Friday, December 28, 2007

three days of christmas...

so. Sunday the 23rd, met boys at dot com 9.15. Derek and his friend John had biked out making the group pete steve matt wayne tony me and them. good bunch. up capt thomas, and at evans the others decided they needed to just go out godley, whereas derek john and me wanted more, so we spun up the road to top of greenwood and bombed down that. lots of fun. then out godley. missed the first rock up, but cleaned the second. good spin all the way out to end, tail wind back to breeze, then down anaconda and up over down nicholson. 

 boxing day, rainy wet mucky, we were going to G G's for lunch, so i biked across town, up rapaki, which was extremely soggy and power sapping, then left round the summit, first section good, castlerock section awesome, but the hail and wind were mildly off putting. then up road to John Britten reserve, hoofed down it to top of mt pleasant , found Kenton's track round western side of the houses to the stepped trail down to heathcote quarry, i popped up the last steps up to major hornbrook and down through park and down cannon hill cres... 

 cold and wet yesterday, dinner at my folks, so i biked across and up the new oldschool bowenvale, cleaning all of it except the one steep rock bit and the few steep steps just after the fence. then all the switchback 4wd section in one go no stops... then round summit to vic, down through gums, all the way to road, down road, up to slide down next to dog walk areas, to bottom of them, then through the lower of them into the pine trail down round on my favourite secret track onto longhurst... then haul up the road to my folks.

Monday, December 17, 2007

scorchin'!

scorcher of a day. probably already up in mid 20s by 9am when i headed over to Steve's. rocked off, andrew, tony, wayne, matt, english mark and steve, across town to bottom bowenvale. up the recently constructed additions to the singletrack. cleaned all the first bit. new second bit is good, blew a couple of the switchies, but cleaned the rest. then onto the old single. couple spots are really gnarley, but mostly cleanable, and then the real punisher, up the bulldozer zigzags. hefty. rode it all bar one corner. got to the landing strip and there's a bunch of 4wds, one of which was a DOC truck (mitsi L200) which was stuck on this pile of dirt... funny. continued up huntsbury track to summit, then hit the single traverse around to vic park, good spin right across there. the heat was exceptional. stopped in the nice coolish dark shade of the top of vic. while sitting there lots of bikers came through, including one guy who crashed right in front of us! then, a couple of us hit Thomson's track, both bits to kiwi. fixed waynes chain there, grabbed a sarsparilla, water etc, then up summit road to top of worsley's. down body bag, and up paddock to 'secret singletrack'. the boys like it. its come along a bit, some of the berms are better. still a bad bit just past the pylon, good run down to wallride (broken) and then out. then i showed them the switchbacks and new singletrack into that dam park, then back through to road and down, mark peeled off there, then tony peeled off, then i peeled off, grabbed some beans from C1 and home by 1... wiped out. heat stroke material.

Monday, December 10, 2007

sunday muggy sunday

picked up Al, and we drove to sumner. met up with the boys, Steve, Andrew, Tony, wayne, Matt and his english mate on a Merida, Mark. we tootled round the corner to Mulgan's Track for their first time up... Al was on his 29r SS with its new 80mm Reba's. so he was hauling on all the ups, or walking. anyway, up to panorama, then up to singletrack. humidity was a killer... up singletrack into mistiness to the pines, then on up road to top of Greenwood, sun starting to shine through. nice cruise to the ruins, where we thought about a food stop, but then steve suggested the macrocarpa at the bottom, so off we flew. i took the lead. kept and put a good distance ahead of Andrew, then when i stopped further round Al was behind, waited. then once we all regrouped, headed on down, again, putting a good distance between me and them all. cleaned everything nicely, flying well. quick break at the mac, then pop down to evans and tackle Godley.

let Al go first, cos he cant do anything but go fast. got a good ways up the nemesis, but didnt clean it, got the next bit tho. then, trying to chase Al i just didnt have it in me. that big gear, those big wheels, he was just flying up the track. regrouped up just before the first of the boardwalks. then Al me and Matt took off first, cos we'd decided there that we'd go further, ie, mechanics bay trail round and back, whereas the others were just gonna head straight down ana. so. i was chasing Al, which was fine til the rutty section then a tad annoying on the downhill to the first of the cols (livingstone, i presume). stuck behind him i definately would've gone faster, and couldnt see trail enough leading to some near rut-catcher stacks... anyway, he got enough distance on me on the next climb, tho i was catching him again on the descent to Breeze Col. then up walking track, nice wee climb round, bomb down to singletrack, then ass-haul back round to breeze. flew it. then excellent run down Anaconda, fantastic berm railing and some very nice air... to meet the boys and observe the massive surf pumping taylors. then the 'tail, nice hoof down there. tired on the climb out of taylors, fun spin down nicholson, trying that new line again, and back to cars 12pm ish... they stopped for coffee but Al and me headed off.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

two in a row

Monday night. after O was in bed i drove over and parked on centaurus. headed up rapaki, was about 8.45pm by the 2nd gate. headed up and up, turned right, round mt vernon, crossed the road and turned the light on, 9.15ish. single track round to top of vic, dusky light and headlight dont mix well, so visibility wasnt great. then Thomson's to Kiwi, up road a bit, then tried to turn light on but it wouldnt go so had to stop and tweak it. got it running and didnt wanna risk it again so left it on from then on. up to lower section of Flying Nun, back to kiwi, back up Thomson's, both sections, then down through gums, down dazza's, down into macrocarpas, taking a new line in there, very dusty, poor contrast on trail, then down valley track, cleaned the 'washout' bottom of k2 and then bombed it down to bowenvale, back round to car. home about 10.05... Tuesday night. rode home at lunchtime and grabbed bike gear and mtnbike. left work at 4.30, across town to meet Jo from work at rapaki centaurus corner, got there at 4.45, she turned up at 4.53, headed up, hung a left, along singletrack, then up road to Castlerock. bommmmbed it down there, beautiful run, waited for her after 2nd switchback, before climb. fire at top of bridle path. first of the season. then down bridle path, start of morgans valley track, exit off that down to gunclub/bridlepath road. she peeled off, i headed for GG's.