Whatever made me think that today’s ride through Mt Crawford State Forest was going to be a ride in the park I cannot recall.

As soon as I had left the maintenance track leading away from the car park on Fox Creek Road I knew that this would be a challenging morning.

The wide maintenance road had narrowed to a narrow muddy path, that only just managed to avoid the trees and was strewn with loose rock. It was barely the width of my handle-bars and as an added bonus, there was a steep embankment that dropped away at my elbow to unknown injuries below.

Concentration was going to be paramount.

The next two hours riding alternated through steep bushland, under pine forest canopy or through open bracken covered hills. In places I was able to reach 30 kilometres an hour but tried to avoid this after one instance where I hurtled over a small rise to find a four-foot drop the other side.

My voiced expletive must have helped because I did not crash and burn, but I did ride with a little more caution after that.

Although the ride was not what I anticipated and at times I needed to stop and let the more fearless rider past, I will be back. The mix of peace and tranquility, occasionally interspersed with adrenalin runs was just what I needed.

If you are a reasonable rider with good knobbly tyres on your bike, then I can recommend this as a great destination.