Frieday night, Port Hills jaunt

Nelson had parked Bongo at mine and we had some dinner and headed for the hills. parked up outside the Grape Escape, grabbed a couple of Kristallweizen and planted them to be earned. Headed up Major Aitken Drive, grunty little bastard that it is, i showed Nelson the little singletrack section, which caused a dog to bark and bark and bark at us, until its owner came out and shut it up and we struggled on up past their house. then up Kenmanure drive onto the main up the grunt and onto dirt sweet dirt.

crept our way up under the pylons the wind finally biting up there. on up to and through the shitty grovel to the top and onto Vernon, sweet sweet singletrack. Nelson took the lead, and i kept catching him, buttoning off, catching him. he wasnt enjoying the Teddington shit, doesnt trust it. onto Witch Hill and he left me for dead. i just bided my time round and back onto the road, then it was up to Castle Rock.

Had a wee look at the trail that had sparked an asshole mtnbike thread on vorb this week, thinking, fuck thats steep. then hit the legitimate singletrack, nelson giving me the lead. left him behind, had a really good run, picking the sweetest lines and flowing and gliding all over the gnarl. he on the otherhand apparently was being pinballed from one rock to the next, thrown all over the place ending up entirely wronggeared. at Bridle, we turned tail and hit straight back up the singletrack. nelson leading again, cleaning it all nicely, meanwhile, i stuggled away in the background.

Tucked in for a fast flight down the road, then onto Witch Hill, Nelson getting away again quickly on the climb, me just managing to get up the bits i needed to and then having a nice flowy bomb back to Rapaki-top. on up the Vernon, Nelson again getting away on me big time, me just making it up struggling away, taking the shortcut from the first switchback above Farmtrack to make some time on Nels (who got a "You are AWESOME, bro" from boyracer when he got to road). Lighting making me blow the very last bit of the 'rocky corner' up top there, then getting on with it and getting back down to the road nicely, we headed round the traverse til just before Lava Flow, peeled right and down, gravelling to OldSkool, bombing to gate.

Off piste, found a few interesting sheep tracks onto and off of the usuals, then into the steep-rocky where i found the coooolest new line... somewhere off the right, down this wicked wee face... anyway, all leading down onto the fun fun singletrack, across, down backwards and forwards, and out. back to the van, home, and Kristallweizen...