Sunday's *800th post!*, Desolation of Smaug, ahem, McLeans, with Jet and my older boy

Weather appalling on Saturday, so hill tracks likely to still be mucky, so apparently no one was riding, so O and me headed out with Jet to McLeans Island.  Lonnng time since I'd been out here (nearly 3 years).  Boy has it changed.  Usual route, and first thing I noticed was that the whole first section has been logged, so no longer are we riding through forest, but desolate open spaces.  Same went for the next bit you head down into after riding along then up the stopbank...  All young trees (6ft or so already).  Madness.  Completely changes the feel of the place, and old landmarks of big trees are gone, and views across the expanses are totally different to the past.  I was on the Klunker, which was fun.  Grips like a grippy thing, and the wide bars are awesomesauce.  Obe's cruised well, lagging behind a bunch, and Jet just galloped along happily at our speed the whole way.  We did the main loop then the Coringa extra 5kms and then back to the car.  54 minutes riding time total, 15kms with a staggering 60m of altitude...




Just realised, also, that this is this blog's 800th post!!!  Happy post century, blog.

Thursday night mucky puddle klunk

Not a lot of riding of late, with my knee giving me gyp riding to work etc, so Queen's Birthday weekend at the bach with no riding had been a good rest.  It's finally coming kinda right, so last night Nelson came to mine after work and we had some dinner then headed out to the Puddle.  Lotsa rain over the last couple days meant the hills would have been useless, so Bottle Lake was the best bet.  Lots of puddles around, Nelson was on his singlespeed and I was on the Klunker, which is a fun bike, but hard work.  Handles really well tho, and the backpedal brake is really all you need out there.  We both wore jackets and our G.Effect leggings, meaning when we got back to the car we wouldn't dirty it up.

Did the usual lap, headed in, hung a right and out to North Beach and then up the coast track, where the sand washouts have been dug out with a digger, then north of open section, where the track ends up top of the dune, we stopped for a look at the sea and the just starting to wane moon.  The big seas of last week had cut right into the dunes leaving a big drop down to the sand that was being washed by the waves, leaving practically no beach for walking on...  A couple of riders rode past as we got back up to the bikes and so we chased them down, passing them as we came back into the forest.  Headed all the way up to Spencer Park cos Nelson didn't have any water, then bombed it back south to the car.  Hard work pushing the Klunker with the seat being too low for sitting and not wanting to stand all the way.  We swapped bikes for a little bit and Nelson's felt twitchy and short with it's steep angles compared to the slackness that is Klunk.

Back to the car and stripped off the outer layers and it was looking like she was gonna be a frosty night, bloody cold.

Sunday Bottled Klunking

Maybe some of the boys met at Steve's and rode, but i know Steve, Pete and Wazza were all out.  And I pulled out last minute cos of wedding in Ashvegas yesterday and only getting home at 1.40am - not enough sleep.

So.  Somewhere between 10.30 and 11 - O, Jet and me got out to Bottle Lake - me with the Klunker for the first time.  I've been using it round the redzone plenty regular, but this was it's first 'trail' outing.  2:1 ratio perfect for out there, and the back pedal brake was fine, except for one little steep out near North Beach (re-opened trails) that was a bit of a sketchy locked up skid.  Ooops.

So, we headed in and hung a right.  Kinda followed a family for a bit, but their boy (who looked bigger than O) was slower than O was, so eventually they let us past.  Me and O bombed the first section through towards the pagoda hill.  I managed to grovel up to the pagoda, but was sure breathing hard at the top.  Next section along the top and down was good, tho O could have gone faster on that descent.  I was having to feather the brake a little.  In hear for the last year or more we've been having to head through past those ponds, but now it's opened up again to the right, through some trees I cant believe are so big then into major clearance since last we were in there.  Looks like that jump might still be in existence, but shit's sure changed.  Along where i had my moment, and then short regroup before heading north along the beach trail.  At the top where the sand blow-outs always are (and were today) we stopped and headed onto the beach.  Jet went in to cool off, and then so did we!  I stripped to my gruds, O was wearing boardies.  Dived in and it was magnificently refreshing.  Got out and whipped off the gruds and back into my short liners then shorts and off we went again.

Along the beach north, then in and back onto the usual trail, taking in all the older less used trails where the splits happen later, then along 'muddy' road and back towards base.  O slowing down, and it getting pretty hot for Jet, but he was lapping it up and loving it all.  Ended up back at the car about 12.30?  Nice








3 years of the Troll...!!!