Sunday, June 12, 2011

Greasey eastern Sunday morning. Bottle lake Tagalonger

No other takers for a ride this fine frosty morning so i headed out on my own. Had a couple dogs to feed at Joy's so parked there and headed up Cannon Hill, Michael, Cannon again, Freeman, Major Hornbrook right to the top (via Clearview etc) and then some Upper, then up Mt Pleasant Rd. Good pace all the way up, no breaks til the top where i was too hot. Hadn't checked the ccc site prior but the trails were on Avoid yesterday so figured they might be okay today. Turned out i was right.

Hit Greenwood and proceeded to slip and grease my way down, cautiously at first, wheels squirrelling all over the place, front glancing one way while rear glances the other. Lots of fun. Quite a few dabs in places not known for dabbing. Made it to the bottom unscathed, having loved every second of it, and watched some bikers head down a Closed Capt Thomas... :hmmm:

Got onto Godley and blew out all of the first section. Screwed it up at every move. The rocks seemed way worse than they'd been last time i rode it (which was back in January!!!). Had a whizz and got going again and got my groove back on, much better, cleaned up the rest of the trail and it wasnt nearly as greasy as Greenwood had been. Met one group of riders coming the other way (one of whom i recognised) just before the first wooden bridge. Felt really on form on the descents, floating 'in' the bike and enjoying profusely. Great to see the other week's working bee has re-alligned the corner that leads into the sidling extra bit just before Breeze Col, excellent. and enjoyed riding over the PFMTBC rock. Nice work, fella's.

Next up - the Anaconda. Fun had here, again getting down 'into' the bike. Recent work lower down that is all good, except for the slop-channel. yikes. nearly threw me, a greasey sloppy dirty channel full of water and mud between two bermed corners... terrible. the rest was sweet tho, and the 'tail' was choice, bro.

Slogged up out of Taylors and over Nicholson Park, controlling my speed for the walkers, then back through Sumner round past all the rockfalls and containers and back up to Joy's to the car. 2 hours riding all up.

The next day a 6.3 hit and did this...



Afternoon.

Later on, i took the small one (nearly 4) out to Bottle Lake with the SS and the tagalong (conveniently T's bike is my old grey 18inch Switchback and i just needed to swap seatposts). I's pretty tired but we managed a good blast, him chattering away out back the whole way and enjoying it profusely.

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