Thursday Night Hunts the Vernon Witch Tors, with a Skooling for the boy.

I'd, inclusively, asked O if he wanted to come riding while he was mowing the lawn.  Initially he'd said no but then said, "actually yeah, okay".

So we drove to Nelson's through painful traffic getting us started quite late (6.20pm).  We rode up from there.  Steep bastard Parklands, then steep section Huntsbury, O struggling away like a trooper in his not very low low gear.  Up the gravel, and a right-hander across the fenceline, then up the singletrack.  Next, up the old landing strip, sheepshit everywhere, then up the grovelly gravel to the top.  O was stuffed, and didn't want to continue, and he was happy to wait for us, out of the wind and in the sun, so Nelson and me headed off down Vernon, pulling over for quite a few climbers, before bombing the descent to Rapaki Top.  Through here and into the Witch, climby climb, both stalling in the same place, tho he kept rolling while I foot-downed outright stopped.  Oh well.  The rest of the climb was good, and then we hit the descent, seats up for some reason.

To save time, we took to the road, heading for Castle.  Met the boys on our climb below the Tors; Robin, Wayne and Wazza, and couldn't convince them to turn back uphill to ride the Tors with us.  Castlerock was too wet, so we climbed up and headed down a very overgrown Tors track.  Hard to find the way.  Fun descent, with a couple of dabs in the usual spots.

Harder still was the singletrack above the road back towards Witch Hill.  SO overgrown was very slow and therefore more technical than usual.  Back into the Witch, me slowing on the climb, but racing the descent, and then off up the road around Vernon, legs tiring, back to find O, roughly 40 mins after we'd left him.

About 8 pm now we headed across the Traverse, and straight into the jumpy fun descent.  O doing well to keep up with us mostly, me hard on Nelson's tail.  Down the 'landing strip' attempting to avoid the crap, and then struggling to find and see the trail off to the left.  Well overgrown, bloody tricky, but we got to the stile alright.  Over this, and down, all the fun sections more difficult on account of not seeing the trail, and thistles smacking needles into our knuckles all the way.  Owie.  Dropping over the rocky sections, all good and fun, then in the off camber corners below, thistles of last time all cleared off, nice - what a relief.

Into the Old Skool, all breathing a sigh of relief at the lack of thistle action.  Good fang down this, O keeping up pretty good.  We'd gapped him a bit, so after the dip (after the back and forth pumpy section) we stopped and watched him proceed to jump, then crash into a rock and over the bars to disappear down behind/into a gorse bush!  Yelled out, "you okay?" "Yep." "Injured?" "Nope." I went back to him and his knees were a bit garked and the blood proceeded to trickle down his shins for the rest of the ride.  His hoodie was all full of gorse needles too.  Brushed him off, joked a bit about it and off we rode.  Good blat for the rest of it, then down the road and back around to Nelson's where he cleaned up under a tap a bit before heading home, 8.40ish.  LATE!

18.8 kms for Nelson and me, with 705 m climbed.

Sunday Hunted the Duncan

Parked and rode again. Parked off Centaurus on Hillsborough, and headed around and up Ramarama and Aotea, and on up Huntsbury.  Gravel grovel, into an uneventful (but fast) Vernon and a good clean Witch, catching up to some guy on the road (on a mtnbike), across the road and riding on the singletrack up to the gate.  Over the gate and the grass is very long, up the steep arse farm track to the bit of fence you climb over, then up through the tussocks to the top.  Everything super overgrown and hard to find the trail.  Kinda stayed on it most of the way. down the Mary Duncan steeps, cleaning lots, and taking the more technical version below the rocky knob.  Kept the flow on all the way down, and cleaned stuff I'd not before.  Finally the steep arse slope down to the pylon, new signage here talking about the Summit Road Society ownership and that it's public land and there are no trails but cautious transit is acceptable.  Never seen it so overgrown tho.  Into the trees, and there's new jumpworx in there, fun descent weaving down through these and then out to the road and the tarmac return to the car.

The view from half way down. (trail sightly off to the left of the bike and ridge)

Only a 13.7 km loop, with a nice 588 climbed.

Friday Solo Sneaky Park Gov Vic Skool

Parked on Ashgrove Tce and rode around and up the trails behind Princess Margaret, up onto Lady Polson Lane and on up Hack and Dye.  Above the Takahe I stayed on the road and at the 35 km sign, just out of the houses, headed down a trail someone (here at work) told me about.  Upon entering I found a gazillion trails to try from, so mostly kept right, with the occasional crossing of other trails, made my way down the steeps.  Some excessively steep stuff in here, and eventually across a log in the bottom and a short clamber to the lower reaches of Loess Rider.  Into the park and up the lift, chatting with Josh and riding with a couple of his mates (who are trail volunteer crew for the park (and who told me of lots of plans)).

Off the lift, and Slummit Connector into Nun, then across the road and dropped into the Gov's Bay Trail.  Dropping down this, it's running pretty smooth and then decided why the hell not all the way down, and zigged and zagged to the road corner driveway and dropped into the lower reaches, only my second time ever down this, first in daylight.  Good wee trail down tho not as fun as it possibly should be, considering the climb it is back out.  Which is what I did next.  Ugh.  Long bits of walking cos it was just too steep and hot.
On the way back up, looking back down.  Nice bushy shade to rest in.

Up and up and up, riding as much as I could.  Finally, out the top, across the road into the lowest end of Nun and then up the road and into Vic Park, dropping down across the rabbit paddock and into the rocks and gums, then Spazza's into Sneaky Ridge and bridges, off new bridges into old and down to hospital corner.  Then up the hidden link into Old Skool.  Finally following the roads back around to the car.  Good spin.

20.96 kms ridden (and lifted), and 990 m climbed, of which 400 odd was lift...

Sunday All Over the Show, Britten, Pleasant, Greenwood, Godley, Chalmers

Fam time visit, and O mowing the lawn again, so I rode from Joys.  Up the road, and up the walk track over the bathtub fence, then up Britten, around the front, across the road and up the zigs and zags to the top of Mt Pleasant.  Chatted to some peeps up here, then dropped into the fun down, rocking the groove.  Straight through and down Greenwood, making some of my best time ever I reckon, absolutely fanging it.  Brief pause after Gloomy, then on down, and dropping the drop properly for a change.  Down and around, keeping good pace the whole way and off the ground a lot.

Out the bottom through Evans Pass and headed out Godley Rd for a bit, enjoying the view and the nice day all the way, then thru the new bike-cattlestop at the gate we always use and up the farm track to the mtb track where I turned back towards Evans. Received a quick phone-call from Tra'y which informed me of changes of plans: they were off to Lyttelton.  I didn't commit, but said I'd be in touch when I was at a crossroads further up the hill.  I continued on down Godley to Evans, having a good bomb, finishing by passing a bunch of oldfolk walkers who were sitting down to lunch next to the walking track section just above the end/start of the track (which I was on).

Next, it was up the Summit Rd under Greenwood, good pace, watching the age old battle between a harrier and a magpie for a good while before Jollies Bush, then at the Richmond Pines, over the stile and into the climbing singletrack up to original Greenwood entrance.  Here I rang Tra'y and decided to go that way, so, rode in the old Greenwood entrance track, then up the 4wd track to the gun emplacements on top of the ridge.  Straight into the descent down the ridge walkway, cleaning more of the rocks below the stile than nighttime wetness in winter usually allows, and then at the saddle struggled to find Chalmers Track...

Found it, VERY overgrown, (closed, apparently) but headed into it, and man was it steep, at times entirely unrideable, and full of stinging nettle - every stop I'd find the nettle at face height, and millimetres from my elbows, knees, shins.

Amazingly, no stingings received, and lower down more riding than stumbling-avoiding-nettles, then out the bottom through a couple gates and the final super speedy bomb down the streets into the town for a delicious huevos rancheros at Lyttelton Coffee Co with the family.

An excellent, 20.5 kms, with a surprising 742 m climbed (but 900 descended due to starting the ride ~150 m higher than the finish).

Wednesday Solo Cashmere Vic Skool

Straight from work, parked up top end of Bowenvale Ave and rode back down this, left, right, left into Holliss. Stopped up the first corner and lubed my chain which was sounding rather dry.  Then into the steep going, grinding up the road to the top, and into the steps, which I rode down for the first time ever.  Don't know what I was ever so cautious about...  Brief roll, then up the first steps, and then up more steps, resorting to carrying the bike on some of them.  Then, across Longhurst Pl into the singletrack climb, cleaned all but one of the hairpins higher up under the houses.  Good ride the rest up to the stile. Then the barbed-wire roots track up to the dog park, cleaning more of the rocks than I'd have expected, then and up thru Vic Park, through the skidder site, and up K2 climbing up to and through Brake Free finally all the way to the top. 6pm here.

Down thru a few of the Brake Free jumps, then back out and down to rock garden, into the Gummies, usual left on my fave, and rocking on through back to the Skidder.  Into Shazza's, bermy bermy jumpy jumpy, and down into Sneaky Ridge for a nice bomb down the rocks and jumps and oaks, over onto Bridges, and the Nu, back and forth into the valley bottom.  6.10pm here.

Into the climb up Hidden Valley bonus, cleaning it all, climbed into Old Skool for a fun last descent which went quite well, and spat me out the bottom back to the car before 6.30.  Very warm...

Another 10km loop (like Sunday), with 396 m climbed.  Hot stuff.

Grabbed a No.3 from Noodle Canteen and headed to band practice. Gig on Friday!!!

Sunday Solo Short and Howlin' Windy

Short amount of time available to me before a 1pm band practice. Parked in Bowenvale Ave and headed down the road and around and up the Major Aitken.  Kept a pretty steady pace all the way, overtaking some dude (who I feel like I always see on Huntsbury), and up Kenmanure and on up Huntsbury to the top.  Up the gravel, still a good pace, and up onto the singletrack, then the rest of the grovelly way to the top.  Howling nor'wester on all the exposed parts.

Howling head wind across the Traverse, and then dropped into the fun jumpy trail down, wind nearly pushing me off and I definitely traveled sideways on the first jump.  Easy roll down the landing strip and left into the groovy droppy down to the stile.  Then on down, wind less of an issue, but really howling across these parts.  Cleaned it all down and in the lower switchbacks the thistles are really bitey.  Nasty fuckers just at the right height to spike the shins and forearms and knuckles.

Into the Old Skool, marginally slower on the headwind bits, and flowing across the tailwind bits.  Nice bomb in the lower reaches, tho pretty cruisy, then dropped into the vallybottom track and rolled on out.  Easy going roll down to the car.

A 10 km loop taking in 421 m of climb.