Ian and Rob Geer (from Eltham Dirt Cycles), John Campbell (250 DT1 Yamaha), Norm Lindsay (who wrote and tested for Austn Motorcycle News
and was no spring chicken!), Mick Barnes (125 Zundapp), David Baxter (RT2 360 Yam), Jack Comerford (on a Bultaco 250 Alpina) and…. ...                                                                                                                                                                                                      John Campbell was one of those riders who made it look effortless, not overly fast but just incredibly consistent; open helmet with no peak , riding in his  overalls and sunglasses from memory on  a stock standard Yamaha DT1 250. The ride went up the old Mt Clear jeep track, a long, steep, rocky hill with several rock steps. (since closed) This was my first year of AMTRA trail riding,  having joined in March that year. I was riding a 360 Bultaco El Montadero, a brute of a bike with a 4 speed gearbox based on a their El Bandido scrambler, a bike not really suited for learning to trail ride on!  Much to my surprise I made it up Mt Clear, where we waited for the others to arrive. Unfortunately, a couple of riders couldn’t make the top and retreated back to Sheepyard Flat to ride that area for the weekend. From Mt Clear, it was over Nos 1 & 2 Divide, then down to the head of the MacAlister River, climbing up to the Howitt Plains, the track passing through a hillside of volcanic boulders, like a river of rocks, and then to Guy’s Hut. Our route down to the station was via the original ‘cattle/bridle’ path into the station. (This was in the year or so before riding off formed jeep tracks was banned! Leigh had ridden down it a year or two earlier on his Bultaco Sherpa T trials bike.) The track was steep and narrow, initially marked by snow poles. I clearly remember the red gravel crossing of Conglomerate Creek before the descent into the station flats. I dropped my bike on a switch back, later finding I had bent a rear shock and locked up the rear end! John Campbell shepherded one very exhausted rider down to the campsite at the old homestead site. One rider on an Ossa Pioneer had carried in a steak for dinner! The next morning  John unbolted the bent shock and straightened the rod by wedging and bending it straight on the frame. I had ‘suspension’ again! On the way out we visited the old cemetery (in those days still much as it had been originally left), and the old smithy’s shop with anvil, bellows etc (all long gone…and removed/nicked!) The ride out had about 6 river crossings, then the long relentless climb up the old Wonnangatta Jeep Track, steep and more rocks (now rerouted/cut as Zeka Creek Tk). I was still stuffed from the previous day’s riding, and was give some useful riding tips by one of the Geer brothers…momentum, don’t just try to slog it out in 1^stgear... I made the top!  By then fuel was beginning to run short for some. The return was via Howitt Plains and back over Mt Clear to the Howqua. Wonnangatta in those days was still relatively unvisited, and a bit of a holy grail as a trail riding destination…its isolation, history, a murder mystery.  Navigation could be a bit of a challenge, maps were a little on the sketchy side; Forest Commision watershed and  army survey maps and few signposts so navigation was a bit of an art.   From memory Mick Barnes whose Zundapp hadn’t made Mt Clear got an eye injury during the weekend and was taken to hospital in Mansfield by David Baxter. Others on the ride may remember more details. For me it was a formative, pioneering  ride that started my involvement in extended trail rides over several days with AMTRA and a love of riding in the high country and alps.

nb. following fewe  pics taken on a Kodak Instamatic camera so reproduction not all that great. I was too stuffed to stop and  take many photos!


Ossa 250 Pioneer at The Bastards Neck on the Howitt Road.

 
At Guy's Hut, prior to heading down the original cattle/bridle path into Wonnangatta Station.


The old blacksmith's shed at Wonnangatta Station. Leigh Bradstreet's RT2 in foreground, my Bultaco 360 El Montadero at rear.


Inside the old blacksmith's shed at Wonnangatta Station...bellows, forge...all long gone!