PFMTBC Inc Annual Trip... Central

got myself and my baggage to Pete's Friday 17th morning. Andrew, Wayne, Pete and myself, drove to meet Steve, Nelson and Tony at cookietime, where we all bought up big on One Square Meals etc. then set off for Tekapo.

rolled into Tekapo, kitted up and set off round the lake and up mt john. some grunty wee climbs, as bad as the body bag, several in fact, and peaked, had a coffee at the top, took in the views, and hit the descent. bombed down the way we'd come up, very fun. couple of flats, but otherwise no sketchies and no crashes, cept for Andrew hitting the chain at the bottom. then it was off to Wanaka. In the evening, Dave, Hubby and Mark rolled in. much frivolity was had.

Scored a map from bikeshop night before, and Saturday a.m dawned with a bit of rain, but that cleared up soon enough and off we treadled, up Hendersons? Rd, down to Rata St, turned left by accident and ended up grovelling up a double fenceline to Double Gate. rode round and hit Hoe Down down, then back up it, then down Easy St and hit Venus, bliss... then grovelled up Crank'n'Grind, then hit Scooby down to The Hub, then grovelled, mistakenly, up some downhill track (14 or 16). then back down to doublegate and Mark and Dave hit Bilentus, while the rest of us hit Venus extention (8a) and we all met up down at Venus Landing. somewhere in here Hubby blew his calf out, or was in danger of doing so, so he bailed, and was out for the trip. from venus landing we hit Thread the Needle over across and down to Beacon Pt Rd to ride back out to town for lunch... lounged a bit and headed out again, this time riding round the waterfront and hitting the Outlet track hoping to find an easy-ish uphill. Dave did a sideways landing off a random hop jump and snapped his chainstay..., round the outlet a we ways, then i lead them up a cool ass little track that was carved into a cliff-face, narrow as, with massive drops off the side, and eventually landing up near Outlet Motorcamp Rd. where we took a wrong turn, rode a little singletrack then grovelled up a steep ass hill to the top of the Sticky. once up there we hit Twin Towers, round to Hoe Down, back up that, hitting venus again i think and maybe a couple of loops down to the hub and back up 10 which proved a nice climb.

The next morning, Sunday, we packed up our shit, and drove to clean up a few more of the tracks we'd missed or re-do the ones we loved. in the carpark before we even set off i was just riding about and my chain snapped, bloodying my knee. fixed that and we headed in and randomly met a local, who took us under his wing and showed us a few wicked xc track across above the rivertrail and on out, then down Rockabilly Ditch, back along outlet and up an awesome zigzaggy climb to venus landing from the motorcamp. we hit crank'n'grind again, up and a few of us did Bilentus. getting sketchy remembering. when we'd finished, we headed for Alexandra.

KEE-RASH!
Rolled into Alex, got cleaned up, and rode into town to pick up some supplies... on the way in, i'd forgotten i had a slow leaky front tire, and was popping a few jumps here and there, when on the line up for a curb, my front wheel washed on the low pressure and on some loose shit in the gutter, and WHAM! down i went. Left palm, right knee, right elbow all skinned, right shoulder tweaked bad (severe bruising) and a good smack to the helmet. first aided up a bit, and later we rode the river trail up to Clyde, ate dinner and then rode with lights back down the railtrail.

Monday a.m, headed into town to bikeshop Dave knew, i bought a new helmet (Giro Xen... niiiice), hooked up with bikeshop owner's son (Ashton), who took us up an interesting trail (singletrack starting in under the Clock on the hill, up a valley, then hang a right up an evil steep 4wd track over some tops round to the right and back down out next to Sewage Treatment). Dr Strangelove i believe the descent was called. then we hooked up with one of the young mechanics (Jimmy?) from the bikeshop on his lunch hour plus his girlfriend (Michelle) and they took us through another trail (up same under clock round along behind range sorta towards the Lower Manorburn Dam, then back out the front to the railtrail), something about a Leaping Lizard, that was a good ride too. Michelle offered to take some us out for a ride the next morning. Dave, Nelson and Mark headed out with Jimmy for an afterwork ride too. i rested. by all accounts, that was a good ride too.

Tuesday a.m. Sour Taste in the Mouth Time...
Told we wouldnt really find any more trails without help, we agreed (with encouragement from Dave) to pay Phil from the bikeshop to guide us. he upped it from $25 to $30 a head when he heard it was only Dave, Mark, Nelson, Pete and me, and off we rode. this time up what's called Shit Track, on account of it stinking riding past the Sewage Treatment Works. nice climb up a nice valley, some techy wee sections, all good. then over some farmer's land we werent supposed to be in, up onto the tops, up to a big rock shaped like a seal, the other boys rode down this for fun. i's nursing my body from the crash so was taking it easy. then we rode down a neat flowy track, over another fence, and across these wicked tops and down a techy wee gulch, then grovelly climb up for another ridge run, and then finally down this super technical descent, which i dabbed/walked/and rode, finally out to the Roxburgh dam trail, back into town.
2.5 hours, ie, 150 minutes, ie, $1 a minute for Phil. they say a fool and his money are soon parted, i guess we're fools. we reckon this was a little steep. Everywhere else you go in nz you either buy or are given a map, and you self guide. you roll into Alex, the locals say, no, you gotta get a guide, in which case its either a matey thing, or you pay. Also, we got back to find out that the boys that'd been out with Michelle had been told by her that Jimmy had been reamed out for guiding the others for free, and that he'd reamed her out, and so they gave her $20 a head... so, Phil, you got your $25 a head from all of us in the end. sure, do this to tourists, but not to kiwis. its not like it was a pain in the ass for you to come out riding with us. if you ever come to chch, we'll be asking you for $30, each. not impressed.
anyway, drove on through to Naseby that afternoon.

got a quick ride in before dinner, from campground headed onto waterrace, me guiding (for free, note) round to the big dipper and to Andrew's Tree from 5 years ago. bark still not grown back. neat wee gulley. headed out back of forestry, found a singletrack nelson and me had maybe riden, took that down then up the shoot and down the shoot, and then up for change and dinner.

Wednesday morning, packed up, and most of us got out for ride. left along waterrace, headed up past hoffman's dam, found neat flowy (bottle lake with a hill style) track which we looped twice, then back down round and dropped down what we'd known as cemetery track which had changed cos of logging... then across to do the shoot once (or twice or three times for some). drove home.

Okiwi, Nelson, Linkwater, and since...

so much to cover... so many rides done, so many trail miles completed, and soooo much altitude gained and lost. Nelson and me rode ~150kms, and climbed and lost over 4 kms of altitude...

Okiwi Bay
The journey began, departure from the smaug city bout 5.30, dropped my dog off at Surrey's and carried on to Okiwi Bay, north of Kaikoura, just south of the Clarence River mouth. Found the carpark which is on the landward side of the railway tracks, which at this point lie on the landward side of the road. small driveway off the road over the tracks into a nice and newly crushed limestoned carpark, from the corner of which the Okiwi bay track leaves... this pic is from on the way up the track, and is the pic that alerted me to the existence of the track. http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/snaps_summ2006/pages/02-2006.htm It was about 11 pm when we pulled in, so pitched the tent under these old Totara trees. Pretty heinous sleep, cos of trains and trucks hauling past all night. and the crashing of the ocean, and then at about 3.30am we heard a vehicle shifting down through its gears, and obviously pulling off the road into our wee driveway... then heard the engine running for ages, and then this flashing light... "what, is that the cops?" poked heads out of tent and there was one of the Railway workers little Suzuki jeeps equipped to drive on the tracks, heading off. phew. Got a little more sleep then once light, got up, had breakfast, and rode the track. Steeeep. UP. 0 to 600 m in about 5 kms, with a couple of small downs, took us about 2-2.5 hours up. rewarded with WICKED views. and then an incredible downhill, 20mins back to the van.

Annual Trip prePFMTBCInc, in Nelson City
On up to blenheim, dropped some stuff off to N's Dad, and then on to the town of Nelson. Arrived at the house to find the boys, and a nice backyard.

Fringed, Devil's, Third House, Dun Walkway.
Saturday, rode up Fringed Hill, 793 m, then down the Devils Tail to the Dun Mtn Walkway, then up it to the Third House and back down. a hoot. Devils tail is ALWAYS sweet, with a couple new lines experienced this time, including Nanna's, which was a sweet wee section of trail. i utterly bonked on the way up to the third house. was TOTALLY out of steam, and had no boost to get me there, so just had to persevere and plod up the trail to the hut... had a leppin off steve and lots of nuts and raisins off others. fixed me right up.back down we went, speedy speedy, steve and me ahead. what a blast. back to the house, and lots of beer and bourbon'n'drys.

Codgers - before it was called Codgers
next day morning up to Tantragee, up Fireball Rd, down a new track, then round to the Dogs. the new track was steeper than some of the boys had ever done, but was no worse than the Devil's and no where near as long. fun. only dabbed once i think. forgot to mention, we'd hooked up with this local guy, a friend of Tony's. Bloody good bloke he was too, riding a Spec. Enduro. good rider too, especially for someone who's only been riding 2 years and is in his early 40's. the Dogs, i think there's the Tired Dog, the Lazy dog and one other, are a selection of wee trails that traverse and drop in some wickedly steep ass pine forestry, down to the Maitai. we had lots of fun, including Steve who crashed right in front of Pete filming... alas, pete wasnt actually filming bah! oh to have seen steve go down again and again. ne'er mind.
Sharland's Valley
that afternoon we went up Sharland's Rd, up Bob's Fern Rd, to the top of the 506 trig, then down the Doublehappy into the Scotswoods. NIICE. i did this last time i was up in nelson, back at PHoenix's birthday weekend.

Grampians
Sunday, we went up the Grampians, but took the wrong way up. ended up walking alot, up a very steeeep pylon track to the lookout. but then we went down Fuschia, and down Kahikatea, beautiful trails in there. That was good.
NZ Centre
That night, we rode with lights up the Centre of NZ, then round Walter's Bluff and down the zigzag. it was here that Mark had us all trained in the art of quick-cornering. a method that will disturb hardcore XC'ers, and trail makers, cos it involves: unclipping your inside foot, hanging your leg down, and skidding your back wheel around the corner. it makes for very fast and controllable cornering, but it skids on the trails. we promise we wont be doing it too often!

Cullen's first time.
Nelson times over, the next morning we cleaned up, and Nelson and me took off in the Van. on the way to Waikawa Bay, we stopped up the valley behind Linkwater, at the site of Cullensville, a town that had over 600 souls at its peak, and is now just paddocks and trees, and a few indentations in the ground. one gold nugget pulled out of there was 26 ounces! and rode up at track that was built by goldminers between 1888 and 1893, hand cut into cliffs, a nice sidling benched single track up the valley. DoC were blasting a section so on the way up and beyond we heard a couple of really loud bangs... this trail is called the Linkwater Long Cut in the Kennett's 'guidebook'. rode til we were in beech forest, and then turned back. 2 hours up, will have reached about 720 m, and 20 mins down.


Home again, Bottled, Quarried, Crocked.
Then had a week in Waikawa with T and O. lovely. orca. paddling in canoe, little fishing. suntan. then since i've been back, i've only managed to get a friday evening quickspin round bottle lake, and then last night steve, pete andrew tony and me rode up round Halswell Quarry, up Kennedy's a ways, and back down the newish singletracks. down the crocodile and out. quick.



ANNUAL TRIP HISTORY:
Post Script:  This was the third Annual Trip I'd done, the 4th of all trips by 'the group' (in future to be called PFMTBCInc...

The very first was just Pete, Steve and Andy, and was on the Queen Charlotte.

The next year, 2003, my first, were Pete, Steve, Andy and me, at Lake Kaniere where we rode the water-race, a loop north of the lake and No Name Rd.  Can't really remember if we rode anywhere else.

The following year, 2004, Nelson joined us this year and we went to Naseby and Alexandra.  I remember Naseby being really good. Except that it was on this trip that Andrew crashed and nearly broke his leg.  Taking the bark off a tree.  It was a truly spectacular crash, viewed by Nelson and me, and heard by all the others.  Over a jump, flying through the air, leg out to one side, and colliding with said tree, just above the knee.  Lower it would have destroyed his knee, higher might have broken the femur.  OUCH.l
But I have no recollection what or where we rode in Alex...