Finished work early and it was a beautiful afternoon, so managed to deal with the utterly stupid traffic (WTF is going ON? - took >30 minutes!) and parked on Bowenvale Ave.
Dog in tow, we galloped down the road and around and to and up Major Aitken Drive. Not a bad pace the whole way, Jet just doing the usual fast running to start then buttoning down a bit by the top. Onto the gravel, and he was very good, enjoying all the sniffing and panting a lot. Up onto the singletrack, I took a call from T and he slunk down into a cool grassy ditch, puffing lots. Riding again, up the trail and over the fence, then on up the landing strip to the gravel and up this to the gate/cattlestop. Through the fence here and I pushed the bike to the summit trail at the top of the fun descender. Chatted with a guy (who'd build the extra bits lower down in the switchbacks before Old Skool).
Down time. Jet behind, jumpy jumpy, tho skived on the final one - even pushed back up but couldn't bring myself to doing it (too much watching of the crashes of the week on Pinkbike...). Then down the landing strip and peeled left onto the singletrack, droppy down to the gate. Over the stile and sheep everywhere. A real clusterfuck of them. Jet was excessively well behaved, completely ignoring them. Down the steep bylines, some corners sketchy due to dried sheep pellets acting like lightweight gravel ball bearings. Dodge. Droppy down, all the extra little bits, one or two of them a little worse for wear from lack of riding/maintenance and sheep. Through the back and forths near the pylon and onto the Old Skool proper, passing a couple sitting watching the sunset at the highpoint just before the main descent. Bomb bomb bomb, still sheep, and their doings, everywhere. The stile midway is busted up so you could, with a small hop, just ride straight through it now. I didn't, cos I didn't realise til the last second.
On down, still plenty sheep (and shit) everywhere, and the often-damp bit was a bit of a muckhole before and after the hairpin, and first time ever, lower down too. Final throes, a sheep that was bailing ahead of me ran up above the track then promptly got a fright from Jet and tumbled onto the track behind me... Out the bottom, and a slow (slightly limpy) cruise down the length of Bowenvale Ave back to the car.
An hour or so, under 10kms, and 402 m climbed.
Dog in tow, we galloped down the road and around and to and up Major Aitken Drive. Not a bad pace the whole way, Jet just doing the usual fast running to start then buttoning down a bit by the top. Onto the gravel, and he was very good, enjoying all the sniffing and panting a lot. Up onto the singletrack, I took a call from T and he slunk down into a cool grassy ditch, puffing lots. Riding again, up the trail and over the fence, then on up the landing strip to the gravel and up this to the gate/cattlestop. Through the fence here and I pushed the bike to the summit trail at the top of the fun descender. Chatted with a guy (who'd build the extra bits lower down in the switchbacks before Old Skool).
Down time. Jet behind, jumpy jumpy, tho skived on the final one - even pushed back up but couldn't bring myself to doing it (too much watching of the crashes of the week on Pinkbike...). Then down the landing strip and peeled left onto the singletrack, droppy down to the gate. Over the stile and sheep everywhere. A real clusterfuck of them. Jet was excessively well behaved, completely ignoring them. Down the steep bylines, some corners sketchy due to dried sheep pellets acting like lightweight gravel ball bearings. Dodge. Droppy down, all the extra little bits, one or two of them a little worse for wear from lack of riding/maintenance and sheep. Through the back and forths near the pylon and onto the Old Skool proper, passing a couple sitting watching the sunset at the highpoint just before the main descent. Bomb bomb bomb, still sheep, and their doings, everywhere. The stile midway is busted up so you could, with a small hop, just ride straight through it now. I didn't, cos I didn't realise til the last second.
On down, still plenty sheep (and shit) everywhere, and the often-damp bit was a bit of a muckhole before and after the hairpin, and first time ever, lower down too. Final throes, a sheep that was bailing ahead of me ran up above the track then promptly got a fright from Jet and tumbled onto the track behind me... Out the bottom, and a slow (slightly limpy) cruise down the length of Bowenvale Ave back to the car.
An hour or so, under 10kms, and 402 m climbed.
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