Wednesday Foggy rapaki - vic, cashmere, hollis

Nelson and me hit Rapaki about 6.30, both on the geared bikes. hard work to the top, neither of us feeling 100%, me cos i'd been up since 5am, full day in wellington (meetings etc), him cos of a cold. and i think the dirt was just a tad soft, coupled with a head wind, made it all difficult. Lots of funky fog up rolling over saddle at top of rapaki and on round first section of Mt Vernon. Decided to give the single track a go, and found it in surprisingly good nick. The summit trail is holding together beautifully, with the stretches of teddington chip hard as nails. There were probably 3 short sections from rapaki to vic park that were mudbaths, only short tho, and the rest of it was sweet, no damage, no harm done. Nick Singletrack the ranger is being very protective with notices on vorb warning us to keep off. I'd be keen to get up there with him and fix those few sections that need it, and then rapaki to vic park would be clean and ready to roll in all conditions. The worst bit was just before top of farmtrack, there's two small gulchy (kinda ex-slips) bits, one of which they filled with good sized rocks not so long ago, that was really bad in there, cos there's never been any tedd chip put in, and the only other standout bad bit I can think of was below sugar loaf, not far round from where we often stop at that sign.

Anyway, got to Vic Park, floated through the pines, then down through the gums, which were in good nick, ie, the trail is soft but we werent cutting it up, and the gum leaves provide exce;;emt binding material and traction (surprisingly). then down the wee singletrack from jumps to 19th Battalion War memorial and on down past the ranger centre, then *ahem* down through the dog park, down the side of the pines above cashmere, riding the roots and trying not to gark our arms on the barbedwire, overlooking bowenvale ave, then down the funky ass singletrack to Longhurst Tce. Cabbage tree leaves also make excellent trail binding material... then we explored a walking track (that was 80% unrideable due to steepness and steps) which connects through a wee reserve into Hollis Ave. yeah, we were a bit spleckled with mud at the end of it, but we did very little damage to the trails because they're holding together very very well.