Steep Sunday's Stoogin'n'Snakin' Around

Sweet ride tonight. For a bit of a change, first off was up the steep behind the houses to the dog park, chuffity chuff.  Then the usuals, road, 19th etc. Into Thompson's #1 for a quick blast, then back up the road, straight into down around the jumps and straight into the Worm, up to Traverse to cruise around to Fourpause. Bumpy! (therefore slower - it's really rutted and chunky now). 

Into the landingstripzone, taking the left (older) line, chunkier rocks and more mileage than the direct route, Ali Express, dropping down around and through the fence then following the vague sprayed/worn grass into a new flow path, looping out through the sheep shit and piss zone and back, and all the bumpy rocks the way down onto Old Skool.  Bit of a rest at the usual spot.  

Dived into the biff baff boff of Old Skool, some nice flow regardless, then straight into the valley and upwards, stopping at the bench where the steppy walk track comes out.  Up this wee valley, walking the steepest and riding what I could and up the steppy walk track to Hidden Valley / Bowenvale Bonus, in reverse of usual direction, down then peeled left onto the walking track up into the valley.   Lovely narrow bushy singletrack.  Up valley and a right at the sidle, little bit of flow around into the MTB valley /bottom of Brents, fenceline, etc.  Up Corporate Ladder, checking out a new line back down briefly, then back up Corporate out top of Sneaky, around past 40fter up the usual way thru the RadZone.  

Finally, over Skidder out the single-track, below the road, into DogParkCarpark and 235, blasting down through here, ducking well below the lowered tree and stopping briefly to sort-of leaf-rake my new line (so people will notice it), then riding, down through the oaks, and final fun blast down to end, clamber to road and home

Steep 12.4 kms with 543 m snagged.

STuesgeday Night Nun Spin

Off the back of doing the Abel Tasman over the weekend, my legs were recovered somewhat, so I headed out for a fun wee chuff up and back last night on the Speedbomb.  

Quite hot evening, headed up the usuals, not really knowing where to head.  On the way up the road section, I stopped to snap-send-solve what appears to be the top end of the waterleak in the oaks.  Onwards then to head up over 19th, through skidder, up the gutser and beyond.  Chatted with a dude at the Thompsons #1 turn off - he was interested in my bike (he'd seen the Kendallweed session in Whistler on it).  I headed down Thompson's-both and him up.  

Through Dyer's and up the Summit, I contemplated dropping into the park but wasnt sure about the last lift timing, so continued to the top of the Nun.  Small rest here then dropped in.  Flow was good, only mildly jarring in a couple of places.  Good roll though, and lots of good vibes.  All the way down to the Kiwi again, and back up Summit Rd where I chatted to another dude up top here about the threatening sky, no rumbles, but heavy dark cumulus underbellies hanging around.  He'd just ridden up from the bottom of CAP - he'd been down there half an hour earlier (about when I would have been too, if I'd headed down rather than Nun!) and they'd stopped lift access due to risk of a thunder / lightning strike.  Just as well I hadn't dropped in!  I wouldnt have relished climbing back up Bengal etc...  

Back into Vic, and down the usuals, over the jumps, Rabbit, Rocks (gnarly today), and Gums (DRY!), all the way through to 19th, then below road (giving a walking woman (of a couple) a hell of a fright , even though I was coming past nice and slow), then through and out to road, coasting into Dogparkcarpark trail.  Flowy flow, detour into my new line, then "fuck!"  The little shits building jumps in there have fucking dismantled my favourite jump.  SO annoying.  They've built this dumb jump line through there, a berm of which is now part of the flood, therefore ruined, and fucking broken down was what the smoothest jump in there to waste the wood on other bullshit.  I'm fucked off.  In fact, I'm gonna go back up there and fix the fucker back to how it was.  

Marginal 10 kms travailed with 328 m climbed.

Monday Night Maintenance Machine

Quick up on the Stooge with a pruning saw.  Stood and pumped hard all the way up to the Dogparkcarpark and dived in.  Immediately after the first clearing I stopped and walked back, slashing with the saw at the long grass, first one side then the other on the return.  Back on the bike and nice flow down, down, and stopped where the branch had killed my helmet (and my brain).  Someone had snapped the branch that had spiked me, but there was still some left, and I dealt to it, and some other bits to clear headroom.  Needs a chainsaw - the heavy branch above has split and dropped.  Continued on down and stopped at the quagmire.  Took a look, semi-planned, then got to work, hacking and sawing a path through the woods above the wetzone.  Finished that, pushed back up a little and rode through.  Mostly okay, with speed it might flow okay, but it's a lot flatter and requires a little bit of tight and twisty technical weaving to get through.  Will alter as necessary in near future.  Finished off down over the lower jump and all the way through to H'Ell, clamber, home.

Miniscule 1.75 kms and 50 m climbed - but fun.

Tra'y has since walked down through my new path and came home raving about it...

Wednesday Night Hunts Traverse Stooge (with bonus Whiplash Concussion (maybe?))

An excellent ride until the very end where 2 things almost ruined it... Dived in and was enjoying the crap out of the Dogparkcarpark trail when WHAM!!! a fucking tree branch stopped my head, wrecked my helmet and kinda gave me whiplash, and maybe a concussion?  I'm just not sure. Helmet is fucked, with imprint of branch poked into one of the vents, and the MIPS ripped from the shell.  The MIPS did it's job tho. 2nd thing is the water saturating, and wrecking, the oak forest. It's worse still than last week. 

Something cool. Rounding under Sugarloaf at the usual testing spot 2 guys were stopped and one of them said, "Wicked bike!"  I said, "thanks." And the other follows with, "that's awesome!"

Anywho, up the usuals, 19th etc, both Thomsons, back up the road, dropped into Vic, down around the jumpies, up Worm onto the Traverse for the spin across here (where I encountered the love for the Stooge), dropped into Four Pause, on down across the landing strip trail (Alley Express), down to the 4wd, then back up to top of Huntsbury, back on the Traverse for a nice spin across there, dropping through the jumpies, down the rabbit paddock, rocks, gums all the way through, below road from 19th, then into Dogparkcarpark (235) where the head injury happened.  The jump in the Oaks is undoable given the landing is a quagmire.  I pushed up through the crappy sticky bushes above it (where the ground is dry), and finished off with a nice blast all the way down to H'Ell, clamber to road, and home.  Ouch.

12.7kms 442m wrought 

Satur-heated Greenwood Godley Taylor's Godley Captain

Scorcher today. Parked in McCormack's as Nelson pulled up, and we took his car to top of Mt Pleasant Road.  Into the OG Greenwood entrance, diverting into Sheepshit Alley for a weird descent, then climbed around up to the ruins.  Into the bony-arse Greenwood. Heesh it was bony.   Pinging descent, ruts catching me weirdly.  My whole game was off, because I's in my new(ish) Ride Concepts shoes, and I've installed the cleats too far back, so my whole centre of gravity was off.  Kept catching my toes too.  Then into the rocky Godley start from Evans, not something we've done for ages, and quite hard work for the first few hundred metres, but gradually better as you go. Ruts were particularly problematic today.  Good blast once in the descent for Livingston - weaving okay, but never quite letting it all go.  Over to Breeze was a breeze. 

Then up the road a little to hit Anaconda in full, tentative and sketchy in the upper reaches, finally letting it go a bit lower down.  I seemed to keep ending up on Nelson's tail for a while, but he got away on the Snake's Tail.  Down into the Taylor's Carpark, loaded up some water, considered queuing for an ice cream, but I got water instead.  Incredibly busy down here.  Next, we toodled around the carpark seeing if there was a new entrance for the new trail up, but it was just the old exit for the entrance, so hit up the new MT1 and MT2, which were very good.  At the top we headed up the old walking track we used to ride regularly (last time was 5 years ago) to the paraglider launch site - it's getting some development so hopefully they'll chuck in a few more zigs and zags, cos fuck is it steep at the top.  

Along the road a little, and back up into Godley.  My brain was starting to fry and weakness was setting in hard.  Muppetted back to Evans, not terrible flow, but exhausting, then dropped into The Captain for the win. So exhausting but good riding. Finally around the flat back to the car. Chucked my bike in the back, Nelson's on the back and up the hill we went to drop him back to his car at the top.
 

Unmitigated 25 kms, 770 climbed -with bonus total 1170 descended

Thursday's Stooge; Drainage and a Beverage

Found the 'good' Ames Shovel in the garage, finally, and cruised up for a dig wee session in the shade of the oaks (28 degrees).  Stood and cranked most of the way up to the DogParkCarPark, dropped in and wove my way down, stopping at the jump to attempt to tidy a bit more drainage after walking up with the dog a couple days ago.  Sooo much water and mud - hopefully the Council will find the leak this time. Really don't know whether I've achieved much, as the ground is so saturated. Did what I could then cruised down through the oaks and climbed up to the road again, onwards upwards to the usual 19th/Skidder combo, diverting for a twist to ride up through the gums - instigating a fair bit of pushing... Out top of pines and across Rabbit to the sunset seat whereupon a NOV was consumed in the Norwest wind, and a Hercules from Scott Base tracked. 

Finished the tasty beverage and I was off up to the Thomson's both (the 2nd after a moment of indecision), then back up the road, into the blasty jumps, Rabbit, Rocks, Gums all the way to the gate, back up to Skidder, 19th, new tack (on old line) over dropping to Latter's, staying on this out to dog park and dropped into the 235 again. Walked the jump muck, and used a stick to try more drainage, then enjoyed the final weaving blast home. 

7 something kms, 215 m clambered. Love that bike.

Sunday Post-Poteriteri Field-Power Athwart the Tops and back

Mint ride today. On the Jeht, toodled up through Vic and across the Traverse as far as the Bridle Path - taking in all the singletrack to Castle Rock and back again. Seemed to just keep requesting power and receiving it, even on the way back... A week in the field (this was day five) really does wonders - walking through rough forest 8 hours a day for a week.  Jeht rode very nicely and I completely cleaned the Tors with no dabs.  A runner girl had gotten out of my way just where it's rockiest and steepest towards the end, and I said to her, "this is where I usually dab" and lo, I didnt!  Magic.

Must say tho.  Trail Etiquette...  for fuck's sake people.  Learn some fucking sharing skills and think before you drop in, morons.  And remember, typically, uphill has right of way.  Look the fuck ahead before you hit the downhill sections of the Traverse in case someone is just there about to finish the fucking climb.  If it's near the bottom I'm happy to pull up and let 2 or more riders through, but if it's near the top, fuck you, pull up and fucking wait, you cunts.

besides ill-mannered dickheads, a nicely trundled 20 km with 730 m of altitudinal gainage.