singletrack singletrack road singletrack

ride yesterday was huge. we met at Tony's in Spreydon, Pete and me rode across there, then Andrew Steve Tony Pete this guy Mark and me rode up Worsleys, over Marleys, refilled water at Kiwi, down track below Dyers Pass Rd, up into Vic Park, up to top of Vic, round summit trail to Rapaki, onwards round next little section of summit trail, along summit road, to Castle Rock, down singletrack to Bridle Path, round summit road up to top of Richmond Hill track, ate lunch there, then down it to Evans, onto the Godley track, all the way out it, down the Anaconda into Taylors, refilled water there, up over out of there to Scumner, cafe stop there, then home... Taylors and Sumner were CRAWLING with people... all up 65 kms, most of it off road, total of 1000 metres of altitude gained and lost. total of 4 litres of water consumed. plus another 1.5 litres over night...

i rode hard, i rode fast, scary fast at times...

ridin to work this morning was hard.

thinking back over the last couple weeks, trying to work out all the riding i've done... rode last night (see magic fog below), and last saturday (13th?)-across to and up rapaki, turned left along the singletrack, along the summit road, singletrack summit road to Richmond Hill single track down to Evans down Capt Thomas and back home from Sumner. gorgeous norwest day, tho the norwest was in my face all the way back from Slumner... before that? Thursday? or Tuesday? with Al? not sure... oh it all becomes so hazy... i guess before that was the sunday muddy sunday ride, cos i had to do some major maintaining of my bike after that ride. Wore out my brakepads something wicked. scored a new brake disk for $20 off a guy on the NZMtbbuysell (link on right). And sold a primal wear shirt that was too small and not the design i actually wanted...

from now on, i'm keeping a good record of rides. doing a biggie on sunday. intended is up worsleys and ALL the way along to Godley. 'sgonna take most of the day.

Magic Fog

as always a couple weeks have gone by. i've ridden a few times i believe... s'been a hard week or so, cos O caught a cold again and i had to take a couple days off work to care for him as he couldnt go into work with T.

last night, as i chuffed up the hill in the moonlight (what a glorious night it was) on my own, up into the fog, i was reminded of a blog i read, http://restarea300.blogspot.com/ where the guy is a road worker gang fellow here in nz and he wrote one time how when he's out on the road he has all these ideas of things to blog, but by the time he gets to his computer he's forgotten most of them. Exactly the same thing was happening to me last night. it was an almost zen like experience riding up the hill last night. i rode up a *ahem* no bikes trail last night. the wee valley track below the Rapaki... an awful lot of it is unrideable, but with a bit of wheeling the bike along on the back wheel or scooting with one leg while spinning the other clipped in you can get over most obstacles. anyway, ended up rejoining the rapaki, and powering up it. into the fog. with a full moon making it all glow it was like a wonderland. i saw only one other bike light, up on the summit road whilst i was huffing up the main track. no others... magic. round the summit trail and down the original Bowenvale track. i was slightly shakey and didnt manage to clean some of the more vertical rocky sections, but still managed most of it. i love the way the singletrack proper of this Bowenvale swoops and weaves...

i have a justification for riding these No Bikes trails occasionally. i tend not to ride them when theyre mucky. i also never ride them during the day, only at night when either there isnt a walker or runner likely and if there is they'll see my light a mile away... its nice to have a change of scenery.

sunday muddy sunday

well. mountain biking yesterday was a bit of a mudbath. Al, Al and me rode across to Tony's, in spreydon, where Andrew and Steve rode across to meet us. it was drizzling, tho, while we waited for A and S it rained. so we rode across to the bottom of Worsley's and Andrew, Steve and Tony all piked out and turned around. soft co cks. so, the other three of us rode up worsleys. hehe, the others were actually wise to have pulled out. especially steve, who's glasses always steam up and so he cant see where he's going. so, once we hit the trail proper, the clay surface was just wetted to about 1cm depth, meaning it was dry under neath that, but that 1 cm of clay sticks to tires quite nicely, and then, as the wheel rolls clay sticks to clay sticks to clay... so within not much distance at all, we're riding these huge clay wheeled behemoths which weigh three times the normal weight of a bike... hehe, it was fun. the clay really only built up badly when you had to walk, and you had to walk cos the clay was so built up... but once you did get riding again the clay kinda wore off and you were sweet, but getting moving again after a walking stretch was pretty tricky. hehe... anyway, got to the top and it was howling, and very very damp. decided to avoid the Marley's hill trail over the top, cos it gets stickier than anywhere on the way up, and on the way down it is a rutty rocky clay fest, so riding it would have been nigh on scary. so, joined that track half way down where it meets the summit road. it was sweet from there to the kiwi, cos there's been a bit of gravel layed. then rode up into vic park, around the summit trail to rapaki and down. rapaki was like a muddy stream. and stupidly there were tons of people riding up. we couldnt believe anyone would be out on a day like that. mad bastards... my rear brake pads wore out completely on the way down, lucky i'd put the new front ones in or i woulda been walking! my rear ones were pretty low. so, new ones of them to be purchased today. then i'll swap the fronts to the back and put the new new ones in the front.

seagulls

i wanna be a seagull. looking out my window at them flying around not giving a toss about anything except where to perch, shit and where to find food, always having a good view, and i'm stuck here in front of the computer with people's expectations heaped all over me just makes me wanna split and be free.

there's too much work to be done, too much work that hasnt been done, and i dont see any way out. its like there's always too much to do that getting started in on it and whittling away at it just isnt gonna make any difference to it and it'll just keep being too much and probably even always just keep getting bigger... bah. work schmerk.

anyhoo, rode last night. twice this week, tues and thurs. both times on the same or similar tracks. tuesday went with Al and Nels up Worsley's, over the crater rim then down kennedy's onto the new singletrack, sillily named the Crocodile (i mean, anaconda i can understand in that its twisty and curvey, but crocs are solid and rigid and hard)... then back to nels's. last night was with the boys, stv, tone, peat and me, and we rode up halswell quarry, up kennedys to top of singletrack and down. short loop, back to the car by ten to 8.
i didnt crash, but stv had a bit of an off on this TIGHT wee hunka rock most of the way down. he garked his leg and dinted his pedal.