Foggy Night solo spin

Missed a ride on Tuesday night due to T being sick as a dog, so managed to sneak out last night. Drove up to my folk's place and parked to ride from there.

Was 7.30 when i set out, up the trail beside Vic Park road, cutting across onto the (dry as a bone) Tawhairaunui trail and then down the mtnbike track and crossing Dyers Pass Rd onto Old Dyers. Decidedly mucky for the first section down the hill, messy and sloppy, but once round onto the more north facing stuff, drier and better rolling. Clambered on up the, in places mucky, trail to the kiwi - the final singletrack bits much better surfaced, and tidied.

From the Kiwi i hit the bottom of the Nun, riding up this is something we never do, but its actually pretty cool, with a surprising number of descents. its been trackworked recently so rolls pretty good too. At the midway carpark i pulled out and rocked up the Crater Rim track above the road. a few steps and walky bits, some permafrost and one or two spots of snow stilly lying on the ground, and the fog was starting to encroach. Lights of 3 riders on the upper Nun were surprisingly close above me on this track. Hit the road, and then the 4wd to the top, completely encloaked in fuggy fog

Good bomb down, albeit difficult to see, what with the headlight glaring back at me through the fog. Fog seemed to diminish slightly on the lower reaches, and i pulled out at the midway carpark to head back up the 4wd section that used to be the main trail. Rode up this to the its top corner, and spotted a light up in the fog above, me, so waited. and waited... eventually up rolled a guy on what i thought was a Jeff Jones (but may have been a Black Sheep) ridden by a guy i've run into on a Simple a few times. We chatted a bit then he headed down and i continued up for a couple more corners. Then turned back and flew down through fog again and on down all the way to the Kiwi. I was catching him a bit, but he took off down Dyers Pass Rd, while i stayed true to the singletrack and headed on down the way i'd come up.

Took it easy through the mucky stuff at the end, and crossed the road and headed down the H.Ell track, wondering, whether like a tree falling in a forest, if a biker rides a walking track and nobody is there to see him, has he really ridden it? Cut up right at the top of that ridge near the bottom and climbed up to Vic Park Rd, finding myself way higher than i expected, then bombed down and into my Old's, 1 hour 15 minutes after i'd left. Excellent ride!


This morning, on the way to work, i stopped in at Velo Ideale and test rode a couple of Pugsleys they've got built up -- one singlespeed, and one with a NuVinci. VERY COOL. I want.