Strange encounters on the trails

Jpez said:
A section of the Yarra trails is well known to be a male beat/ meet up place. When I started riding them I first saw underpants hanging from tress and then one day a guy looking very out of place. Very obviously not a walker just standing there and staring at me as I went past.
Was only later I was told it was a beat.
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I reckon there's a few areas for that. When I first moved to Melbourne I'd borrow a mate's bike and go YT exploring. Found some... unusual locations and several people who just seemed to lurk. Took a while to put 2 and 2 together.

PV are well aware of it. There's a particularly sketchy overgrown and un-maintained spot at the North of Yarra Flats that is notorious for it.

Coolest (legal) thing I've ever found out riding was part of the Venison Trail that links Mt Osmond Golf Course to Eagle MTB park in Adelaide. Upper trail is more used, lower ones were narrow and overgrown. Went exploring and found a collection of abandoned and remarkably well preserved ancient vehicles - HR Premier, XR Falcon etc. windows etc. were even intact on them.
 
Riding to work at 5am and came across a bloke walking his bike along the side of the road, no lights, no helmet, a good 2km from either town. Apparently his hands were so cold he had to stop and walk.........
caad9 said:
There's also another guy locally who has decided to take over an abandoned public tennis court, he's rewired the fencing and put BIG locks on the gates. You won't get in there without him knowing and he's got giant trespassers will be shot signs. There's a real Mad Max vibe about him and he even gets around on a 4 wheel motorbike. Only way I knew he was there is I saw smoke in an unusual spot and went to investigate - I backed out pretty quick. Again, this is just off a very busy road and in the edge of suburbia
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There was one set-up on the river on the other side of town. There's free campers there all the time so it wasn't unusual to come across a bus surrounded by portable gazebos, but as I rolled closer I realised they'd blocked the road and put up no entry signs. The clincher came when I realised there were chickens roaming the camp.

Asininedrivel said:
Coolest (legal) thing I've ever found out riding was part of the Venison Trail that links Mt Osmond Golf Course to Eagle MTB park in Adelaide. Upper trail is more used, lower ones were narrow and overgrown. Went exploring and found a collection of abandoned and remarkably well preserved ancient vehicles - HR Premier, XR Falcon etc. windows etc. were even intact on them.
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I feel the need for some exploring.....
 
moorey said:
Rode up the mount about a month ago, as I regularly do, up the top, pitch dark, no car or anything to get him up there, a dude all in black standing dead still without any lights as my beam hits him. Startled, I just say ‘hey’. He watches me as I ride past, doesn’t say a word.
I usually do 3 repeats of the climb. Didn’t go back that night.
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Stuff like this is worthy of reporting to the police just so they have it on record.
clockworked said:
The camo guy was probably full time army jn brisbane. That weight loaded march makes up a large part of promotion and selection courses. He was probably training and well into the hurt locker. In 2017ish there was a very strong directive to never train off-base in uniform, but standards may have slipped again
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It very well could have been, this park joins to the firing range at Greenbank, he was loaded to the max, only thing missing was a machine gun. He was about 6foot,five and with the backpack it made him look about 8 foot tall. I've been riding there since 2014 and never seen one.
 
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moorey said:
A man I have zero description on, bothering no one....... I can't get the local police to come to one of the resi units when one of our 15yo clients comes home with a stolen car or a boogie board bag full of weed.
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I know it sounds petty but you never know what they're up to. I witnessed something like this before and didn't report it till a few days later, it ends up being part of abduction and assault, the detectives got really upset with me, but I did the same as you and thought why waste their time or something so minor isn't worth reporting.
 
I was riding with my friend at Black Hill and I saw @moorey...

Before kids I hiked part of the Goldfields track and camped at Slaty Creek campground. At about 3am we were woken by the sound of dirt bikes brap brapping around. Slaty Creek is in a bit of a valley so it was hard to tell where it was coming from and they didn't have lights. I was figuratively shitting myself thinking we were about to be murdered.
 
I'm usually pretty good with animals, seen the occasional Farmer's bull roaming around, but dingoes are one animal I don't like confronting on isolated trails, they're truly a sly animal that stalks from my experience.



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Asininedrivel said:
I reckon there's a few areas for that. When I first moved to Melbourne I'd borrow a mate's bike and go YT exploring. Found some... unusual locations and several people who just seemed to lurk. Took a while to put 2 and 2 together.
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O the stories from the yarra trails. Usually involves nudity, sex, drugs and mostly men. Although some one posted a long while back they came across a guy strapped between a couple of trees like a starfish while a female was whipping him..
And then there is always the dead bodies..

Back to the original post, i have come across a few really nasty dogs in my time and have thought about some sort of defence. I am usually riding near the river when it happens so my plan was to jump in and drown it kangaroo style..
 
Jpez said:
A section of the Yarra trails is well known to be a male beat/ meet up place. When I started riding them I first saw underpants hanging from tress and then one day a guy looking very out of place. Very obviously not a walker just standing there and staring at me as I went past.
Was only later I was told it was a beat.
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@Big JD posted here or maybe on the yarra mtb group on FB about encountering various nude dudes in that area.
 
Kerplunk said:
Back to the original post, i have come across a few really nasty dogs in my time and have thought about some sort of defence. I am usually riding near the river when it happens so my plan was to jump in and drown it kangaroo style..
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There's a really big male Eastern Grey that likes standing on the edge of fast bits of track at Lysterfield. Doesn't move a muscle, just stands there like a f***ing sentinel you only see at the last second. One of those big roided ones too. Scared the shit out me of once (to be fair it was in a heavily wooded area and I just subconsciously registered him as a tree).

I like to think he's a keen MTB spectator or critically judging line choice.
 
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Back in my fatbike days... there's a nudist beach called Maslins here in SA, about 30km South of the city.
A stair well drops you from the cliff top down onto the beach at the South side, or access from the North on flat sand.
I used to ride down the stairs and ride along the beach.
There was a strava segment called 'Nudie run' which started at the rocks, right down at the South corner which meant travelling South from the bottom of the steps about 400-500m, this took me down amongst the large rocks at the end.

Occasionally there would be a few naked blokes tanning amongst the rocks with the slugs out.

That day I startled 4 blokes (only a glimpse) in full black rubber gimp suits engaged in some form of sexual activities.

I held that KOM for quite a few years, can't remember if I got it this day or not but it was a strange sight.

EDIT: Out of interest, I had a look at the segment, 'nudie run' is across the cliff top, for those who risked seeing stuff that could not be unseen, the segment is the 'Full Monty', still KOM after 7 years.
It reckon I have only had 1 attempt, I have definitely ridden the beach 5-6 times, maybe missed the segment start as I didn't want to go too deep into the rocks of strange sights.


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Asininedrivel said:
There's a really big male Eastern Grey that likes standing on the edge of fast bits of track at Lysterfield. Doesn't move a muscle, just stands there like a f***ing sentinel you only see at the last second. One of those big roided ones too. Scared the shit out me of once (to be fair it was in a heavily wooded area and I just subconsciously registered him as a tree).

I like to think he's a keen MTB spectator or critically judging line choice.
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Next time you see him, check his behind for missing fur. If so it was because of my front wheel early one morning!
 
I was heading towards the end of a trail well out the back of Harcourt and all of a sudden there was this bloke on the side of the tail looking around aimlessly, clearly lost. I stop at the end of the trail and said bloke yells out if I know where we are. ( I have no idea lol, it was my first visit to the area ).
We look around a bit deciding where to go before heading off in our desired directions.

After departing up the trail then realise it was @moorey , that was a strange encounter haha.


Was bombing down a trail on Mt Dandenong and next minute there's shirtless dude jumping out of the way.
I guess he was just going for a casual bush-walk up a MTB gravity trail, shirtless, as you do!

Only other strange one was an early morning after Grand final day or something like that, on a path through the bush out the back of Ringwood.
Come across a small group who then ask if I know how to get to Ringwood. I can only guess they party'd a little hard the night before and ended up lost haha. They were about 3k away from anything.
 
moorey said:
A man I have zero description on, bothering no one....... I can't get the local police to come to one of the resi units when one of our 15yo clients comes home with a stolen car or a boogie board bag full of weed.
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They might be already on the lookout, i heard about an autistic gentleman who went on a walk last week, found in the bush near the train track rather far from home. He was trying to go bowling. Non communiticative so he wouldnt have spoken to anyone or responded if stopped.

Police on the other hand.. rang them about a bloke in my front yard a few months back. Was drunk and going off, stumbling around the yard. Police told me to ask him to leave..
 
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