sunday night scopesville.

tag-alonged with Otis on saturday, southern loop at bottle lake, were intending on playing in the sand at the beach for a bit but he wasnt keen once we got out there...

sunday, couldnt get out any earlier, so i drove to nelson's and we hit the streets at about 7.45pm. headed straight into cashmere, up dyerspass road, hit the (notso) H.Ell trail to the kiwi... then up road to upper marley's, up the zigzags, down body bag then stealthmode to the new 'dreamtrack' which turns out aint so dreamy afterall, specially not at night... oh, and we decided that it aint a motocross trail, its definately a dh'ers trail... anyway, its pretty wicked, twisty through trees near top, across this clifftop rocky section, then back into the woods. lots of kickers with no run-in so we took pussy routes, and lots of constructed rockgardens that 6 or more inches of travel would soak up, but that hardtails just get eaten on. still rode most of it down, some lovely swoopy sections, found the lower section, which had some wicked (rideable) drops and then some ridiculously wicked (unrideable) ones. scoped out where it might go lower, but it doesnt, but it should. then we headed back up onto the lower section of the 'wallride' trail out to bottom of worsley's, then over to the watertank, down a 'used once or twice' 4wd trail following road down to new subdivisions, then on road down to new westmorland valley park trails, bombed them and then back out. nelson's light was getting pretty orange by the bottom. cross town to his and then home. 10.30 by the time i got home... heesh.

single track gold.

awesome ride. explorations, discoveries... amazing. so. parked up down near princess margaret hospital. headed up worsley's, but instead of going up road, explored new trails that went undivulged with nelson and my night ride the other week... up where we came down, then down where we went up, then back up that, then on up to the worsley's road. then up to the track... then, where i'd discovered new homebuilt trails up there i thought i'd explore a little further... well... found a motocross trail that is being worked on, followed it to the top, discovered its secret entrance and will ride down it next time, with nelson, and or steve et al.

then headed up body bag, cleaning it, and over marley's to kiwi, up thomsons, down gums, lower cool runnings, across and down washout, and out bottom of valley. excellent ride, mainly cos i'd discovered this dreamy singletrack, even tho i didnt ride up much of it,...

tag-a-longing and proper ride...

saturday and sunday went out to bottle lake with the single speed and Otis (aged 3) and the tag-a-long... google it. anyway, he loves it. the seat is as low as it can go, and he can pedal, and he laughs and chortles the whole way. i go "pedal hard, pedal hard, pedal hard" as we go up hills and we come whooshing down them.. saturday was with dad, who couldnt keep up, and sunday was with mary and gigi who were marginally better. gigi did pretty good in fact... anyway. more of that will definately be on the cards, and the tagalong attachment will be a pretty much permanent fixture on the single from now on...

today, before picking up O from preschool, i parked up in Sumner and headed up Capt Thomas. bit sticky in some places but mostly pretty good. then headed out Godley. my gears working less and less and finally on the last descent to Breeze Col they gave up completely, middle ring, and it dropped down to small cog on back. flew down anaconda, railing all the berms, launching all the jumps. then along the 'anaconda's tail'... at the bottom i checked out my gear cable and it was totally snapped. just as well i had my spare. so, threaded that up and headed up out of taylors, checking out Gigi's rental property in taylors that burned down last thursday... i'd never known which house it was, now i could just tell from the blackened bushes surrounding where it used to be.
good descent down nicholson park and out to the car.

my thumb is still giving me gyp. wearing a neoprene brace now, which is good, but i probably should have strapped it. hurts most on the bumpy downhills gripping the bars and braking...

who knows when my next ride will be. hopefully wednesday, again, before picking up the boy.

new baby disrupting sleep greatly.

first post new baby ride!

welcome to the world my new son, Hugo, brother for Otis. he was born on saturday, so has been hangin' with his mum in the hospital. so, before dinner on sunday up at my folks, i took the bike up and headed out for a spin from theirs. Up through vic park to top. thomsons to kiwi. up road round top of marley's, down flying nun, one close call near kiwi, then on down below dyers, up into vic and back down past the tv tower above the folks and back. bout an hour... good to get out. hand still in plastic braceysplint thing. hurts to ride with it, cos my hand gets crammed into it, feels like bruising...
dunno when the next ride will be.

explorations, then kennedy's slog - singlists

drove over to nelson's, singlespeed in the back. he'd spotted some new trail whilst out walking, so we went up to have a squiz. its in a valley (whose location i shan't divulge) that's been sitting idle for a long time and i've always wanted/wondered about trails therein... anyway, the council has cut some new track in, so we explored. up up up we rode/walked occasionally, til we reached the top of this valley, us being the first bike treads evident. at the top we discovered trails that have been there a lot longer than this new one, making us wonder if there was secret singletrack lying un-ridden for years, known only to the local walking brigade. anyway, zigged and zagged up this track to a road(that i wont name) and then back down and down to the bottom of the valley again. basically, the newly cut track we went up, we should have gone down, and where we came down, we should have ridden up. we'll do that next time.

then on round the bottom of the hills, found a little more singletrack a long a section of stream that kinda runs through people's front gardens but doesnt, and then on round to Kennedy's. wandered up through park towards bottom of croc. very soggy in there, as always. crocodile is fully shut, “respect the dirt” (dan van asch), so we headed up the backside of the quarry park thru the un-lambed lambing paddocks to the final zigzag onto kennedy's bush road. then up the track. rode lower new tasty, then hit the main track up.

no dinner, getting late, howling cool wind, i walked a lot last night. was running out of steam by 8pm, half way up kennedy's. even nelson walked the top section, legs of titanium needed up there... then round summit road to worsley’s rd, and down Flying Nun/Marleys which i must say is in absolutely MINT condition. its hard packed, no ruts, not even remotely soft, and i only counted one puddle the whole way down to the kiwi.

Then, because nelson’s light was getting orange, mine was starting to fade a bit and my back-up had all but run out, we coasted down the walk track just above the dyer’s pass rd (harry ell?) all the way down to the takahe. then down hackthorne, right into dyers and on down. back to nels's along the lombo around 9.30.

sunday

pissed down all saturday evening, and all night, but sunday morning dawned fresh and clear.

cruised over to Steve's. like a revelation being on the geared switchbacker. fox plushness all the way... met wayne, hubby, tony, pete, steve. toodled through streets to heathcote cut waited on tony with a flat, on to Mt Pleasant Rd, slog up to summit road (not nearly as bad as on the singlespeeds with nelson the other week). turned right, round into the howling southerly and fog/cloud strewn tops. sunny valleys glowing below, spectacular. sticking to the road the whole way. pete, tony and me rode the witch hill section of singletrack. Castle rock and Mt Vernon singletracks were closed. then we headed down Huntsbury Track. gravel not as bad as it has been, fast and a little boring... then cut through to Major Aitken, i pointed out Nelson's section, and down we went, humming down the smooth tarmac. then home before 12...

stilll no baby. due date was the 1st.

fiiinally... rapaki, road, traverse, thomsons, old dyers. singlespeeds

finally got out last night. singlesped over to Rapaki, hooked up with Nelson, headed up. haarrd work. a few stops for rest. 13 days off the bike due to injury does not a happy singlespeeder make. anyway, nelson pulled away, got past some guys so didnt wanna stop and wait, meanwhile i plodded on. got to the last climb, strong headwind, just starting into it and weight too far forward, back wheel spin, oop, i'm going over, fell left, feet didnt unclip fast enough, smack on my knee and landed left (damaged) hand out. jarred it but didnt tweak sore thumb, but fuark it hurt like hell. considered giving up then and there and heading down, but cos nelson was so far ahead, i had to go, so walked all of that straight, up round corner, then rode the last bit to the gate, struggling... rapaki is full of scour and ruts from all the weather...

vernon trail closed, so headed round road. thick thick fog and strong southerly blowing up on tops, hit Huntsbury gate onto Traverse, spun round there, being careful, greasy, but trail in good nick. nelson had a nice tumble on the rocks just above oldschool bowenvale, then another later, i was ahead at this stage so just caught the first and missed the second. good spin round to vic park, down Thomsons to kiwi, then down Old Dyers Pass Rd. first bit below kiwi with good chip on it is in perfect condition, but then that runs out and its dirt/mud. then creekbed pretty much... man there's been a lot of water up there, and there still is, the trail was running clear water its had so much all the silt has washed away... huge scours and gulches eaten into the 4wd track before the road...

finished off by heading up onto the walktrack above dyers pass rd, and coasting it down to the takahe, then rolling down dyers pass rd to the bottom of hill... then tootled down colombo and home.

oh yeah, night before, took new switchback frame round to nelson's and we pulled the kona townbike to bits and loaded them all onto the new switchy frame...
my whole stable of bikes are Switchbacks now...