It was a cold, wet and not-so-sunny kind of a day on Sunday March 17 when motorcyclists and volunteers made their way from Bathurst to Mudgee for the annual Black Dog Ride One Dayer.
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81 riders, 16 pillions and 28 non-riding volunteers meet at the Bathurst Sportsground at 7.30am prepared to tackle mental health.
With rain predicted for the day, many of the riders, my self included, had prepared for the downpour by putting on our wet weather gear - a true fashion statement.
As we set off making our way through Eglinton, spits of rain began to fall upon us proving to have made the right decision before take off to put on our runway-worthy look.
This video captures when the Black Dog Riders leave for Hill End. Fast forward to 15 minutes in to see all of the riders ride past me (Jay-Anna).
Once we arrived at Hill End the weather seemed to be on our side, however it was all just high hopes.
It was through this leg of the ride that we had the most rainfall that made the roads slippery and unkind with an additional challenge of scanning through water covered helmets.
Event coordinator Rose Hancock admits she was 'impressed' by the commitment everybody involved had made despite the unfavourable weather conditions.
"I was impressed with the amount of people who turned out for the day with the amount of other events happening in Bathurst on the same weekend and the threat of rain hanging around," she said.
I was even more impressed at how many stayed with the ride through all the showers of rain we had.
- Rose Hancock
Not only was the weather undesirable during the ride, but it seemed the clouds decided to open up and unleash even more rain for the riders to travel home to.
"Mudgee also put on quite the weather event for everyone to go home to. Someone told me two inches of rain fell, boy were those weather apps wrong," Rose said.
Watch this video to see just how much rain the Black Dog Riders rode through on March 17. Fast forward to 12 minutes in to see us arrive in Mudgee.
This is the second time the BDR has been brought out to Mudgee, and Hancock says it has a lot to do with how the riders are received by the local community.
"We did Mudgee in 2016 and had a lot of positive feedback from the riders and we were really welcomed by the Mudgee community so we thought we would do it again for 2019," she said.
"We have always had a positive response from the Mudgee community. We called in a couple of weeks ago and had positive responses to putting out our flyers, the Mudgee Guardian has always been there to help promote and follow up on the ride."
Approximately $3,000 was raised from the event that will be donated to assist with mental health and suicide prevention.