Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Tuesday Night Loopy Loops

Trees meeting tonight, so limited time.  I parked up the end of Bowenvale Ave and got riding about 5.17pm. Nelson had a meeting til 6 so I started out on my own with the intention of him catching up later. Got going up the valley at a reasonable pace, no lights needed yet, and feeling the warm blasts of nor'west air, mixing with the cooler valley-flow air pockets.  Up left into Hidden Valley connector trail, failing just after the creek crossing, but then cleaning all 4 of the switchbacks nicely.  Under the pylon and straight into the descent, with a young guy on a Yeti, no baggage, bombing in ahead of me from above.  Adjustments to suspension and onwards, sheep-shit avoidance systems all go.  Taking it easy on the slower bits and getting into the groove of it on the flowy-er bits.  Bombed down and straight into the climb, txting Nelson to let him know lap number 2.  20 minute lap.

Up again, this time nearly needing lights - turning them on as I got into Hidden Valley Link trail.  Bollocksed the creek again, and the cleaned all the switchbacks, better climb this time.  Into descent number 2, nicer flow, better groove.  Bombed the last and straight back into the climb.

Txted Nelson again to say lap number 3, then a bit further up received the 'Just leaving work now' txt, it being 6pm.  I txtd back saying that'd work perfectly wait for me at the bottom of Old Skool if ya get there first.  I continued on up the steep and into the Hidden, again cleaning all the switchbacks and bombing, faster again, down, and really hucking the jump on the Old Skool descent part.  Got to the bottom and rolled on down to the bottom, over the stile and down to find Nelson getting ready at the cars.

625 or so, we headed up valley again, this time at a faster pace (me struggling, already tired, to keep up), by-passing Hidden Valley track and continuing all the way up the valley, past the exit of Lavaflow and on up the tech. A little bit of walking and riding til eventually we were up on the sidling track back towards Bridges.  Time was pushing so straight into Bridges and down Nu Bridges and bombing down, then into Hidden and climbing, this time me bollocksing both the lower switchbacks on account of tiredness.  Cleaned the top two, and into the descent, me leading the way and flowing nicely through the faster bits - losing Nelson a few times, but him catching me when I's taking it easy on the flatter bits.  At the bottom we said our good byes and he trundled off back up the valley while I headed to the car and off to my meeting, driving at 7.10 or so and making it just on time but with no food.

Ended up getting 16.5 kms and 646 m of altitude under my belt.  Not bad for a limited spree.

Nelson went back up the valley, up K2, and up through Vic, then around the summit trail and down New Skool Old Skool, discovering new the singletrack descending trail bypassing the old crawler track zig zags.

We met at Twisted Hop after the meeting and did the 2 for 1 dinner deal again.

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