Tuesday Choosing the Family loop again

Very similar to yesterday's ride except this time we had Joy, Anth and Lynn join us.  And we left the dog behind because he'd had a big walk already. 

Headed across and into Easy Rider and just did a nice lap of that, taking in Snakes and Ladders again, then across into Basecamp, and home down Alligator Alley, and (seemingly the wrong way - given all the traffic we met) on Easy Rider (met SO many families coming our way), dropped down and climbed back up to the house.

An easy nearly-9 kms, with a whole 100 m climbed.

Monday Hanmer Easy Riding Body Testing

Trying out this mountain biking lark again having not ridden properly off road since the 7th of MARCH. Tra'y, Jet and me took a 9.5 km jaunt around the forest tracks.

Easy Rider climbing away slowly to Snakes'n'ladders, then across the Heritage trail to Basecamp, blat round this and then down Alligator Alley, going all the way down a long fast descent to Perserverence, then back along this back up to the house.

Longest ride for Jet and me for a LONG time.  Body did pretty good coping with 9.5 km and 101 m climbed.  Try it out harder tomorrow.

Thursday Short Dog Hanmerer

Took Jet out for last day's ride.  We headed across to and straight up Timberland, into Jolliffe up and over, not feeling nearly as long a climb as it had the day before, over and down, continuing on down past the bridge, down Dogstream, a very nice wee section of trail that I haven't ridden many times, and crossing over onto Mach1, passing a family before the road.  A good hoon down here, climbs not feeling much, then into and back round Basecamp and Western Link home. 7.8 Kms and a tiny 175 m

Then half an hour later or so, Tra'y (on O's bike) and me went for a short cruise, around the Woodland, onto the Western Link down to Basecamp, looped around the far end of it and back mostly the way we'd come. Would have been maybe 5 or 6 kms and 50 m of alt, if that.  Nice wee spin tho.

Tuesday Hanmered Again

O, Jet and me headed out again. Along the flat to start, round Basecamp track to Mach 1.  Climb and descend and climb and descended in here, then up the Fir Trail, more climby and up to and into Bigfoot.  Super climb here, ziggy zaggy, on and up, and then an awesome run down this -  O in the lead and Jetty chasing the whole time.  Fun blast down, goes on for a nice amount of time, then out.  Across into Detox, climb climb climb, and down down down, then back into the top of Mach 1 and climbing briefly before hitting back across the bridge onto Lower Dogstream, rolling smoothly down this, through some mega permafrost at one point, and into Western connector, around the field Forest Walk track and back across the field and up to the house.

12 kms this time, with only 290 m climbed.  Climbs always seem so much more than they really are around here.

Wednesday Hanmer School Camp Fatso Escape

In Hanmer for most of the week on school camp at the Forest Camp with H.  Had the fatty with me cos the Turner was with Josh receiving a fettle.  We finished our Code Breaker activity early, giving me some time to escape out for a quick ride.

Headed out of camp and into the Mach1 trail, climbing it, first time in this direction I think.  Quite good, got my lungs pumping pretty quick, Climbed and descended, repeat, then across the road below Detox and through to cross the main road and on up through to the Dog Stream bridge.  Up onto the road and into the Fir Trail, climbing this, very pleasant track, reminding me of all those years ago when I did the Day Nighter, riding it in the opposite direction.  Out the top of this and into Bigfoot for the steep clamber, tight trees, zigging and zagging up to the top.  Cleaned it all headed over into the descent.  Fun bomb down and around, stopping briefly to deflate some air for smoother riding.  Finally out the bottom, most of the trail flows nicely but the last few corners dont quite work.

Briefly down the road and into the Detox climb, always longer than you remember, grind grind grind, up and around and across to the big skidder, making a lap of that, then heading into the descent.  Taking the non-easy way, dropping over the rock and into the clay rut descent, fat tires gripping a treat as I fanged down the trail.  At the bottom, jumped back on Mach 1 back upwards, across the road and up to the bridge, crossing this and heading down the road-like section of Dog, lots of speed down here and then hung a right to head up to Joliffe Saddle.

Long cruisy climb up this to the top and into the Red Rocks track.  A little way into the climb I heard some piggies, obviously spooked them, and saw two little squealers, one black one grey, running off up into the trees.  I made a bit of noise in case their mama was nearby, then kept riding, climbing to the top and hooning down the first descents, weaving around the ruts and rocks, dropping down, and continuing left (instead of right as per the last couple times).  An interesting detour line off to the right, over some red rocks, then back onto the main blast, with lots of jumps all the way down.  Fun.

Finally, the last sweet singletrack through big trees before exiting on to Dog Stream, heading down around to Camp Trail, heading into the new Base Camp track, and bombing through and around this.  Quite good in this direction, cos the second half flows nicely mostly downhill back to Camp.  Out onto the road and down towards the Forest Camp, instead of heading straight into camp, I hung a left up a forestry road up around the back of the camp, and headed down a fun little final descent into camp. Rolled into camp happy and utterly splattered in muck.

Mucky 13kms. 350 m climbed just over an hour of riding pretty much non stop