Sunday non-event-ride to planting

weather being as it has been hills had a big closed sign on them, and so Steve and Pete decided to watch a 3am game of rugby. i'd had a bit of a late night myself, so was a bit sluggish when the phone rang at 8.30 and those two were out front of my house, still a bit merry, ready to go. grabbed breakfast, coffee, then saddled up on the townie and off we headed, Linwood Ave, along Linwood Drain, Hargood St to Ferry Rd, then along trails on the south side of the Heathcote all the way to the Cut, over a footbridge, northbank crossing Tunnel Rd to the southbank again, then round the tracks to Ferrymead, to the bridge, then back round behind the industria and onto Charlesworth St to the Trees For Canterbury planting. 60 odd people, including some of our usual riders, 2000 plants, and a coupla saussies, and the three of us cycled back up Linwood Ave, Linwood Drain, Linwood Ave home.

was good for some fresh air anyway.

Tuesday bottling.

singled over to pete's and we drove to BroadPark carpark, meeting up with Steve and Steve, then up rolled Mark and Wayne in separate vehicles. Steve then discovered he'd bust his bulb, so, no ride for him. the rest of us headed out. Mark regaling us with his tales of the MoonRide 24hrs solo. crazy mothah. sounded brilliant, and hard to pace yourself to last the distance... anyway, north we rode, along the beach side trails slowly picking up the pace, then in, little bit of singletrack, nice, road, singletrack, and onwards. quite a few stops, yarns, and bits of fast blatting. all up a good wee spin. reminded me how much fun the singlespeed can be out there, and how familiar it all is, the damp cool early winter chilliness, spin spin spin.

Riding drought broken, Sunday night quickspin

a cold and life in general conspired against me getting a ride in til tonight.
the day's weather left a bit to be desired, plus i was super tired so nearly flagged even getting out tonight, but we did anyway. Nelson bongoed up after work and after a bit of a feed we hit the road. headed out to sumner with something in mind. on the way, Steve informed us of the 'Avoid' state of tracks, so we promised not to break any.

parked up round the corner, and headed for Scarborough. up the road. wasnt too bad. only a couple of cars passed us on the way up. i got a bit wheezy. topped out pretty quick and then down down down into Taylors. not that fun. then, onto the snake's Tail. huh! drizzly all day, and it was dry as a bone! good climb up here cleaning it all, then on up the anaconda. still dry as. only a couple of dabs, one spin out and one stall. spitty raindrops started appearing in our lights.

breeze col and onwards up the singletrack. up up quite nice, still dry dirt under us, then over the rockies and down to Livingston col and into the worst of the climbs for the night, a steady one that went on a bit. natural dirt still dry, dust of recent times nice and settled. up onto the teddington shit, and the fucking stuff is starting to get a little bit of stickiness in it, soaking up the little rain we're seeing. back onto the dirt, and all sweet. climbing on along and round, then into the descent. rocks were getting a little slippy, but the dirt was still all good. picked our way carefully down to Evans. nelson had a weird off aimed straight down the hill, bailing carefully.

then onto The Captain. dirt still dry enough, but rocks getting slicker, making the tires glance and slip left right and centre. i walked the two worst sections, both of which somehow nelson rode. then on down the lower bits, flying nicely, good flow into the lower trees, and then out and back to the van.

Tuesday sessioning the nun. and Swtchbckr's 5 yrs old

and happy birthday Blog... 5 years. w00t!!!


so. nelson was at mine when i got home from work and we went picked up Chris at the Cathedral. bongoed across town and bongo-drifted up Dyers Pass Rd to Marley's carpark bout 6.30 as planned. Steve, Tones and Marie were already there, shortly followed by Wazzah! and Wahayno.

Off we treadled up the road to top of Worsley's Rd and up to the Nun. first round, Chris led off, then nelson, then me, then steve and i'm not sure of the rest of the order... dust was an issue, and i felt like i couldnt see properly this first round. still fanged it, tho, and pulled up back down at the vans. all following in at their own paces.

second round, back up road, and off in the same order as before. this time, nelson bollocksed the same corner second time round, and i managed to get in front, chasing Chris to not much avail. this time, the three of us continued on down to the kiwi. excellent blat down that section too. the others bailed at vans, and we pedalled back up to them.

then off up road again, third lap. this time, chris, then me, then nelson, then steve et al. going good again, dust still plaguing the eyes. this time, everybody except Marie rode it all the way down to Kiwi. back up road to vans, and the other two vanloads departed.

Nelson, me, and Chris headed off down into the Gov's trail. awesome blat down there, riding it out all the way down the switchies to the bottom, something i'd not done for ages, and i think never in the dark. then we turned back up with Nelson and Chris cleaning heaps more than me, but i still managed most of the corners. tough tho. then on up the main track, a few nasty wee grunts (still nothing on the lower section!), and then out up to the road.

and, another lap of te Nun. up road, and this time i led the fray. felt pretty good with no dust and no light ahead. did okay, kept the other two at bay for a while, but once in the rocky sections i musta slowed, or they were just quicker cos i could feel their lights catching me. anyway, popped back out to the van, and landed.

all up, good ride and home around 9.

Fried, eh, Birthday afternoon off.

took off from work early, and got over to Chris's at 2. we jaunted through a heavy police presence down Barbadoes and then on over waltham and wilsons to the Crapaki. wandered up this, keeping a reasonable pace, but neither of us were feeling that on top of our games going up, peaking in a pretty average time.

off to the left, over Witch Hill, enjoying the rocks, up road, and it was CastleRock time. awesome blitz down here, me sticking to Chris's wheel all the way down til the up when he got away from me.

round the road and up to John Britten, Chris getting faster, me getting tireder. Then, into Greenwood, pushing a tall gear up up and round, and then just before that lone tree (that drips in the mist) my attention wandered and so did my wheel off the track then a reaction catching a lip and i went down into the tussocks... nicely cushioned, not a scratch on me or bike, but pride slightly perplexed.

regrouped at the usual spot (just over the 4wd track), nibbled a one-square, then it was off again, flat tack down over the yump, squirrelling through the rocks, round the corners, richocheting off boulders, floating, flowing, popping and weaving our way down. interupted by a phonecall from T in Lyttelton with a car problem (pressurised gas line causing over-rev), then on and on down and down. very good run down, one of my best in a while, and definitely one of Chris's best evah.

Rang T at Evans to see how she was going and she was on her way with the boys up Evans so i said keep and eye out for us on the Thomas. We got into that and my balance was all skew-iff, tho, the first techy i came over the top to see Chris running down it, i cleaned that bit okay, then the next one that i never get we both walked, and then spotted the fiat, which tooted, and parked up to watch us ride the next bits, much to the joy of the boys til we disappeared round the corner. excellent blast out from here on, me taking the lead after the gate and flying down, catching air and having a blast, not a pedestrian in sight (which sure makes a change from Sunday Mornings...).

Then, popped into the movie theater and grabbed me a ticked for

Follow Me - Anthill Films - OFFICIAL 2010 MTB Trailer from vas entertainment on Vimeo.

which looks pretty good. theres even some NZ shots in there. hopefully the boys will all get tix too, otherwise i'm gonna be nigel nomates.

met T and boys at Cave Rock, had a beer, then dropped Chris on way through town, watching him commit a legendary trackstand at a really long red light, then home. I'm now officially middle aged. the age i said i'd wait til before i got a full susser... now, where's that spare couple grand i need for that!?