St Paddy's Thursday sunset romp.

Picked up Chris in the Sube, him faffing with and flaunting his brandspanking AttackTrail, 150mm of Jon Whyte designed goodness. we parked up just off Penruddock, and hit the Cashmere Stream Esplanade Reserve, towards Worsley, mimicking some of this ride (over a year ago), heading up the steeps over the 'dam' on up the steeper little switchbacks and sidling on up the valley then up the last switchies to Worsley's Rd. Up the road to the end, on up the track. I grovelled. All this new communting munting my legs of their energy. Rode all the lower stuff, but when I saw Chris walking up the body bag (to save his energy for the nun) my spirit broke and i rode to past where he'd started walking and I walked too.

The sun was getting pretty ready to set, turning the shadows long and the bits that were basking in the last of it orange and by the time we peaked Marley's it was gone. Leaving a fantastically spectacular pink hued cloudscape for good measure. So, with what was left of the good light, we bombed. Chris obviously enjoying his new rig, I managed to stay on his tail for the first half, what with having the track fresh in my mind from Tuesday, but once we'd rounded into the rocky sections I started to lose it and he lost me. The rest of the way down I felt a bit like a passenger, with calves burning and hands aching. Still, survived, and we hit the Summit Rd back up to top of Worsley's.

Great run down Worsley's. Getting just on the verge of too dark to see it clearly and with speed we were really flying by the seats of our pants. Couple nasty lines taken but all in all a fun time, with the concentration and eye strain really taxing us by the bottom. Zoooomed down the tarmac and over the fence into the way we'd come up. Sections of this were even darker, and nigh on impossible to see anything. By the bottom, the faint slightly lighter coloured ribbon of trail all you had to go on. Ruts and gravel be damned, and finally we were out onto the grass again.

Over the odd street and back down to the river, and the tight twisty little trail, this time with out small lights mounted on helmets, otherwise it woulda been impossible...

All up, a fun ride, tho tiring.