Friday Morning, More Steep Tech

An annual leave surplus had me take the day off so ducked out for a short local. Up the usual grind of Vic Park, clamber clamber, using Worm across then back to top, down the Thomsons both, nicely nicely, then across the Dyer's and up Summit for Worsleys-top.  In the shade on the Nun climb I stopped and adjusted my seat, slid it forward and tilted it slightly more, thereby giving me much better climbing capabilities.  At the top the entrance to the Gnarly Nun looked pretty good, so I figured why not...  Metres in and I discovered nuh uh, not good, overgrown as hell, barely able to see the dirt (and therefore rocks and drops...).  A very nerve wracking descent ensued, with me cleaning everything, but awkwardly.  Finally out the bottom into the blasting fast lower Nun, bombing down and out, back across the Pass and up the road, good pace, feeling fine.  

Top of Vic, dropped down around over the jumpies, and see-saw, then back up the trail to top of Pedalfine for another go.  Dropped down this, cleaning nicely, and went to enter the one bit I missed a couple times but just couldn't bring myself to it, so detoured around and down the next section, bailing out at the climbing track, back up the steeps and over Skidder into all the singletrack.  From 19th, below the road and dropped into that new drop, down to Harry Ell where a very grumpy looking walker gave me evils for the 10 m of that track I passed him on, then climbing again, up around and back on the road.  Fanging into 235 for a good bomb, good jumps lower down, and then all the way down and out the bottom, carrying up onto the Vic Park Rd again and home.

Doubled the distance and height from yesterday, 10.7 kms, with 407 m climbed

Saturday Morning Heated Steeps

Nelson, O and me left our place and headed up Vic Park Drive, O powering off and causing Nelson to comment as to what a hurry he seemed to be in.  We went up to the main park area and dropped down the old access route to the top of Loess Rider etc. Across the road and O dropped over the normal entrance, whereas N and me took the new way straight off the road into Capt Cooker, dropping down the rocks and around, finding O waiting at the Karma/Shred/Loess start.  

I led off down Loess and at the first corner, pulled up and peeled off the trail.  O continued on down while Nelsie and me explored this new (to us) access trail across towards the 35s...  Several options off the left of it, and maybe 2/3rds along there's this massive rock wall with a route down it, leading into a jump and a berm and off down.  Nelson pushed to top to check it out but decided against the drop.  Who knows the speed you'd have into that jump and corner!?  We continued on across the trail, eventually getting to the 35 zone we knew, and were pleased to see cool 'rules' signage up here "Dont talk about it, dont facebook it, dont instagram it..." (So, officially, i'm not talking about it here).  Dropped in, holding on to the right hand side all the way down, weaving and dodging.  Nelson left me behind and then I wondered if he'd peeled off to the left somewhere because the dust had cleared and I couldn't tell where he was.  I caught up eventually.  I think we'd ridden the bit we finished on before, but who can tell?  Rolled out, much nicer end to it now (not having to climb up to Loess, for a start), finishing down at the skills zone.  Rolled out and around up to the base, spotted O, filled up water, cruised in and caught up with O and friends, then left them to it.

Down the carpark and into the climb.  Foosh...  First bit to the base of long zipline is a prick, but then it's not so bad, zigging and zagging, zigs and zags getting tighter and tighter and tighter.  Passed a few walkers up and down.  Eventually up the ridge and then nice cooling descent and around into the later climb, reminiscing about Daves (ACJoint) track and Fight Club and the likes...  Through the gate and up the Worsley.  Oh joy.  Cooled off in the shade next to the Park gate and then hit the body bag.  Ugh.  Nelson cleaned it, amazingly.  I failed at the usual spot then kinda caused another rider who'd snuck up behind me to fail too.  He practically ran the rest of the way to get ahead.  Nice cool breeze at the top. 

Climbed up to the top of the Nuns and decided on the Gnar.  Nice start, quite easy and relaxed corners, nothing too tech, then you hit the rocks.  We stopped and examined several sections before (or after) riding them, giving a couple of bits 2 goes to get the best lines sorted.  Then, across the Park track and bloomphity bloomph bloomph down the roughest line, near the bottom of which I'd taken a new (to me) line and just perched on top of a ridge of rocks between two nasty bits I did not want to fall into.  Then, as I re-entered the Nun proper, my front end bottomed something wicked and a very weird noise emanated from it...  ugh.  Rest of the run was fast and fun, until the exit to the road, some dipshit had left their bike right across the exit...  I commented "pretty dumb place to leave your bike" as I rode past.  Wish I'd ridden over the back wheel.  Filled up water at the Kiwi, and off up the road we went.  

Into Vic, usual down and around over the jump, loads of people standing around the jumps, and then next to the see saw, guy said "watch how the pros do it" as I went over it, lookin' good.  haha..  First few BrakeFree jumps and out down the rabbit paddock, and hard right over the cattlestop, into the pines, Nelson led down over the log and then I led down through the gums, usual route, swooping back and forth on the edge of traction.  Onwards down, then quick right and walk out the top of the CAP track, and up over 19th, down, around the road, into the carpark track, (broken window glass all over the carpark), bombing, swooping, getting to know this well now, and final climb before final blast down behind the houses...  

A hot af 13.5 kms with, what felt like a lot more than, 541 m climbed.

Saturday Loner Bowen Gnar Vic

City covered in low cloud all day, but I found some sunshine on the hills, sort of.  Parked at the end of Bowenvale Ave and headed up the valley.  Was about half way up the valley-bottom gravel section when I realised, "SHIT! I've left the key in the car door!!!"  Quickly zoomed back down, locked car, took key and got riding again back up the gravel bottomed valley.  Up the steeps and then into the HiddenValleyLink-Bonus track, climbing away, cleaning it all but the last hairpin up top, then up under the pylon and up the steep bastard zig zag climbing track.  What a prick.  Did better than last few times, actually managing to ride all of it, but stopped multiple times to breathe, heavily.  Saw only one descending rider, on the steep fun singletrack shortcuts.  Clambered all the way up to the start of the Traverse and had a rest and small snack, on my back, with feet up on the fence, draining the lactic out of the legs.

Along the Traverse, bit of a cruise, but pushing, always pushing, steady hard.  A bit of sunshine up here but cool sections of fog near the saddles, rolling through from the harbour. Straight through the top of Vic and down the Thomsons, both, to the kiwi and on up the road, steadily sticking with another rider ahead, only 50 m or so visibility most of the way up the Summit, down to about 20 m on Worsley's Rd.  I rolled on up to the top of the Nun, which was also in fog.

Dropped into the Gnarly Nun, greasy as from all the fog.  Rocks were slick from the damp dirt on the tires, making for a sketchy descent, getting brighter as I descended out of the fog that was really sticking to the hill here.  Dampness got less as I descended too, making the final sections quite sweet.  Into the lower Nun, bombing on down through back to the kiwi.  Across the saddle and up the Summit Rd, where I saw ahead the backs of a couple guys I know...  Namely, Steve and Pete!  Pushed harder to catch up to them, puffing heavily.  Pete on the new Yeti - sweet ride...

At the top of Vic, Steve continued on along the road, and Pete and Me dropped into the top, straight down to the cattlestop (next to the seesaw) and down into the rocks and gums, taking my usual favourite, bombing through this, then into Shazza's, and then straight down into Sneaky Ridge, bomb, drop, fun, into the deciduous section which was sketchy as, total loss of trail.  Around, dropped onto Flow, and out the bottom back and forth down Nu Bridges, nice riding.  Finally, I couldn't be arsed climbing Hidden Valley again, so we bombed on down the gravel valley bottom went our separate ways when I stopped at the car.  Driving back into the dankness of a low cloud Christchurch.

An acceptable 16.2 kms with 650m climbed.

Tuesday Night Rambling Sneaks and Climbers Before the Squall

Met at Nelson's after work and we rode around Centaurus not really knowing quite where to go yet, but formulating a bit of a plan as we rode.  Turned left into Rossmore Tce, riding up this with my bottombracket creaking like a mo'fo.  Pushed up the steep steps and then rode out Whareora Tce, across Dyers into MacMillan, and up the Whisby 'Rd' walky-steep.  From here it was up Dyers Pass Rd, left into Hackthorne and I grabbed a drink from the fountain at Takahe (cos I'd left my backpack at home).  Up Dyers around a few bends, and we dived into the Sneaky-35 trails.  Last time I kept right, this time we dropped into the left (which proceeded to swoop across the right hand lane).  Back and forth we dropped, swoopy swoopy.  I lost my front wheel momentarily in some loose loam, but kept it together.  A couple of quite greasy spots were interesting.  We travelled further down and to the right than I did last time.  Eventually tho into the lowest section I'd experienced then, and finally across the bottom of the valley, over the log, and up onto Loess for a flowy fun finishing finale.

Across the bottom of the park and straight into the bastard Uphill track.  Nelson motored away, as usual, and I just plodded away as good as my legs could handle.  The whole time we were in the park, from 35 through to this climb and beyond, a helicopter was hovering over (probably) Lord of the Possums.  Cleaned all the zigs and zags, no dabs, and by the time I got to the easier 4wd section, Nelson was miles ahead.  He waited at the top, before the quick speed down then climbing again as the chopper flew over and away.  Around and up to a locked gate, so we pushed around the fence, and on up Worsleys.  Nelson totally gapping me again..  Ambulance and CAP quad came down the road while we climbed.  Up the Body Bag, a couple of guys ahead.  I managed most of the way up, whereas Nelson obviously cleaned it.

Up to the Nun, and we decided on Gnarly Nun.  First time since the scorched earth of yesteryear, was vaguely overgrown, but we picked our way down, cleaning everything very nicely, including some good rocky droppy sections I probably wouldn't have on the Turner.  Then across the 4wd track and onto the super gnarly rocky dh descent down to lower Nun.  One non-rollable, pop-the-front-wheel jump that I mastered perfectly, and we zoomed through the first swoops of lower Nun.  Nelson pulled up with a flat, leaky pig of a tubeless tire that wouldn't seal.  Pumped, rode on down, up road above Thomsons and pumped again at top of Vic.

Could see a big squall making its way across the city towards us from the northwest, so we bailed quickly, straight down to the rabbit paddock, rain and wind howling in as we flew into the rockgarden, and around through the gums.  Felt like trees could come crashing down with the wind thrashing around us, and indeed, a couple had lower down before the last sweep across to the skidder site.  Straight into Shazza's and bombed out the bottom of that straightlining down to Sneaky Ridge, bombing the rocks and through this, over the jump to Bridges and straightlining across and down to Hospital Corner, before fanging it down the valley bottom and out.  Road wet with rain as we made our way back around to Nelson's whereupon the weather fined up again.

Lots of climbing, for not a lot of downward rewards.  19.6 kms, and 712 m climbed.

Tuesday Night Threes Ride Night

With trails posted shut or otherwise likely to be mucky we did a weird thing and rode three different rides in three different locations...

First off was checking out Farside which we hadn't been to since before the park closed.  Parked just up hill from the corner.  Rode up, rode down.  It wasn't mucky, but it wasn't exactly hardpack either...  no spleck, but plenty of grease and a fair bit of fun.  Short and sweet - 1.16kms, 60m gained.

Drove back down around and up Hackthorne, Dyers, parking at the halfway Nun park.  Headed up the walking track, and right at the start noticed what looked to be a newly built trail...  hmmmm... Nelson wandered up and looked and came back, then we got riding up the walking track, walking around any mucky flat bits and up the various steps, onto the road and past all the Nun Closed signs, actually finding that the Nun would have been fine, except that we saw the new trail entrance, unfinished, and decided to explore...  Fun, DH oriented trail, one or two reasonable sized drops (off big rocks), but mostly pretty rideable, and in nice condition, no damage done.  It petered out when it crossed the old 4wd track in there, so we followed it's route down through the scorched earth scrub to find the Nun just before the final bends into the carpark.  Short and curly this time (with a big MMR skip).  2.45 kms, 109 m altitude.

And finally, drove round the Summit Road to the top of Rapaki, and headed into Witch Hill, (past the Track Closed sign, again, it needn't have been there, there wasn't a wetspot on the whole thing).  Climbed over and around, across the road onto the walking track, this is quite techy in this direction, and only 2 puddles and one cowpoo the whole way.  We'd thought about exploring over the fence in a new area of trail Quetty had told us about, but decided it looked too cattle pugged and mucky, so off up the road to the Castle Rock corner.  Up above the corner onto the Tors track, and a wonderful blast down this.  Two flat wet bits, and the most techy rock also had water and muck over it, so I walked that (but Nelson rode it, of course!).  Last tricky descent was a bit clipped out but rode it all.  Then back on the walking track just above the road, around, and up Witch Hill, stopping for a nice rest out of the wind and to look at the moon and view, before a final fast blast around, enjoying the boniness of the trail back to the car.  Slowly increasing in ridings - There and back again, 4.8kms, with over 200 m gained.

Making a grand total for the night, 8.4 km, 375 m altitude gained.  Third day of riding in three days (nearly 80kms ridden), my legumes are burned OUT.