May 30, 2018
An amazing 888 riders registered to take part in the Kingaroy Lions Club annual trail ride at the weekend, the biggest event the club has ever hosted.
The riders came from across south-east and central Queensland to test their skills on tracks laid out on three private properties in the Gordonbrook area.
The event isn’t a competition so the riders are just there to have fun.
And have fun they did … on two 30km Open loops, a Novice track, plus a Pee Wee track for the juniors.
The tracks included sandy creek beds, eucalypt scrub, hill climbs and open areas of grassland.
A mini-city sprung up on site with tents, swags and campers stretching across a large paddock.
There was almost everything a rider could ask for, including on-site repairs … and lots of coffee!
Volunteers prepared hot food for breakfast, lunch and tea and there was even karaoke entertainment on Saturday night, courtesy of Hell’n Back.
Lions Club president Norm Jackson said the riders ploughed their way through nearly $5000 worth of steaks, sausages, bacon and chicken wings over the two days.
He said he wanted to send a big thank you to the sponsors for the weekend: Stanwell (Tarong Power Stations / Meandu Mine), Kingaroy Joinery, G. Crumpton & Sons, Sunpork Swickers, Kingaroy Plumbing Works, Ryke Fuel, The Little Butcher (in Kingaroy Shoppingworld) and all the businesses who supplied prizes for the raffle.
And to the “sweeps” – the all-important volunteers who plan and prepare the tracks and keep everything running smoothly on the loops over the weekend.
Norm also extended a big thank you to the Lions Club members who spent many hours setting up, cooking, serving and doing all the necessary tasks as well as the volunteers from the other service clubs and groups who helped on the day, especially the many SES volunteers, Nanango and Wooroolin Lions, QCWA Kingaroy Twilight group, Crawford State School P&C, Kingaroy Kindy and Kingaroy Quota.
He said funds raised from the weekend would be distributed to local organisations, including the service clubs who helped and SES, and organisations such as the Salvation Army, Blue Care, the South Burnett Private Hospital Foundation, Camp Duckadang and the Lions Medical Research Foundation.
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Some of the comments on social media:
The new loop with sandy creek was great. Had a ball hitting the sand whoops and the hill climbs were great … thanks for putting on the trail ride and all the people who came to make a great weekend.
The track and food were awesome! The volunteers did a great job and thanks to the Kingaroy Lions Club!! See you next year!
Awesome weekend! Thanks everybody, see you next year!
Had an awesome 2 days of riding on the open track. It was a bit of everything and the sandy creeks were a good workout. Had a ball and the crew that put all this on made it so easy and enjoyable. Well done and the new facilities were awesome. And that fire pit was very impressive well done. We will be back.
Was a great weekend! Thank you to all who organised it, gave up time and money. We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend.
Awesome ride. Good venue, good tracks, good catering.
Great job yet again Kingaroy Lions Club trailride. Awesome event.
Really good event and thanks to all for organising a awesome weekend of riding.
Such an amazing ride. Was genius having two loops going at once as it definitely helped keep the dust down a bit not having everyone on the same track all at once. I even managed a couple loops without seeing more than a handful of riders. Well done to the event organisers.
Great weekend, dust wasn’t too bad. Great tracks and thank you for the steak burgers. They hit the spot.
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(Photo: Denise Keelan Photography)
