Thursday Night Nun Victorian

Good ride with Nelson tonight. Felt like I was showing off all my new toys...

Rode out from mine, headed up the road (following a group of 4 others), peeled into the dog park carp ark and down the newish line onto Sleepy Hollow, then up and out to the walk track.  By the 19th I'd determined that Nelson hadn't hit the new one from here, so we popped off down there for a lap.  Back at 19th, through the gate, and into the singletrack climbing from here, then out to Skidder for the grind up the grunter.  A couple had been ahead, and were stopped at the water fountain chatting, we rode through and up to Thomsons, where they arrived as we were deciding where to go.  Nelson led, I followed.  He had some gear problems at the end.  Then down into #2, I led, and we flowed, and through out to the road.  Down through Kiwi and up the Summit, with the 2 from the fountain catching us up slowly, and finally pulling ahead just before Worsleys.  Didn't really talk to them much until the top of the Nun.  They dived in first.  

Nun wasn't as greasy as I was expecting, but I still trusted nothing.  Had a good blast down tho.  Then the lower reaches were closed due to the logging below.  We flowed out onto the road, then dived in the lowest from part way down where you can access it.  Good blast down here too.  Out through Kiwi again and I noticed the moon! - not the pest pic, but it was above Charteris/Diamond Harbour, just come up over the hill.

Up the road and at the top there was a group of about 6 young dudes on expensive bikes.  They were chatting so we headed off down, Nelson leading, round through and over the jumpies, then down Rabbit where I led into Rocks Pines and Gums, taking the left down steep, I'm pretty sure a new bit, and out to the corner, out over to Skidder where there was a massive group of riders, including the guy and girl from earlier, and up rolled the infamous Mel, friendly as she always is.  They were all climbing and we headed off down Dazza's.  Ages since down here and hooweee it's steeeep and rooty.  Fun!  Rolled out across the last of the nuShazza's flowing around towards Brents, and then hitting Macros down down out to Corporate Ladder ending and then into Uprooted, Nelson's first time.  Good climb.  One extra corner that wasn't there earlier, and then out the top (a little more progress?), onto the 4wd, out to Skidder and over to the singletrack we'd climbe earlier for the last blast down Heavenly Creatures and all the way home.  Nicely nicely.

Cogent 12.13 kms and a tenable 465 m vert.

No Skool like the Old Skool on a Beautiful Sunday

Took the Cotic up to dog park carp ark and dived into the bushes, under the pylon and down to Sleepy Hollow to climb up the nice paths to 19th. Up through into skidder and up the guts to top of Vic. 

Down around the jump, hard right into Worm, onto Traverse for a good hoon across here. Boffed off down Huntsbury 4Pause, avoided the bottom jump through lack of speed, left in the tussocks down the older line, then into AliExpress dropping down, weaving through the sheepshit and rocks down to Old Skool. 

Excellent flow down here, flow and groove, spiralling down to the bottom and turning straight into the uphill. All the way up the valley, past Hospital and the bottom of NuBridges, climbing the walk track, walking a few bits up the top, then right on the traversing track across to the MTB forest exit, clambering up here and into the New Climb Trail. Beautiful, but still a granny grind... And they've finished up a couple of the corners above the 4wd but no further. 

Out to skidder and over to the below-gums. Short break in here for a breather, then out. Dropped off into Heavenly Creatures for a lovely jaunt, all the way down.  Sleepy, pines, oaks, last bit, H'Ell, clamber, road and home. 

12.1 kms 524 m ground out. 

Saturday, Which Hill?

Tra'y and me headed up, her on her ebike and me on the Troll. Up Vic Park Rd, up through Skidder, and up the grunter, me pushing both our bikes for a bit.  Hit the Summit Rd and she cruised while I chuffed.  At Vernon I headed up onto the singletrack and had a nice conTrolled cruise around and down, meeting her at the gate and heading on around to the other end of Witch Hill, where we took the walk track up for a bit, locked our bikes and walked, clambered, scrambled up to the stone seat on the top. There were a couple of Furries having themselves a nice photoshoot up here.  Interesting.  

We clambered back down to the bikes and headed back around the Summit.  I took the Traverse and then lost Tra'y somewhere above.  Rode down the grunter through Skidder, out to 19th, turned back and spotted her coming down into Skidder.  Then we hooned back down home. Fun riding the Troll,  

15.5 kms rolled, and over 500 m lofted.

Wednesday Night Limnal Minimal Stooge

Quite a short one on account of needing new brake pads on the Speedbomb. 

Rode up into Vic, first, just above the road on the walking, then dived across into carpark and into the old line, dropping onto the new line (under pylon) and down around through to climb Sleepy' 'Creatures, out onto walk track and up to 19th, all the while the odd spot of rain was drifting about.  Up the grunter, slow and steady, only stopping to pick up someone's trash, then up into Brakefree zone where I stopped and checked the radar; which told me the spots of rain I was in weren't gonna be about for long.  By the time I made the top of Vic they'd pretty much stopped.  (Sugarloaf in the back there)

Plan was to drop down through gums, down into the valley to climb back up somehow to the new climb, but dropped down, jump, rabbit and into rocks, gums and flowing through here, around a corner and brakes started making awful noises, including when I wasn't applying them...  Oh well, I'll just bail home, I thought.  Stayed on down through the cedars, last bit to gate, and across into Heavenly Creatures for a lovely flow down, other than the racket the brakes were making.  A little slick on a couple of sections, but mostly good.  I saw a mouse!  Ran across the track and I got a good view of it when it froze on a branch.  Onwards down. Cleaned nicely all the way out and down - I really must cut a trail out to Vic Park Rd somehow for finishing.  By the time I got home the brakes had kinda sorted themselves.  Still replacement time tho.

Sub-limnal 5.08 kms alonged, 180.5 m upped.

Slow Quick Saturday Jeht

Back from Castle Hill to keep an eye on Dad, so grabbed the opportunity of him having a nap to get out and ride. 

Up into Vic, metric shittonnes of riders around. Grovelled up the grunter from Skidder and up top, where I could see that due to the high winds CAP was shut, no lifts today. That explained it. Well, that and the fact that it was 20-something degrees on the nearly shortest day of the year. Into Thompson and Thomson, then back up both, down around the jumps, climbed Worm, then boffed off down Upper Fenceline and the fun lines (Roam? - or is that the jumpy line?)

down thru there and into the bottom via actual Fenceline which I usually peel off to the left of.  Into the New Climbing trail which I've only recently discovered is called Uprooted, climbed, and climbed, it's a chuff at times, but still way better than straight up a skidder track.  They've gotten even further above the (Razza-bottom/40fter) 4wd they were to last week, and they're gonna skip stay low to avoid the steepest bit of the next one up to Skidder. 

Through Skidder, again, loads of people about, and headed into the cedar section below the gums taking me down to the gate, then crossed over into Heavenly Creatures for a sweet sweet ride home.

Quick and slow 6.84 kms, and 272 m climbed.

Wednesday Night Solo Poachy Wee Stooger

Sweet wee ride tonight on the Stooge. Hit up a few walkie tracks and popped a bit of bombiness. Bashed about and had a thoroughly good time. 

Up the walking track next to the road all the way to dogparkcarpark, dropped over into Tawhairanui for a nice cruise through, then stayed on walky tracks up through to 19th, hung a left, climbed up my usual way over top of it and through to skidder.  Up the gutser, and through up to Thomson's #1, flow, road, Thomson's #2, turned around and dropped back into this, climbed, into #1 again, climbed, out to top of Vic.  Turned around on the carpark and dropped back in, down around the jump, encountered a couple of guy with bikes'n'lights on their way up, breezed past them and straight round into Worm climbing up to catch them.  Onto the Traverse for a nice cruise around, pulling over several times to let trains of bikes through, the last couple still a ways off Lavaflow, so nice free ride from there, all the way to the Huntsbury end.  

Across the road and over the stile into Scott's Knob reserve, nice climb up through the conifers and fun rooty rocky descent, then into the next climb, off for a couple of steps, and climbing still, one small detour loopback, and on through, nice long flowy (due to reasonable unfamiliarity) cruise, droppy rocky rooty descent towards the end, especially in the natives.  Staying on that side of the road, up over the sidley track on Tracey's Knob to the carpark.  On road here, bombing back along the Summit, standing and cranking a lot of it, feeling good.  Last leg up to the 25kph sign above Lavaflow and dropped down to the fence, over (a group of 4 passing under me while I waited for them), and down onto the trail, and heading for home.  Cruising, climbing, cruising, seeing the group ahead and slowly winding in the tailenders past the pond, where the rest of the group was waiting (at the sign).  They offered for me to go ahead, but I said, nah, you're good, i'll give you a good gap and have a rest.  Gave them ages, and headed off again, definitely winding them in, but they were all regrouped at the entrance to the trees and I just rolled on through, up a bit and then pushing down into the jump with speed.  

Straight down through the trees, rabbit, rocks pines gums for funs, all the way down through to the gate, and dropped into Heavenly Creatures.  So much leaf and bark and stick carnage from windy couple days, and the rain has shown me where's going to be an issue come proper winter (just after you cross the access track, where the trail is kinda built up).  Great flow through, climb, into the last long leg, rolling goodness, and climbs, Sleepy Hollow, flow flow flow, oaks, last fun to finish.  Clamber, road, home.

 

Surprisingly nearly 14kms and a nice 443m climbed - further than I'd thought I'd do.

Sunday Long Haul Kennedy's and CAP home

Big ride today on the Jeht. 

Up top, took in both Thompson's #1 and #2 (father with noise cancelling headphones and baby on front totally oblivious to my presence behind him...), out onto the road and through Dyers for a nice long cruise up the Summit and around to Kennedy's.  

Rapido descent, very rough, Siberia, LowRoad, Crocodile peeling off onto Deviation and exploring out onto the new one - Redmund Spur.  It was okay.  the bermy jumps are fun, but a bit of cattle damage and lots of poos.  Not sure where next, decided on Spurious which was fun, steep little trickies, then into Upload and down through the dog park, onto the road, dropped through empty section onto Withers Cres, Spalling, Sutherlands and into Te Kuru, the big wetland park, aiming for the Westmorland Pylon.  Into Happy Home Rd, dropped down to Cashmere Stream, following this all the way to the end of navigable territory, then Holbrook Way, to steep climb to Hadleigh Lane, next steep climb up into Westmorland East Valley Reserve, pedalling up the steeps and zig in the natives below Farside, over onto Westmorland for a drop down and through into the CAP for an uplift. 

Summit Connector, finally grabbing the first OG entrance to the Nun, bombing down this, feeling pretty good still, hard push up the Summit - where the hell did all this energy come from?  Into top of Vic - usual way down, jumps, rabbit rocks pines gums, across into Heavenly Creatures, lovely flow, Sleepy Hollow, and home.

Quite large, 27.77 kms, just over 1000 m climbed (of which 600 were naturally aspirated).

Saturday Sunset Jeht Jaunt

Feeling a bit underhung so had a lazy morning and early afternoon before heading up the hill for a clean out on the Jeht.  I'd missed the working bee on the climb track this morning, but wanted to see where they'd got to, so dropped over Razza's and down through the little bit of Rad left, then Macros, the wee extirpation above Corporate Ladder, and out the bottom of Brents.  Into the new climbing trail from here, nice boardwalk, built-up corners, bridges, gradient not so bad. It's a great wee ride, and they've come so far up already, right up to the Rad wall, and the 4wd track Razza's spits you out on. I reckon one or two more sessions, and it'll be to the road Shazza, Dazza and Razza all come off - already marked out. Unknown whether they intend to take it higher, but I really hope so!  It climbs well! 

Thought I'd not really done enough to give up and go home once at Skidder, so headed up the gutser (hard!) and up to Thompson's#1, back up road and dropped into jumps, top of pines, gums, peeled out to the left to see if there is scope out towards the pylon - I reckon there could be. Back onto the usual trails, across into Heavenly Creatures (new name! (now retro-filled back through this blog)). Nice flow down this and popping up onto the road home just as the sun dropped behind the mountains - perfect.   

Only 6.59 kms, but a reasonable 268 m clamberated.