Peaky.

I'm on Holiday!!!!!
Today, headed out 1.30-2ish, rode up Codgers to Tantragee and a guy had just come down off Fringe Hill, said its shut cos of the logging (that i could see up on the old devils tail). so, headed round Dun Mtn Walkway. good jaunt up there, probably an hour? less?? the wind damage from last year is madcore, whole faces next to ridges just clearfelled. mental. right pedal wouldnt clip in, had a look and it was bent, and the bolt/screw thingy that holds the whole spring set up for one half of the pedal was out. worked on it for 15 mins or so and just couldnt get it in, so tightened it up as best i could.

had a rest at 3rd House and then tackled the walk up through the decimation to windy ridge... probably 20mins carrying the bike. really messed up in there. then up the ridge a brief distance and whoopee, down Peaking Ridge (see here for last year's)(a year to the day, nearly!).

Absolutely more insane than i remember it. the new 'built' bits are few and far between, the rest is still just as rooty and crazy as before, except that there's huge expanses of it, maybe 40%, that have been windfelled. excellent work by the trail pixies who've been in and re-cleared it... a little way down i spotted my pedal wasnt looking so happy, so i took all the bits off and only had one half to clip into. so, even with that, no real tight moments, quite a bit more walking than last year, cos of the fact that it must have rained in the last 24 hours and the roots were a fair bit slippier than the dry trip down i had last year. the last section especially, i thought i remembered cleaning it all, but this time i bailed on quite a few of the steeper sections... had to keep myself safe, right?

anyway, got to bottom, Maitai River, and stayed on the side i was on (vs switching over cos of track work last time), and nice wee ride down benched singletrack to a bridge, then onto the gravel road alllllllll the way down the Maitai.

When the seal started, i popped over the river, and headed up Tantragee to the top and then down Codgers. back at Flamedaisy at 5.30ish.


Loads of bikers in town, cos Nationals are on this weekend, and a cyclone is about to hit. got this ride in today cos forecast looks like a LOT of rain... wet racers... the track was around Codgers, lots of tape around there.

Are your mcleans showing...

nelson, me, singlespeeds. 3 laps. just done. filmed looking backwards from nelson's bike for one lap. overtook a couple people, as well as a group of scouts we kept seeing, and got taken by one speedster on our second lap. he had gears and a nice new looking lightweight weightweenster bike, so it was no surprise really... anyway he only caught us on the straights, couldnt keep up in the corners. first lap, 23 mins, second a bit slower, third, maybe as fast?

Wednesday evening, Cashmere quick blat

Had Nainy over for dinner, so dropping her home up the hill decided to have a wee ride. Picked up Nelsy on way across town, and we hit it from her place, up the zigzag, gasping for air, up the Vic Park track, dropped down to Old Dyers, up to Kiwi, up road, checked out the trail progress into Gov's, they were working on it, looking good, nearly connected thru..., then up over marleys, legs tired on the up, followed by my best run down i reckon ever, then up thomsons, down thru Vic, with me doing the Seesaw for the first time ever - finally!!! then down through gummies, stopping and walking up to check out the madcore jumps track off next to bottom of them, then singletrack parallel to fire access down to 19th battalion and Rangerstation, poached paths up round info centre, then across playground, poached dog park where Nelson flatted, fixed that, easterly cooling us down a bit, then it was nearly getting too dark to see, picked our way down the barbedwire-kiss trail beside the pines, below the houses, explored past the no access to see why its no access, and understood why (trees down and gulch washed out), then back to Nainy's. All up a pretty short but good ride.

Sunday, Worsley 'nun gov dyers dazzas nats hidden oldskool

dropped in at work to set a process running, then hit road about 10. straight down Colombo, into Ernsley(sp?) then round river (nice jump on that bridge by Princess Marg's) to Cracroft river and up Worsley's. pretty warm. seemed like hard work but made pretty good time. made the top at 10.50, cleaning entire. seemed to be lots of bike-orienteerers around (Rogainers?), with checkpoint thingies up Worsley's and elsewhere i noticed.

Excellent bomb down the 'nun, the braking ruts not really all that bad, just gotta scrub the speed before them or ignore them entirely. lower rocks fun, then excellent run down lower til i got stuck behind someone. that made me decide to peel off up the little side track halfway down the lower section, and pop over onto the trail that drops into Gov's bay. i'd been wanting to check out progress on the new track. bumpy bomb down towards gov's, hung a right onto the new bit and pedalled on up. miles further than last time. surface a little bit sticky from recent(ish) rains. got to end of where they'd worked, and turned round and floated back down. nice flow. then worked it back up to the summit road, and over back onto the bottom of the nun. continued on into Old Dyers. spotted a couple of other riders a ways ahead. chased them down and passed them on the straighter bits, cruised round to Vic.

climbed up into Vic, took singletrack to skidder site, then hit Dazza's. peeled left before the bottom and grabbed Pono's down to the pylon, then down the Nat's course (avoiding the rock drop), bypassing the 23 footer, hoofing down into off camber, and crossing k2 and on down through the drop. then hung a right into the gorse and clambered up towards Hidden Valley. instead of going up through hidden, i took the old track. more work than hidden i think. up to pylon, and onto the Lower Old Skool. saw a guy ahead, chased him down took him before the newbits, and bombed rest of way down. bit of a head wind across town home. home by 12.15 - not bad timing.

Then, took O out to bottle lake, singlespeed and tagalong. rode in, hung a right, out to and along beach, then back in past the pond. he enjoyed it, i was feeling a bit tired tho.

Tuesday Lunchtime Blast

Left work just after 12. headed Manchester, High, Barbadoes, Waltham, Wilsons, met Nelson at Centaurus, we headed up Rapaki. pretty quick climb, first section graded flat and smooth, blatted to top. hard work. then up round Vernon singletrack, which had been weedeaten most of the way up, with very very very very dry grass all over the trail (this'd be hella slippery coming down). the weedeaters were parked up for lunch. Hit the first bit of Traverse, then bombed off piste and onwards down Old Skool. excellent run down there, cleaning all nicely. nelson made his leg bleed by scraping it with his back tire off balanced in a rut. lower section of singletrack full of sheep and shit and trodden up dusty trail. out bottom, Bowenvale Ave, Birdwood, Sandwich, round river to Colombo, all the way back to work, Nelson peeling off at Milton... back at work by 1.45.

this was just what i needed after a more than a week off the bike.

Packhorse, pack of heat...

Mint ride yesterday with Nelson. rode over to his place by about 8.30, and we jumped in the Bongo, headed round to Motukarara and up Gebbies.

parked up top (160 m), and hit the trail. gravel road for first 800 odd m, mild gradient, then into pine forest singletrack. slight climb then sweeeet descent into a valley, then a climb up a bit and over a stile then climbing along side forest and round a corner, onto a forestry road descent, which then peeled onto a sweet flowing climbing singletrack through fir. a coupla switchies too tight and steep to ride, then pedalling again, all the while in forestry. man, have we discovered the untouched unknown forested singletrack riding destination on the outskirts of chch??? Possibly. climbing easily some more ups and downs, nothing major, passed a couple of walkers, then it got steeper, little bit of walking, not much tho, heat getting to us, so muggy so stopped for rest. walkers passed. rest some more, then onwards, up towards the final fence of the forest. quite steep hillside here, with the track lightly bench cut into it, going up at a nice gradient, kinda bottom range middle chainring, or a few down on back in granny, sidling round the hill. you wouldnt want to tumble off the side... up to the Remarkable dykes with some nice rocky trail here, and they really are remarkable... then its about 5 minutes round to the hut (460m)... all up, about an hour from van to the hut.


the hut had been full over night, with people camping around it too. most had departed by the time we got there. nice hut. great views, down Kaituna, across Lyttelton Harbour, over the porthills all round. no sign of the southerly.

anyway, we decided to explore a little further, and so headed round back of Mt Bradley. nice trail round to a wicked patch of bush, trail sweeetness through it, except for the onga onga that crowded out the trail at one point, then out of the bush onto a zig zag track up the hill. spotted some goats above us. ended up getting tighter and tighter up to about the 650m contour. then we turned round and rode the 200m altitude back to the hut. then after waiting for a few walkers to come up, headed on down the track to Gebbies... much better downhill, obviously.

carefully round the sidling through the dykes and on down to the forest. then into the forest and a smooth flowy bombfest ensued. luckily encountered no walkers, tho the visibility is such that it wouldnt be a problem, not really any blind corners anywhere that you're not going carefully round. awesome flow all the way back down. the first few little ups are easy blasts, but towards the end theres a couple of grunts that were pushing my heat and sleep deprived exhausted bones. the last climb (that was the sweet descent at the start) had a few corners of walking. then a blast down the gravel to the car. all up, about 25mins back down from hut. We're thinking this'd be a great night ride.