Sunday, a valley, traverse, gums, dazza's, nats, hidden, oldskool

good blast this morning. Pete, Andrew and me met at Steves. the four of us headed off.
because Rapaki is so dull now, we decided we're boycotting it (couldnt remember when last rode it, so checked - was back in August). so, we ventured into a "here-there-be-dragons" zone between two well known tracks. nice steep techy climb, lots of dabs, lots of walking, lots of pedal shoving rut-sides, and lots of keeping good relations with the few walkers and runners we met. none seemed bothered at all by our presence. upon meeting back up with one of the aforementioned well known tracks, we stayed on the animal paths and pushed and shoved our way up through juncus, tussocks and ruts, the overall climb taking twice or three times as long as Rapaki normally would. all of us were feeling the mugginess and lack of wind by the top.

Steve had had a wee tumble down in the rushes, landing on his thumb, so he took the road round vernon, while the rest of us grunted up the singletrack. regrouped at road crossing and hit the Traverse - steve taking it easy. great blast round here, feeling (finally) more on-form than i have done any time recently, with excellent line choice and despite having a small head-cold, seemingly enough power. it was like the narrow techy climb had dialled in my riding.

From Vic, we avoided the DH racers by taking the classic Gums trail down to the skiddersite where Steve and Andy bailed, leaving Pete and me to blast down Dazza's, then Pono's and on down the Nats, mostly pretty good downhill. meeting the racers down the bottom, where we decided to avoid them by hitting up the Hidden Valley track, cleaning all of it, and then blazing out way out down Old Skool. Met up with the others and hit up the cafe at St Martins. biked home via C1 to grab some beans.