Parked at the bottom of Mulgans Track and relaxed listening to music and watching the rabbits in the redzone while I waited for Nelson to show up. He turned up, we got riding - an excellent ride ensued.
Up Mulgans, corners and steps getting the better of both of us. Up the steps and steep, then up the steps to the water tanks and riding up past York's old place and into Brownlee Reserve. Over the top onto Clifton Tce, climbing, climbing and over the fence at the first stile. Took the singletrack down and across the valley around to climbing up around stormwater catchment gabions onto Richmond Hill, climbing up a walkway to a new cul de sac and then up the dirt, clambering ever upwards, around eventually onto the ridge and easy riding up to the big trees corner. Had a snack here.
Next it was up the road and over the stile onto the Greenwood 4wd track, avoiding the soggy singletracks, climbing up to the gun emplacements on the ridge. Bit of a cruise around these, then hit the descent, down the ridge track, tricknical rocks and fun to be had. Across the top of Chalmers and Nelson's bike suddenly had weird gears - somehow the rear screw on his derailleur had unwound... Fixed, and headed down the trail across onto the ridge above the Evans Pass Rd. Speeeed (Nelson got 65 kph, (me, only 50 odd)) down to Evans, ended up at the old Greenwood exit.
Onto the road and out Godley Head Rd, meandering around to the new cattlestop and then climbing up all the way, crossing the singletrack, all the way to the top of the ridge. Nice trail climbing up here, and mostly pretty dry. Brief rest up top here, in the shelter of a rock (strong wind), and then down the techfun trail, dropping straight down to Evans Pass.
Dropped down into Rapanui Bush, skoodling around to the Scarborough Bluffs Track, where we stopped for another snack. Nice dry mild spot here. Then off, fun descent, waaay longer than I always remember it, across and in and out of little valleys and techy rock features and drops and then into the switchbacks, various levels of success for Nelson and not for me. I cleaned the last one. Onto the road and coasting, faster and faster (me 69 kph down here) descending down into Sumner, and cruising around back to the cars.
Good ride.
Up Mulgans, corners and steps getting the better of both of us. Up the steps and steep, then up the steps to the water tanks and riding up past York's old place and into Brownlee Reserve. Over the top onto Clifton Tce, climbing, climbing and over the fence at the first stile. Took the singletrack down and across the valley around to climbing up around stormwater catchment gabions onto Richmond Hill, climbing up a walkway to a new cul de sac and then up the dirt, clambering ever upwards, around eventually onto the ridge and easy riding up to the big trees corner. Had a snack here.
Next it was up the road and over the stile onto the Greenwood 4wd track, avoiding the soggy singletracks, climbing up to the gun emplacements on the ridge. Bit of a cruise around these, then hit the descent, down the ridge track, tricknical rocks and fun to be had. Across the top of Chalmers and Nelson's bike suddenly had weird gears - somehow the rear screw on his derailleur had unwound... Fixed, and headed down the trail across onto the ridge above the Evans Pass Rd. Speeeed (Nelson got 65 kph, (me, only 50 odd)) down to Evans, ended up at the old Greenwood exit.
Onto the road and out Godley Head Rd, meandering around to the new cattlestop and then climbing up all the way, crossing the singletrack, all the way to the top of the ridge. Nice trail climbing up here, and mostly pretty dry. Brief rest up top here, in the shelter of a rock (strong wind), and then down the techfun trail, dropping straight down to Evans Pass.
Dropped down into Rapanui Bush, skoodling around to the Scarborough Bluffs Track, where we stopped for another snack. Nice dry mild spot here. Then off, fun descent, waaay longer than I always remember it, across and in and out of little valleys and techy rock features and drops and then into the switchbacks, various levels of success for Nelson and not for me. I cleaned the last one. Onto the road and coasting, faster and faster (me 69 kph down here) descending down into Sumner, and cruising around back to the cars.
Good ride.
A quite acceptable 15 kms and 640 m of altitudes
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