Vets at Bruce Ridge

The Veterans Athletic Club held a monthly handicap at Bruce Ridge Nature Park (I'll come back to that later) on 25 September and I was duty photographer.   There was quite a bit of interesting stuff, both to do with the venue and the event.

While warming up (ie wandering around waiting for the event to start) I spotted quite a few attractive flowers.

Petalochilus fuscatus
 Acacia genistifolia
 Dillwynnia sp.
 Glycine clandestina
 I "ran" the short course and was surprised to find that the turn point was unattended.  (It emerged the marshal had gone a bit further up the track to deal with the Long Course turn.)
 It looked as though the wind had blown a few trees across the track.
 Then I looked at the stump.
Either there has been an outbreak of big-toothed beavers or Canberra Nature Park staff have been clearing away trees that offend lawyers.

The club has been sending around messages about no dogs on the course.  That appears to be flexible in application.  (I should point out that I have no problems with dogs on the course - there are usually non-competitors exercising pooches any way - but if one competitors dog is banned they all should be.)
 Here are a few more images from the event.  Here we have one of the back markers heading off, after several finishers frm the short course had already got home.  (The final starter on the long course was still several minutes from starting.)
This is the first finisher from the long course coming through the tunnel.  He did set out early, so that he could start entering data for the scoring.
 It was a bit soggy in places.
 Long course persons battling up one of the less pleasant hills.
There were quite a lot of mountain bikers around: it was rumoured that they were in an 'event' and this explained why some of the Vets course marking had been obliterated leading to a few people - including a course vetter, getting lost!
 Here are some MTB types maintaining their tracks.  Questions could be asked about why this is permitted in a Nature Park, but the answer is likely to be because the mountain bikers have got more political clout than the natural history enthusiasts!


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