Sunday, July 22, 2018

Sunday Solo Utopian Worsley Traverse Nu &Old Skool

Post O's overnight party with 9 extra 13 or 14 year old boys, squawking away gaming.  With most gone, I managed to get out for a solo spin.  Feeling a bit naff cos they'd been up late, limiting my sleep, not to mention all the junky food we ate: chips, lollies, chocolate, ice-cream, pizza, and combinations of the above.

Parked on the river off the bottom end of Barrington and headed round the foot of the hills. Straight past the CAP and on up Worsley, first time in a long time.  The heat and the climb and the gasping wheezing lungs resulted in a massive bleeding nose half way up the grassy steep (alongside the Farside), so stopped and dealt with this, enjoying the views and clarity of the nor'west blown landscape.  Riding again, decided to torment myself again and drop into the Farside, to see how it's rolling.  Quite overgrown, and looks little-used.  There was a tree across it half part way down, but the rest of it rolled pretty good.  There was a family right in one of the swoopy corners at the bottom, and the woman sort of panicked and ran along the track in front of me momentarily, but I was friendly and they were fine.

Back into the climb, again, slightly slower pace to a guy on the road who proceeded to overtake a couple of guys also on the road, who I caught up to and overtook once I was on the road.  Continued up and up, surveying the missing houses for the first time up here since the fires.  Through where we used to park all the time and on up onto the gravel.  Total road...  Feels like it follows a different route, but I think it actually does follow the old, at least until further up.  The 'road' part finishes quite high up, but still below that top Adventure Park gate, so it's almost the old ruttsville momentarily before that gate and into the Body Bag which is just like it used to be.  I made it up to the steepest bit and then had to walk about 10 m before getting back on and rolling out the top.

Clambered up to top of Nun and had a wee bite to eat - couple of young guys headed in, then another dude.  I paused a bit before going in myself.  Nor'wester had picked up a bit and proved a bit interesting up top on the jumps, tailwind one moment, headwind the next.  Solo guys had pulled up part way down, and I was gaining on the young guys but they bailed out at the road exit half way.  On down, and there were mucky wetspots and lots of rocks.  Onto the road at the Kiwi, I've never seen so many cars parked here.  Nuts.  Across Dyers and up the road, overtaking an Enduro boi on an Evil Something.

Into top of Vic Park, and onto the Traverse.  Good blast across this, stopping for some.  Then, into my new favourite downhill top of Huntsbury, popping the jumps and grooving down the hill, then down the landing strip and into the second section, fun drops down to the Old Skool zig zags, taking all the new lines.  Excellent descent, interesting rocks.  Then off camber sections and into the Old Skool proper.  Caught a woman walking some non-tech rocks near the beginning, passed her then caught her partner and passed him, over the stile and cruise-ville all the way down the rest.

Got to the bottom, onto the road, went to lock out the rear and found it was already locked out!  All the way down, riding a hardtail...  Hit the river, around past the library, then back to Ashgrove and car.

Biggish loop, 21.2 kms and 640 m climbed.

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