back in Hanmer...

well, i had twisted my chain, predominantly in one link, so i pulled the bad link, and am now running a link short... seems the last third or quarter of all my chain's lives are run with a link short ...and am trying a new chain lube. at the suggestion of Dougal, who's a regular on the mountainbike.co.nz website, i scored me a big bottle of Chainsaw bar lube. $5.85 at the Warewhare (compared to a tiny little bottle of Rock'n'Roll for $20 (1/10th the size of the Chainbarlube)). seems sticky like motorbike chainlube but not quite as sticky. doused the chain and wiped it all off again (which, John, is what you're supposed to do) and is running nicely so far. will be interesting to see how much dust and muck it picks up.

a beautiful day greeted me in hanmer, there was a slight smell of smoke when i first arrived, due to a wildfire up the waiau river towards the Lewis Pass, but i didnt notice it later on. was waiting for some riding buddies but they ended up being longer than anticipated, having a hard time of it paddling on the Waiau (very low flows make for less water over obsacles making for trickier paddling)...

so, took off on my own, rode up the Chatterton river valley, hit the mtb link track, which is a steeeep wee huff up to a pylon then a bit more climbing on a singletrack, which leads to a sweet little descent and sidle round to the Jack's Pass Rd, spitting you out opposite the watertank. just behind the watertank is a singletrack that leads down into the forest, below Pawson's Rd. John's Drop, No Bull seems to be what its called. its a great twisty wee trail with quite a nice steep descent or three in it, and a grunty wee climb in the last third. it chucks you back out on Pawson's, not far from Conical Hill Rd, which you roll on past to the first left, which is a road for a minute and becomes a single track climb, huffy for a bit, up up up, granny all the way, til you pass between two silverbirches on a steep wee step up, turn right climb a tad more, and bam, you're descending like buggery, swooping down another fantastic bermed singletrack tree trunks whooshing by millimetres from your shoulders. and it goes on and on and on, i had a couple of near misses, with the front wheel getting sketchy in the loose stuff, but mostly it was just divine. you cross Pawson's and carry on down to a stream, following that for a bit. This is all exactly the same ride as i did with Al last year, (may 24th 2005 blog) and here i'm upto where i broke my chain. funny, i remembered a lot of it being a bit more difficult, and some of the steeps steeper, but my riding's improved that much that i just flow it all now. anyway, this trail winds its way back round to pawsons, without getting too steep. then you have to follow pawson's to your right - up a bit, then down quite fast for a bit til you get to the Joliffe's Saddle turn offs. not really any signpostings so you pretty much gotta find your own way. i took the singletrack up to joliffes, then at the top, if you're standing looking across at Jolie's pass, Mt Isobel on your left, there's a new trail on your right, marked by a roadmarker . same as Al and me did last year, but they've changed where it descends, added some extra in the open stuff on the top and then added heeeaaaps of sweeeet trail in the forest later on. so this track, climbs heftily up over some rocky crags, then out onto this really open bit, with a bit of the pink stone breaking through, (hence the trail's name, Red Rocks) descending you down this fast and open tight singletrack, and eventually chucking you into the forest, there's some lovely rooty drops down, a couple of wee climbs, and more descending... then into a very new bit (possibly parts still under construction), eventually taking you out to upper dog stream trail. you could easily ride up it and get back up to Joliffes to do that again, or like me, just head out and down to lower dogstream singletrack back to the house. got back and Matt and Sean were stiiiill on the river. they called not long after tho and were on their way back then. i just cruised out. all up, only riding for 1 hour 20 or so. sweeet. woulda done it all again if i'd not been tired. really have got to get up there again soon.