Saturday E-Planting Travis

Took the Ebike to Travis Planting. It was good for a bit of an explore of our old hood and a stop at the library on the way home.  Meandered a very seat-of-the-pants (but mapwise very direct) route there, enjoying our old sections of river and seeing how it's all changed/grown/developed.  Planted lots of plants and threw my back out on the last couple of plants I put in, scoffed a couple of sossies, and then got riding again.  Back around and dropped into Shirley Library to grab a couple of books from my list, then down past our old house and my old commute route into town before riding my current commute route home (nice and familiar).  Traffic is insane all the time now.

30something kms, again used most of the battery (from fully full to just under 30%)

Labour Monday Vic OldSkool Labouring

Labour Day Monday, Nelsie got to mine just after 4 and we hit up the hill. To the very top.  Down around the yumpies, across the fenceline and dropped down Upper Fenceline.  Stayed high, across above Cool Runnings, Shroom etc, and dropped into Razza's.  Climbed up a little to drop down the lower reaches of Pedalfine, out of the forest into Flow and NuBridges, all tidied and smooth now, then quick bomb down valley and into the climb up Hidden-connector, me gasping, around to Old Skool. Whilst having our wee rest at the high point, we spotted some blue flagging tapes on the hill above and walked up off piste to check them out and work out what it might be for.  Looks like someone's planning a new skool line above the Oldskool.  Back down to the bikes and we continued our bomb down, the bony-bony old skool. 

Valley bottom hit, we headed up, ground up the grindings, above Texaco we checked out the big rock above, then back on track and back on up. Checked out the new Shazzas extension and pushed up the K2 to Skidder. 

Then over 19th and down 235 all the way out to the lower section. 

A fun wee 10.7 kms with some painful 441 m climbed.

Sunday Norwester Local Loner, Pinch-flats and Pump Problems.

Up, round the top, gail nor'westers blowing from behind then across, then down the ridgeline, first jump, not second, third, and missed the final due to waaay too much cross wind.  Hung a left on the older route and proceeded to get a flat.  Sat down to fix.  Double whammy snakebite, so two patches needed.  Did it, tube back in, pump pump pump ftttwwwssshhhhhh.  Damnit.  Tube out, re-glued the offender, held tight made sure it was done, then back in, pumped up and got riding. Down the old bypass trails, walking the steepest bit and dabbing a couple others, into Old Skool, bombing down into valley, and into the climb when the rear end started getting softer and softer, again!   Walked up to a seat at the walking track intersection and tore the offending patch off and re-did it, and then my pump fucked out. Tried to fix. No go. Ebike dude hoves into view, "do you have a pump?" "Yep", "Thanks!" to the rescue. His pump worked well and I got a tonne of air in my tire. 

Finally got riding again, up valley, chatting with him for a bit, then chainsaw Ranger on UBCO.  I pushed the worst bit of K2 yuck, feeling really shit, clambered around under texaco then on up the bastard steeps.  Found the Ubco guy's chainsaw blade-cover and carried it up to the 40fter, jamming it on a broom plant in good view of the track for him to find at a later date.  Last bit, stopped to let some fitter buggers ride past and then got going, through Skidder over 19th, into the dogparkcarpark and bombadiered down the left hander, lots of scrap from the trees and a few branches, then brief stint on H.Ell and climbed up to road, up and around down behind houses and home.

Frustrating 11.43 kms with 515 m escalated.

Saturday Sunday Paparoa, again

Higgs and me headed over Friday night to Taylorville, staying at Brunnerton Lodge before heading up thru Blackball to Smoke-Ho carpark.  Only a week or so off 2 years since I's last here... Weather was clearing, indeed, clear down in the Grey valley, but seemed to be lingering on the hills ahead of us and around us, so as we set up at the carpark there was a rainbow and a light drizzle.  Got rolling and on the first rocky descent a stone got caught in my mudguard.  I thought the front roll bag had messed with my rear brake hose and that the brake was on, but once I straightened it up I realised it was a stone...  removed, and on we headed.  The grunt of the climb began and Hugo did really good, plodding away.  He didn't walk much.  Took us about 2hr45 to Ces Clarke.  A little slower than last time but pretty good considering our lack of training.  

After a feed, off we headed along the tops.  More climbing, the odd walk.  My dropper started to play up (again, I was blaming my front-roll) but then a minor tweak of the barrel adjuster and I was happy.  One basin after another we trudged around.  On some of the final descent I stopped to wait and Hugo didn't show, and I had images of his teeth through his lips for some reason... :( So I started heading back and he appeared around a corner carrying his bike.  Derailleur well and truly stuck fast in his spokes...  oh dear.  Realisation occurred at my lack of 'safety' gear - no first aid kit (whoops), no duct tape (yikes).  Undid derailleur, removed wheel, managed to wrench the derailleur clear and then found that, reattached, he still had gears!  just didnt want to risk 1st or 2nd, so 3rd was his go to.  Final blast to Moonlight was a joy.

Day two dawned, and we were the last to leave the hut.  Tho the 3 girls were not far gone with Georgia's troubles, so we passed them and continued on.  Nice descent, then up and down (quite a bit of up) in the goblin forest, then out onto the tops, views I never saw last time due to the weather.  Awesome.  This section is so good down to Pororari Hut.  Magic.  Still quite a long slog from Pororari, especially for Hugo, but man it was still good.  

YMMV, but Day One and Day Two on the MMR announces 17.7 kms and 34 kms respectively.  with 1124 m and 821 m climbed on each.  Them's some big climbings.

Welly Sunday Makara on Rentals

In Wellington for WoW.  Sunday afternoon, first nice day they'd seen for a while, Higgs and me made our way to Mud Cycles and rented an Ebike and an acoustic bike (only had the one e bike available) and went for a strop. Got to main entrance and realised didnt know the way in, given Koru was closed, so asked some folk and they led us around and up to the St Albans St entrance.  Climbed up Rimu and Miro, Sally Alley, Upswing, Aratihi.  Good climbs.  I was chuffing.  at the top of Aratihi I took the ebike to the top, it was fast...  Then we swapped back and jumped into North Face.  Good strop, then at the bottom of that we hit the bottom of Pohatu then SWIGG the rest of the way down.  Pohatu was the grade I would have prefered...

9.25 kms with 270 odd climbed.