Wednesday, Extended Hanmering

Out on my own yesterday, no dog, no boy.  Toodled through town and on the road around to Chatterton's, up the valley to the single track.  Up the steep pylon track, into the forest and across to Tank.  Great bomb down this, then for the first time ever, headed up the back of Conical Hill - stopping to answer some directional questions from someone at the C-Line/Eagles Nest juncture.  Continued on up to the top and had a rest and small snack. 

Then off down Eagle's Nest for some technicality, and straight across into C-Line some extra (walking some of the corners on account of not trusting myself on the steep-head-angled rigid Fatty.  Into the rest of Swoop, swooping through the turns, and then across the flat to Timberland.  Grunty climb up here then straight into Jolliffes, gruntier still, with a break at the top.  Into the descent, bomb bomb, corners steep and handlebars nearly scraping.

Across the bridge and up into Bigfoot for the nice slow meandering climb.  Great views from the top and off down, slightly faster than the day before.  Next into Detox, climby climb climb, and bombing of the descent, around the top of Mach 1 and across the bridge and down half way down Dogstream,  hanging a right up the road to Red Rocks, good run here and finally back round to the house.

20 kms covered, and strangely only 575 m climbed.

Monday Ride of 2 Halves Hanmer.

First off, out with Jet and O, up Conical Hill zig and zag.  One grump said "you know it's not a riding track?" to which I replied, "yeah, but it's a good climb, and we're not abusing anyone". 

Then into Eagle's Nest.  Nice steep wee trail, with a few interesting features.  Spotted a super tech line off to the left, which I'll look at next time.  Across the walktrack into C-Line, which was even more tech.  Steep tech corners, and on down onto Swoop for a blast out to the end.  Next, up Timberline, steep bugger climb, but not too long, and up Red Rocks. 

O was having enough of the climbing, so from the bottom we headed back around to the house and dropped him and Jet off.

Paul was back from his family ride, so joined me out for more.  We headed across to and up Timberline, then up Jolliffe's, where the top difficult corner has a new line out further and back.  Then, into the fun tight descent, good blat down this, across the bridge and up Big Foot. As usual, a good hefty climb, and a lot of heat, so we had a good rest at the top before hitting the DH, fun blast all the way down and back around into the forest and around and out the bottom.  Next up, climb into Detox.  Near the top we heard and saw a guy with fresh legs chasing us up.  We kept our lead across the top and dropped him on the downhill.  Then we headed straight into Mach 1 for the blast out to the end.  More climbs, but less height in them, than my memory usually serves...

Finally, back across Camp Track into Western Link and back to the house.  After this it was soaking time with the kids at the pool. 

Overall, 16.34 kms, but what felt like more than 522 m climbed.

Hanmer and Cycle.

Awesome ride Saturday morning in Hanmer, with Al.

headed from his folk's, up Chattertons, up pylon steep grunty little bastard of a track, i walked the steepest bit, Al cleaned it. then my rear brake messed with my head, so muddled with it and it seemed to come right.

down Tank track the top of which is a bit messed up, but the rest still rocks, beautiful rooty goodness. then up onto one of the lower Conical hill trails round to Majuba, found one coming down, so we walked up it, found another going right up to the top with a munty rock garden built on it, so, walked up that too, to the top of Conical hill, second knoll... were told later by a local that that trail is called the Eagle's Nest. bombed down it, dabbing over the rockbridgegardenthing, then dabbed through the tight hairpins and bombed the last bit down onto the Majuba.

then through and up onto Joliffe's, upper Dogstream, all good climbs, most of which i always forget how long they are... then up onto Big Foot. beeeaauuuttiiiffuuulll... Nature, conect to Detox, loose and greasy down Detox, rutty and a little bit messy, tho nothing on what the Port Hills've got right now. then back up the road, and down Lower Dogstream up Joliffe's again, up RedRocks, through two lots of Track Closed for Logging tape, rode most of the way down and into the clearfell... R.I.P lower Red Rocks... then back into the village...

minty minty singletrack... love riding up there.