Dreary Sunday cloudscaped hillage.

a good wee group of boys, wayne andy pete steve and me, assembled at Steve's for a jaunt. we hit up Huntsbury to climb into the clouds. first ride of the year as a group again. trail up hunts was damp but not soggy, but at the summit road we turned left, and stayed off vernon single, bombed down road to top of rapaki, and continued round below Witch hill, again off the singletrack, even tho it was probably reasonably rideable with little impact. the cloud was at about rapaki summit level, so we were in it right round to Castle Rock. wasnt your usual damp cloud, was kinda dry really. At Castle Rock, we had a look at the singletrack and decided it was dry enough to ride. rode it, had a blast. skittery skattery on the damp rocks, but the dirt was just damp, not sticky or soggy at all. there were about 3 wet spots / puddles on the whole track, in all the usual places (ie, at about 20 m in, then a puddle between the two switchbacks, then on the way up out after the wee wooden bridge after the 2nd switchback). sheltered out of the wind waiting for the others and then we hit Bridle Path. been a long time since i've descended it, and for good reason, its basically a waste of altitude. but, blasted down, pulsing the brakes in a futile attempt at keeping them cooler. several of us tarnishing our rear rotors. up onto the Morgan's Valley track, and rode under the Gondola, turning left at the [no bikes] sign, great wee blast down next to the pine trees, then instead of dropping down through sheep to the play-centre and gunclub, we stayed above the planted shelter (wattles and a few natives)ending up at the bottom corner of a paddock (nice light brown horse looking down the fenceline at us), with an empty section between us and Morgans Valley Rd. quick bale across it and down we rolled, then down to Ferrymead, round the Heathcote to Tunnel Rd Bridge, then back down Heathcote, tow path round behind all the industria, checking out Ground Effect's new premises then to WAC for a (very good) coffee and bickies/sausage rolls as appropriate. the others headed back to vehicles at Steve's, i split down Linwood Ave home.