The Annual Trip, Eastside - Hanmer

Drove through rain from our showers in Reefton and made Hanmer by 6.30pm, meeting up with Steve, Robin, Matt and Lance.

Next morning, Nelson arrived, and so we were a party of 14.

Tricky having freshness and staleness mixed together, but it worked out pretty well. Round we rode and up Jacks Pass Rd, to Flax Gully Track. nice wee blitz down and the legs sure felt the climb. Then i took a wrong turn and lead a bunch of the group up a garden path (of excessive steepness) to the Yankee Zephyr, while Steve led some of the rest of them the right way. Nelson and me jetted back round to them and then rode it with them meeting Pete and Andy on the way.

The new Yankee Zephyr is a blast. great blast down with swoopy back and forth corner after corner after corner down this halfpipey landform. then crosses over the road into a new Swamp track and that just went on and on and on, eventually spitting you out now at pretty much the bottom of Timberlands. Up this to Jolliffe Saddle, and out Red Rocks, a tree clipping me, then richocheting Nelson, then actually throwing Dallas miles down the bank into blackberry and gorse, but otherwise a sweet descent and now continuing right thru to Dog Stream, that we went up the Lower and rested in the shade at the end of Mach1 and opposite the start of Detox. Nelson and me blitzed there and back on the new section of Mach1 here, then Him, Pete, Matt, Lance and me headed up Detox while the rest just went down Mach1.

Detox was fun, tho nelson had some issues, and then new to me Mach1 bits were sweet as. Nelson dropped me on this, but we all regrouped at the end. then headed round behind the Forest Camp to Jollies Pass Rd. Up up up, losing Matt and Lance to the heat, spotted the rest of the crew bypassing the usual Threshold entrance, and so followed and caught them before the firebreak, cursing the person who invented granny gear and hills. a hot slog. big regroup in the shade half way up access road then final grunt of the trip to top.

Mark, Nelson, Me, Pete, Steve then not sure the rest of the order back to Robin into the forest down the glorious sidling then switching back round and sidling, repeat, indefinitely, til the bottom. How long will Threshold last? As with all the best Hanmer trails of yesteryear, the forest cant be far from harvesting and like Big Foot will go the way of memory.

Out the bottom, cross the road, sketchy steep, then flick back up and onto an interesting singletrack down to a ditchcreek crossing that got Pete to off. bit of a play on the jump for everyone, and off we went, 3 of us back behind the camp, the rest not, then we chased them down the singletrack just inside the forest on the left hand side of the road, final drop to creekcrossing and a pie and 2 raspberry buns and a coke for me thank you very much.

Final tally for the trip. no major injuries. Dallas's knee, and Andrew's buttocks probably the most injured regions.