Saturday Cadging Some Codgy Goodgeness

Great Ride out on my own.  We were in Nelson for Phoe's 18th and I brought my bike.  

From the new pad, down the link pathway, steps and sidelines, then another wee walking drop down to a Place, then made my way down past the Rutherford and Flamedaisy then up onto Nile St, cruising along here to then find my way up onto Cleveland Tce, then up Atmore Place to get onto Jack's Track, which was certainly an interesting way into Codgers, but not necessarily the nicest way...

Crossed across Firball, and then onto middle road climbing up to the top of Turners etc.  Hung there for a bit and judged my options and what I thought I might like to do.  Decided on Hulk n Hogan, which was okay, sidled around and dropped and jumped and cruised around to eventually lower down on Jacks Track, which I proceeded to climb again, then up the middle road again back to Turners Top.  

This time into Turners, some groms all hanging at the top, I headed on past and proceeded to ride it like a 51 year old.  No big air, but good pace round the berms etc.  Some quite sloppy bits but mostly it was pretty dry.  Out the bottom of the gums and across to Take Me To Your Leader for the climb.  In here I could hear 'something' then two guys on ebikes powered past me.  Huh.  I continued on up, cleaning everything and quite enjoying it even tho it was steep.  Out the top onto Skidder Saddle.  From here along the Fireball Rd to the the Turners Top again.

This time into the climb to the Firball Trig.  Good climb up here and an ebiker topped out same time as me.  We chatted a bit then I headed off a brand new (to me) trail that headed towards Smasher.  Te Tirohanga Marama o Koata (Koata Marama).  New, fresh, one or two off camber corners, some jumps, quite a distance, nothing techy tho, other than some looseness.  Then it spat me out about where that big jump clearing was on Smasher.  I headed on into Smasher and proceeded to ride heaps but then got baulked and scared on the worst 4 corners which I edged down, then the rest of it was mint.  Not sure I'll use Koata Marama again, prefer the top section of Smasher.

From the bottom of Smasher, out along the Maitai river, following it down back to Nile St and heading home with a bad climb up the access track next to their new place.

All up, a very grand 18.5 kms and slightly surprising 693 m climbed