twas a cold and frosty night, in town. Moon was getting pretty big too, 86% or so waxing gibbous, lighting the hills nicely. drove to Nelsies, and we cruised the streets kinda towards Rapaki but not really knowing where we were gonna go up til we decided to see what Steve's fuss has all been about and headed up Ramahana and Aotea and on up the Kunstbury hill. not that bad i'll admit. that last bit of seal sure is a steep wee number, and watch out for boiracers. and there's one section of gravel between top of Oldskool and the gate that is a mare too. other than that, yeah, not a bad climb, and yep, mint that it spits you out at the top end of the Vernon trail.
Hit Vernon and stopped at the first mudpuddle. Nelson was carrying his fold-up german army spade, so we cut a drain. rode on, nice, very slightly greasy, slippy rocks, occasional sparkle of frost under lights. i had a nice 2 wheel drift into the second hairpin, then on down past top of FarmTrack, and round. next muddy bit, stopped and cut a couple more drains, draining water away for everybody. onwards down, bomb bomb lotsa fun. hit the Teddington Shit section and stopped at a particularly bad boggy piece, cut a drain, emptied the water and made it so it'd flow away. on down to top Rapaki.
Onto Witchy poo. (some dumb ass boiracers saying "do some skids, au" - fucktards). nice wee climb up, cleaned but one dab. around, down, fun. then just before ya hit the road again, there's always been this big puddle... well, no longer. nelson cut and dug a nice clear drain for it, all the water ran away.
Hit road for Castlerock. some frosty bits in the shaded parts of road. very first corner of Castlerock was sparkly crunchy ice, not slippy tho. down that first section, bouncing and skidding about on the rocks, and onto some water... so. stopped and made some better drainage. on down, down, all good, great surface, dry (enough), round the first hairpin, and half way to the next before we found something we needed to drain again... spade out, dig, spade back. onwards. next hairpin, rockity rockity rock, bridge, climb, another spot to dig. this one needed some thought. a dripping rock face right next to the trail, water dribbling down the trail. picked a spot juuuust below where the water dripped and dug a wee channel across, waiting til the water trickled. on up the trail to top of bridle path. decided there to turn back. so. back up trail towards Castle Rock. cleaned everying except for blowing out (stupidly) on the second hairpin, and then up near top. all our drains were working nicely as we came back through. as he approached the top, another group of boiracers said "bit late to be out?" to which nelson replied, "yeah, past your bedtime isnt it?". that shut them up.
then chilly blast down road back to Witch Hill, big puddle now drained and drying, good spin up through there, with nelson's light starting to get a bit orange. so, bailed it down Rapaki. 200 m down i thought "fuck this", and bailed over the side into the field, dodged some tussocks in search of animal trail singletrack. hello cattle! but fun wee sidle back down to main track. then on down. this was my first time since the resurface and i must say it SUCKS. you almost cant let go cos the gravel they've laid is too loose. i liked it better when it was a rut infested rock fest. at least there were edges you could use as berms. what a waste of altitude, but had to be done cos of Nelson's gammy battery.
Frosty chilly ride back to his place where we had a Weka lager which put a good tingle in the limbs...
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