Saturday Up Down Up Down

With Sunday expected to be 35 I figured getting out early today might be a good bet.

Parked on Ashgrove, bottom of Barrington, and headed through Thorrington, shortcuts and sidestreets, across to Major Aitken and up up up to the top. Had earlier thought I might do Lavaflow but decided against it so after a very short rest, dropped into Four Pause.  First rocks to encounter, and "crack!", busted a front spoke.  Continued on down, jumpy jumpy with a strong cross easterly wind, and down through the newish bits, over the edge and down to the stile. 

Checked the front wheel and sure enough, one broken spoke.  Slightly concerned for a weaker front wheel, I made my way like normal down the droppy fun blitz of rocks and steepness.  At the bottom, I hung a left into the Hidden Valley 'bonus' dropping down through the newly re-built lower reaches...  I guess they're high-waying it for all the new Lavaflow traffic?  From the bottom, turned uphill and straight up K2, righthander into the trees, and then up under the 23foooter. Ugh. Steep pricks.  Onwards up the the skidder where I refilled my bottle.  From here, chuffed on up the rest of the park, causing a CRUNCH in the gears.  Higher up, I passed through the cattlestop next to the see-saw, I found granny was a bit clickity, so stopped to look.  Oh dear!  A crack and bend in my biggest ring causing the chain to lift off.  I had to use a couple of rocks to pound it straight, and seemed to set it right, on up to the top.

Down, around, jumpy, see-saw, Brake Free and into Sesame St, dropping the big jump and bombing through the next few, wallride, past the double gap and then peeled off into lower gums, staying on the singletrack, down and thru and down to the road and down to Dyers Pass Rd and down to the Park.  Straight in and up the 4wd track (which was actually mostly down from here), easy climbing up to Gung Ho for the first time ever.  This was a nice blast.  Enjoyed the busy-ness of it, lots of interesting wee features, and I kept a pretty solid pace all the way down, even tho I was riding blind...  Didn't encounter anyone else in here at all.

Final lower reaches, down and out to the base, where I just sat and coasted down through all the hoards, down the road, around back to the car.

A valid 18.22 kms, with a worthy 691 m climbed.