First time out for Paul (our German exchange student) on a mountain bike. He's very fit, riding a road bike up the hill every day from school, not to mention being a bouldering legend, so nothing was much of a problem for him. I gave him a few skill tips along the way and we rode some fun trails.
Up from home, usual 19th, skidder, grunter. Then Worm, and onto the Traverse. A couple of rocks caught him out and he learned the lesson of not stepping to the downhill side for letting people pass. Stopped for other riders quite a few times, but he kept up with me pretty good. Over Vernon and he really enjoyed the downhill. Again, one or two of the rocks were tricky for him, but he was definitely improving. Then down the upper cRapaki trail, Full Monty, from the top, fun blast down this. The steep hairpins were hard for him, but I think he managed pretty good. I had major speed on the lower reaches beside the main track. Then up onto Taramea, and he really liked this one too. All the way round, with a wee pause at the rock play ground over which I rode all the features.
Then into the singletrack above Rapaki and onto the main drag for the final climb. Around the road on Vernon, and back onto the Traverse for a good spin towards home. Into the trees, and I warned him I'd do the jumps, then pointed out the see-saw over which I went meeting him on Brake Free. Another guy was on the trail just ahead of me, and he moved aside for me, then followed us into the Rock Garden. Both of them had to walk the final rockiest section. The other guy was from Rotovegas and hadn't ridden for a while. Had no idea where he was going, but I sent him off down my favourite while I waited for Paul to negotiate some tech. We cruised down through the Gums and around my usual favourite route. He only walked the one steep corner (below where I cleared the most recent tree), then all the way down and down the road into the DogCarPark trail for a nearly final hoon. Jumped the jumpies and then we climbed up to the Dog Park and down the final blast behind the houses.
Half way down the last blast, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an insect incoming on a collision course with my cheek. It impacted and I was hit with instant pain. Fucking wasp, sting, to the cheek just below my glasses. OUCH!
Quite a warm 19.73 kms and 623 m climbed. Not bad at all!
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