Wetnesday Whetted Mean Streets

Wet evening so not really any off-road options available, as such, it was decided a 'roadie' ride to be had.  I headed to Nelson's in the car with the Troll (still wearing its mudguards) in the back - useful for the conditions.

Off we headed up the hill - Santa Maria - Selleck - Assisi into Drayton and then up Mt Pleasant, grinding away to the top. Nice climb and there wasn't really any rain, nor traffic, around at all.  However, once we headed down the Summit Rd into the fog (headlights too bright, handlebar okay) the rain started to spit a bit.  Down to the big pines and through the gate and over the fence.  Sticky but surprisingly good traction track down to stile and then down to some more.  Mucksome track, it was.  Decided against Frog Pond and took the more ridge based track.  I walked a couple of tech bits, not trusting my traction, but Nelson boffed off down them no probs.  Took the lower exit to Clifton and headed up Revelation Drive to explore, as far up as we could, then back down to Galilee Lane, dropping down a wee ways, but not that far, before clambering back out.  Then down Panorama, surprised how far down York's old place was, and dropping down his old (private access!) driveway passed his house and dropped to the watertank, around this and then walked down the steps.  Then we were on Tuawera Tce and couldn't quite work out where the 'secret' alleyway was down.  Went too far down here, then turned back and decided to hit the driveway that led us to it - dropping down this (i walked the steps) onto Kinsey Tce, and it was left down Mulgans.  Tricknical cornering (dab, dab, dab).  

On the flat again, around Moncks and then up Augusta, all the way to the top, trying to work out where a shortcut through I found once was...  Ended up taking a driveway up (much to the chagrin of a dog) and around to a vacant lot but couldn't work out how to get across to Challenger Lane so back off down, around into Taupata, then up Egnot and Challenger, steeeeep.  Zigging and zagging on the road seemed to help, but it was definitely walking up to Daring Lane, onto Glenstrae and upwards, more zig zagging and Monck's Spur top, riding no problem, and out to Mt Pleasant Rd for a sweet descent down, Drayton etc back the way we'd climbed.  

Good ride, nice loop. Over 15kms and 670m climbed, a little of which I had to walk

Tuesday Night Avoidance of the Muckeriness

Parked at the bottom of Mulgans Track and relaxed listening to music and watching the rabbits in the redzone while I waited for Nelson to show up.   He turned up, we got riding - an excellent ride ensued.
Up Mulgans, corners and steps getting the better of both of us.  Up the steps and steep, then up the steps to the water tanks and riding up past York's old place and into Brownlee Reserve.  Over the top onto Clifton Tce, climbing, climbing and over the fence at the first stile.  Took the singletrack down and across the valley around to climbing up around stormwater catchment gabions onto Richmond Hill, climbing up a walkway to a new cul de sac and then up the dirt, clambering ever upwards, around eventually onto the ridge and easy riding up to the big trees corner.  Had a snack here.

Next it was up the road and over the stile onto the Greenwood 4wd track, avoiding the soggy singletracks, climbing up to the gun emplacements on the ridge.  Bit of a cruise around these, then hit the descent, down the ridge track, tricknical rocks and fun to be had.  Across the top of Chalmers and Nelson's bike suddenly had weird gears - somehow the rear screw on his derailleur had unwound...  Fixed, and headed down the trail across onto the ridge above the Evans Pass Rd.  Speeeed (Nelson got 65 kph, (me, only 50 odd)) down to Evans, ended up at the old Greenwood exit.

Onto the road and out Godley Head Rd, meandering around to the new cattlestop and then climbing up all the way, crossing the singletrack, all the way to the top of the ridge.  Nice trail climbing up here, and mostly pretty dry.  Brief rest up top here, in the shelter of a rock (strong wind), and then down the techfun trail, dropping straight down to Evans Pass.

Dropped down into Rapanui Bush, skoodling around to the Scarborough Bluffs Track, where we stopped for another snack.  Nice dry mild spot here.  Then off, fun descent, waaay longer than I always remember it, across and in and out of little valleys and techy rock features and drops and then into the switchbacks, various levels of success for Nelson and not for me.  I cleaned the last one.  Onto the road and coasting, faster and faster (me 69 kph down here) descending down into Sumner, and cruising around back to the cars.

Good ride.

A quite acceptable 15 kms and 640 m of altitudes

Wednesday Night Lunar Loner

Bit of a loner tonight.  Parked up on Parkridge and rode my usual way into Britten, hoping a ride would stretch out my lower back, which has been pretty bad last couple days.  Not as bad as Nelson's tho, he's been laid out flat with his for the last week, hence why he wasn't riding with me.  Climbed up and around the front, watching the sun disappear behind the mountains (and therefore not needing my sunnies) on the way up.  Across the road and into the Mt Pleasant climb, stretching a few times on the way.  Peaked and took in the view of the moon (behind clouds) reflecting on the sea.

Lights on, (head: full, handlebar: medium), and into the descent, super smooth to the stile, then into the rocks, cautiously negotiating what appeared to be grease, but finding plenty of grip and bombing the fun bits.  Swooping through the tussocks, and then around and into Greenwood proper.

Down through the first lot of rocks, and my handlebar light packed it in.  Battery either truly stuffed, or not holding a charge since I charged it after the Packhorse ride (when O had it).  Next ride, to test whether charging it immediately prior to riding helps...  otherwise it's a new one.  Put the dead light in my pack and turned on my Lezyne (300?) flashy on the 2nd brightest setting - provides a hint of sufficient light.  Rest of the way down was smooth, enjoying it all and taking in the view now and then.  Getting quite dark by the bottom, and exploring the new swoopy bermed (not finished) corners leading into the new exit on Evans Pass (spits you right out into the traffic... look carefully!!!).

Tail light on slow flash, head light off, and up the Summit Rd, not seeing any cars the whole way til just as I got to the Richmond Hill pines.

Over the fence and down the ridge, nice speed swooping through tussocks, around into Frog Pond and at the stile met a very puffing dude climbing.  Puffing so much he could barely talk to me, or, he maybe was just rude.  Bombed down the trail from here, seeing that Andrew was right, the pines have been chopped, roots still in place tho, meeting a couple more riders climbing here, then a whole clusterfuck of them coming over the fence from Clifton Terrace.  Rude arseholes they were too, barely an acknowledgement of existence from a single one of them.  I continued down, wondering where the trail was that peels around to Richmond Hill, finding it at the bottom, so took it, dropping some more into the valley, then little bit of climb (carried momentum) and across under new houses, and then up a steeeeeep wee stormwater catchment terraced gabions to Richmond Hill Rd.

Steep road up here too, to the top of it, over a fence and up steeply to the pine trees, and around onto the old track we used to follow, up this lights off, moonlight only, and up past the stockyards, and up to the big Pines.  Across the road, (the previous biker's lights were now climbing up the 4wd track in Greenwood), and into the singletrack climb up to the original Greenwood entrance.  This was sweet to the top, finally along the road.

Onto Britten for a sweet sweet embrace of the descent.  Flowy, smooth, surprising grip, and dew on the trackside grass all sparkly.  All the way down, around, back and under the pylons and into the steep bomb down rocks to the final fence, over, and back to the car.

17.77 kms ridden, with a grand gain of 702 metres...

Wednesday Night Piecing it together to avoid the Closed bits

Cool wee ride tonight.. Pretty much all tracks out east closed (Godley, Captain, Snake, Greenwood, Britten) so we headed out that way anyway, figuring we'd piece something else together...

We parked on Nayland, and headed up onto The Zig Zag, but took Aratoni Track, first turning to the right.  A bit of walking, but a fair bit of riding too, eventually up some steps and out onto Clifton Tce.  Up this for a bit thinking to take the Zig Zag up to Panorama, but couldn't fathom the driveway entrance so continued on up Clifton til we hit The Frog Pond track.  This was greasy in spots but has some new drainage, and we managed to avoid most of them quite well, then up the ridge up to the big pines on the corner.  Stopped for a snack here and saw the ISS cruising by.

Next it was across the road up onto the climbing track which we took up to the Greenwood entrance.  Rolled into this and across and around, all in good nick, not mucky at all, to the 4wd track (before the ruins).  Here, we hung a right and rode up to the gun emplacements on the ridge which we toodled around for a minute or 5 before heading down the ridge on the 360 / CraterRim / Mt Pleasant Bluffs / Call-it-whatever-you-wanna-call-it Track.  Fast and flowy for a bit, then steep as hell and techy as shit, with a stile in there somewhere for good measure.  Across the top of Chalmers, over the next stile and on down between the macrocarpas sidling across the 360 walkaway section, all above Greenwood, across behind the bluffs they're messing with for the Evans Pass Rd, and then down the stupid-fast access track down the ridge towards the works buildings, to the end of Greenwood.

Through Evans Pass and decided against Godley Track (it being closed, and remembering how many bits I walked last time due to it being wet and closed) so stuck to the road, out, til we found a wee singletrack entrance which took us above the road for a bit around towards the 4wd track entrance.  Climbed over the fence before this following a natural line across to the 4wd track then up this.  And across the Godley track, on up the ridge (as per last time (too)) all the way to the top.  Nice views up here.  Here we were on the 360 track again.  Excellent descent ensued back down to Evans Pass.  (oh, while we were up here, we spotted some douchebag on Greenwood - much of his descending matched ours). 

At Evans again we headed into Rapanui Bush, hung a right and teched through to the Scarborough Bluffs track again (the Greenwood-douchebag seemed to follow us - but he missed our right-hander).  This time was excellent too, tho a bit wetter than last.  Nelson cleaned the lot, whereas I dabbed in similar places to last time.  Awesome descent, this track.  At the road we decided it'd be mucky below, so we hit the road down, high speed, flinging / clearing the mud from the knobs and down into the fridge of the valleybottom, then back to the cars at a cruisy pace.

An interesting 15 kms, with 570 m climbed...

sunday muggy sunday

picked up Al, and we drove to sumner. met up with the boys, Steve, Andrew, Tony, wayne, Matt and his english mate on a Merida, Mark. we tootled round the corner to Mulgan's Track for their first time up... Al was on his 29r SS with its new 80mm Reba's. so he was hauling on all the ups, or walking. anyway, up to panorama, then up to singletrack. humidity was a killer... up singletrack into mistiness to the pines, then on up road to top of Greenwood, sun starting to shine through. nice cruise to the ruins, where we thought about a food stop, but then steve suggested the macrocarpa at the bottom, so off we flew. i took the lead. kept and put a good distance ahead of Andrew, then when i stopped further round Al was behind, waited. then once we all regrouped, headed on down, again, putting a good distance between me and them all. cleaned everything nicely, flying well. quick break at the mac, then pop down to evans and tackle Godley.

let Al go first, cos he cant do anything but go fast. got a good ways up the nemesis, but didnt clean it, got the next bit tho. then, trying to chase Al i just didnt have it in me. that big gear, those big wheels, he was just flying up the track. regrouped up just before the first of the boardwalks. then Al me and Matt took off first, cos we'd decided there that we'd go further, ie, mechanics bay trail round and back, whereas the others were just gonna head straight down ana. so. i was chasing Al, which was fine til the rutty section then a tad annoying on the downhill to the first of the cols (livingstone, i presume). stuck behind him i definately would've gone faster, and couldnt see trail enough leading to some near rut-catcher stacks... anyway, he got enough distance on me on the next climb, tho i was catching him again on the descent to Breeze Col. then up walking track, nice wee climb round, bomb down to singletrack, then ass-haul back round to breeze. flew it. then excellent run down Anaconda, fantastic berm railing and some very nice air... to meet the boys and observe the massive surf pumping taylors. then the 'tail, nice hoof down there. tired on the climb out of taylors, fun spin down nicholson, trying that new line again, and back to cars 12pm ish... they stopped for coffee but Al and me headed off.

Clifton Greenwood Godley Anaconda

Awesome ride with Nelson last night. we drove out to Sumner, parked at bottom of Clifton Hill, rode back round to Moncks Bay and headed up Mulgan's Track. Switchback city, steps on some corners, concrete walking path, steep as. connects two or three times and ends up going round the water tanks and up York's old driveway to Panorama Drive. We then headed over the park to Clifton Tce, tho going up Panorama would lose you less altitude, then up clifton to a trail described by Laurence Mote of Ground Effect in the current Spoke Magazine. blissful rooty rocky singletrack that leads up under pine shelterbelts into tussocky Greenwood Park to the Richmond Hill pines. then up the road to top of Greenwood. Bombed down that. me catching Nelson on all the rocky bits, down to Evans at an awesome pace. then out Godley. Nelson was powering away on all the climbs. but i lead on the first descent and left him behind. reckoning it was the 5 inches travel and its slacker head angle that makes my bike smoother over the rockiest bits. then up last climb and i was on his tail again for the descent to Breeze col. then down anaconda. i took the lead. railing all the berms and flying all the jumps, watching out the cool easterly wasnt blowing us off course in the air too much. by the last leg above the baches to Taylors my back was getting really sore. then the climb out of taylors my seat was too low making the the pedalling inefficient. Down through Nicholson, found a new wee line, then nelson's chain blew apart, so fixed it with my quicklink and we treadled back to the car round the waterfront. awesome ride.