Tuesday, Muntsbury Slummit Nun Scummit Lavaflowage

sweet ride tonight.
cruised to Chris's, and we headed across town towards the hills. after all the rain last night and this morning, and with the singletrack statuses at Avoid, we figured we'd ride up and see what was up, ride the road and down Worsley's if trails were too wet. Chris had a chain issue, which we stopped to fix (splicing into a SRAM chain a link of Shimano chain) before the dirt, then we chuffed it to the summit road.

on the way up Huntsbury, it was evident that there wasnt gonna be much to worry about. earlier in the day i'd checked several weather stations (Westmorland 7mm, St Albans 10mm, Airport 9mm)) and it is amazing how ~10mm of rain can be run straight off dry hills as well as be evaporated by an afternoon of sunshine and strong winds. lots of other riders around, and you could see that the Traverse was dry as, so he hit it. trail was fine. there were one or two puddles, but no softness at all. good chase ensued with a group of other riders, and we continued on when they stopped at the sign below Sugarloaf. and we blasted the rest of the way round to Vic. bit wet under the trees, but Thomson's was fine and we blazed down its two sections to the Kiwi.

Figured we'd give Marley's a look, and if it didnt look good, head on down Worsley. on the way up we caught up with two guys who'd just ridden down it, and their bikes were cleaner than ours(!), and they said it was dry as. they carried on to head down Kennedy's and we hung a right up top of Marley's. For a change, i led off, hitting it as hard as i could, and i think i did okay. chris was on my tail the whole way tho. then i bailed at the carpark thinking we'd head down Worsles, but Chris talked me round, and we carried on down the 'Nun. good blast down there too.

then up road to top of Vic, and hit the summit trail back round, bumping into a couple of old mates, then on round and down Lava Flow... i had trepidations, but i cleaned a bunch of bits i didnt the first time and enjoyed others. one tumble bail, and down near the bottom i dropped a wheel into a stinky sloppy hole, impaling my thigh on my seatclamp lever... carried on, really getting the hang of this trail. then we blasted down the valley, not taking Hidden Valley up to Oldskool, on account that the dirt up there wouldnt have liked our attention...

Bottom of the trail Chris's chain issue occurred again, this time two links. then, round the river, he did a silly jump over a puddle pinch flatting on the gutter. so. without mechanicals, we'd have been half an hour quicker... no matter. good ride anyway, and i'm over my dumb fear of the Lava Flow...