Sunday Foggy Pleasant Fatness and a Couple of Par Klaps with O

Parked on Stonyridge and rode the fatty on up the hill. Fog was roaring thru and so I just toodled on upwards, and when I thought I was only about half way up suddenly there's someone on the road above me and I was genuinely surprised to find myself at the top.  U-turned and took the trail around the front and along the original Britten to the cutting, across the road, over the fence (where i took the pic) and on up the singletrack Pleasant climb.

Into the down and lots of honking of damp brake disks, which soon settled out, pinging down the rocky section, finding the smoothest line, and bombing, weaving down through the tussocks.  Around above the ruins and into the single-track across towards the Richmond Pines.  Found excellent flow through here, thinking, "man this is good" and then around a tight left hander, slightly overcooked front wheel over some tussocks on the outside, and straight into a hole, which pitched me over the bars unceremoniously dumping me onto the grass.  Ouch!  - first time for ages.  Had to sit down for a quick breather and re-collection of self.  Then got riding again, flowing the rest of the way around to the pines and up the singletrack climb to the old Greenwood entrance, and up the road to the top of Britten.  Here, I rang Steve.

They were nearly at the top of Mt Pleasant so I scooted up Broadleaf to meet them - Pete, Andy, Wayne, Robin and Steve, all waiting for me at the top, still in the clouds.  We all rode together down with them to the ruins then Steve and me took my earlier route around the singletrack while the others headed down Greenwood and the Captain.  Steve and I cruised around to the Richmond Pines meeting a big group here, and then up to the Greenwood entrance.  Up the road and into Britten, for a well earned bomb down the trail, cloud thinning a little.  Steve was parked on Upper Major Hornbrook, so he peeled off at the first pylon and I continued my merry way across and down past the second, back to my car.

Just under 14kms, with 460something metres climbed.

Drove through to Lyttelton, lovely sunny day every where else in the city, and picked up O from Tane's.  Then we went home, got his CAP pass, dropped off the Fatty, and headed for the park where we met Tra'y, Nik, H and Jake.  They'd brought O's bike.  Some lunch, then O and me buddied up the lift (me on his ticket) and did a couple laps.  First lap, Yeah Yeah Gnar, Possum and into the Jandal.  Good jumpies, and speed.

Second uplift, took Summit Connector across, dropped into lower gnarly nun, and nun, then Choir Boy bombing to Captain Cooker and Loess Rider as fast as possible.  Both of us were a bit stuffed by this point, and I was starting to get sore from my OTB earlier, so we bailed, figuring on giving up on his 1 uplift left on account that we got 2 freebies for me...

Sunday Park Laps with the Boy

Took O to the park, we parked about 11, and Nelson wasn't far away so we did some drops in the skills area.  I 'e.t.a'd him and he was in the parking lot but had no pass, so headed home and we headed up the lift. 

Into the main entrance of Lord of the Possums, we bombed down, yumpity yump the way down.  Then into Jandal Handle, and more jumpy mumpy.  Fun times.  Out the bottom and there was Nelson, so off up the lift again.

This time, into Summit Connector.  I nearly lost it over the bars from a jump over some rocks that kicked my back end up too far, then not far further (on the grassy slope across to the Nun) Nelson flatted, front first, then we noticed the rear too.  So, I fixed his back holes in situ, and he did the front.  Got rolling again, taking the Gnarly Nun entrance across the nun down the droppy rocks, and then in the second whoopdedoo he flatted again, front wheel, nearly losing it off the side no less.  We needed to get going, so left him with my glue and left him to it.  Rocked on down the rest of the way, bombing Old Dyers.  I showed O the entrance to 3rd base, and we headed on round to Captain Cook and into Shredz.  He followed me down the first section then dropped onto Loess, while I continued down the rest of Shredz.  Good fang.

15kms, with 2 uplifts...

Sunday, Heated Hunts with a couple Park Laps

Met Steve, Wazza and Nelson (on his xc whippet) at the bottom of Ramahana.  Steve wasn't feeling up to the climb so he headed on around to the Park, whereas us three remainders headed up the hill.  Was hot and we were all in our black pfmtbc tees - good choice.  Made the top, and blatted around the Traverse, chatting with various peeps at various points.  Blat through the Thompsons, and across onto Old Dyers for a charging scream down this.  Noted that 3rd Base was Closed...  Decided on Loess Rider for a change, and had a great run down this, finding Steve at the bottom (having expected us about 15 minutes earlier (the time we'd spent yakking)).  Nelson headed home to collect his DH bike (not wanting to ride anything interesting on his noodly whippet), and so the other three of us headed up the lift.

Into Yeah Gnar, good bomb down here, then Possum, pop pop pop.  And into Handle the Jandal for a good floaty waft down all the jumps.  At the bottom Nelson was still a wee ways away, so we headed in for coffee (tea etc) and when we'd done he'd arrived.  The other two boys decided they were done, and headed home.  Nelson and me took the lift.  Into Summit Connector, lower GnarlyNun and it's fun rocks, then lower Nun, followed by Choirb, stopping at the now open 3rd Base.  I checked out the squirrel catcher.  Followed Nelson in and cleared it no problem, then the fun began  Awesome trail, exactly my kind (tho I skipped on the harder features).  Some pretty sketchy greasy spots in the steeps under darkness and wetness of the firs and eventually we made it out the bottom intact.  Fun times.

Decided I was done, and needed to get home, so rode back to Nelson's car, and I continued on down the road and around the streets and riverbanks to my car on Buxton.

Quite a big ride, leaving me pretty toasted. total of 33.5 kms, with 1369 altitudinal descent.  (minus the 2 uplifts giving me total 30kms ridden, and a naturally aspirated gain of 590m).

Sunday 3 Lapsa th' CAP

Nelson had 3 uplifts to use and I had a couple left on my card and was needing to buy a new 10 lift before they ran out.  We met at the park, me quite hungover from a Camel Cottage party, and not having managed breakfast (dropped it, breaking the plate on the way out the door, and spilling hot coffee all over my tum-tum) and barely drank any of the coffee... 

Up the lift we went.  Taking it easy first run, straight into Yeah yeah nah, which was okay, then into Lord of the Possums.  Mostly a good run down here, good jumps on most, clearing them smoothly, tho one nearly toppled me over forward.  Bottom of this and we were into Handle the Jandal.  Handled this very nicely, excellent boost on most jumps, tho one close call where the jump landed me into the inside of a corner rut/drain that I just managed to not quite get into.

Straight into the next lift, me wanting to puke on the way up, but managing to keep it down.  This time trying out the tech.  Into Throw the Goat, Nelson doubling everything, me taking bunny lines.  I thought there was an 'escape route' from Throw the Goat across to Swingers Party before Yoda, but no, there's not (only the 4wd part way down) and so we ended up dropping down Yoda, which proved to be actually extremely fun.  Cleaned everything, albeit all the "easy" lines (they're not that 'easy' but all rideable).  Then across and into DOHC for a boosty fun blast trailing in Nelson's dust, but keeping him in check. 

My ticket had run out so went and got some kai, Nelson kindly shared some of his free burger with me, and I managed a hangover-curing smoothy (oats, banana, ginger... good!).  Down to get a new pass, and we hit our third lift of the day.  Took Summit Connector, and dropped into the Nun via the bottom droppy section of Gnarly Nun, excellent blast down here, and then a speeding Choir Boy / Old Dyers, overtaking a couple down here, and hoofing up to Capt Cooker, and straight into Shredzillaville for an excellent trip down.  I cleaned everything again, and stuck to the non-'easy' lines, no problems! 

All up a nice run, and didnt bother with MMR, so there's no proof other than my memory.  Estimating about 1200 or more metres of descent.

Sunday 2x CAP laps + Zipline

Had swapped out the new Spoon for the black one that was on the Fatbike, and put the black on the Rocky. 

Booked for the 1pm Zipline, so O and me dropped H at friends and we parked at the Park about 11.  Up the lift and we headed down the Summit Connector, down to the road.  Spoon seat on Rocky waaaay more comfy, thankyou.  Hung a right on the Summit Rd, and headed up the road to top of Flying Nun.  Into this, O's first time from the top, and we cruised down all the way.  He liked it, but some of the rocks were a bit dry-dust-slippery.  At the Kiwi, we headed up the Summit Rd and into the top of Vic Park.  Taking the trails across and back in the trees, then down through the rabbit paddock and rock garden into the gummies, cruising my favourite in here down, then all the way through to the 19th Memorial.  From here, down the shady forest trail to Dyers Pass Rd, crossing carefully to Loess Rider.  A very enjoyable roll down here, though, on second thoughts, I should have tried Shredzilla..

Close to 12pm at the bottom and I was meeting Dad and my bro at 12.30 for the zipline, so figured we'd have time for one more fast lap.  Uplift again, to 12.15 at the top, we bombed down Possum (noticing that Yeah Yeah Gnar had just reopened - wish I'd taken it). Flat tack, then across into Handle the Jandal, which has a bit more to it now that wasn't there the first time we'd done it.  Then down the valley and dead on 12.30 to meet for the zip.

Locked my bike to one of the stands and O went off and did some laps while my bro and Dad did the zipline.  On our lift up as we were passing over the Jandal there was O, he stopped and said hi.  Zipline tour was cool.  The rides are super fun, but in the nearly 2.5 hours of the tour, you're really actually only flying for about 3 or so minutes...  But, the high one is super cool view, and quite fast, and the long one is awesome fast.

(O completed 3 more laps, once more Possum and Jandal (where he saw us from), second one tried out Duncan's but found it boring as so he took DOHC to compensate, then his 3rd, Connector, Nun, Choirb, Loess again.  Nice one son!  How responsible and independent for a 13 year old.

17 kms of riding (and one uplift), and 588 m of altitude (minus one uplift (420m?)...

Wednesday Night Park with O

O's broken arm is fully healed so he was keen to try out the Park again. Up into the clouds at the top.

First lap, headed into Possum, all the way down to the mid point.  O had a massive smile on his face all the way, and was getting sore hands by the bottom.  Then, instead of dohc, we headed into the new Handle the Jandal, unfinished as yet, but not bad.  A couple of corners don't flow that well, but man you can carry some speed in some sections.  As yet unfinished, and so you're directed down a steep offcamber corner then a rough and gravelly 4wd road out the bottom of the valley.

Second lap, and last uplift getting there just before 7, we headed into Summit Connector, then into the Nun which was techy for him.  Then onto Old Dyers, aka Choir Boy, bombing down this, O really enjoying it, except for the climb at the end.  And finally, Loess Rider, which he loved.

Unfortunately MMR wouldnt kick in when we were on the lift, so I gave up on it.  Based on previous similar rides, we probably did 18 to 20 kms, including the lift, and virtually no climbing.

Tuesday Couple CAP Laps with a Bonus

PFMTBC Inc meeting to view the Annual Trip Video at Steve's booked for 7.30, so Nelson picked me up in Washington Way and we got to bottom of CAP, parking out on the road to save having to drive over the speed humps...

Rode in, straight for the lift.  Hot day, again, and I's still recovering from Saturday's burn-out.  Low energy and quick to break a sweat.  Uplift, and into recently re-opened Lord of the Possums.  Nice, bowls and yumpies, bloody dusty tho.  We had it to ourselves for a while til it joined Duncan's Donuts, where there was a guy and a couple of girls we overtook, then near the bottom of this caught up to a group of guys.  Proceeded through to newly re-opened DOHC, now a black track.  It's pretty rough, and super dusty and in places they've cut out zig-outs and back so is steeper there, but still rather manageable.  Good to be on that side of the park and not pedalling away down the greenline.  Nelson put in good speed and a good gap on me, but this suited me cos right on his tail was too dusty anyway.  I was being reasonably cautious cos my back tire is bald as and was squirrelling around noticeably.

Straight into the lift again and up.  This time taking the Summit Connector across to the lower Nun.  I really didn't wanna do much climbing, so we didn't go up the road to the top, just took the lower down to the Kiwi.  I was super careful not to rimstrike, riding light to keep the pinchflats away.  Up the road to top of Vic nearly killed me.  But we dropped into the right and back across to the see-saw (I baulked, again!), and a little bit of Brake Free then across to the rockgarden and gummies.  Rockgarden saw my rim strike and flat.  Damn!  Walked down to the corner above my 'favourite lefthander' and replaced, then we got going down, me sending Nelson off down the new left off my left that I rode last time.  I took the old line. 

Then it was below the skidder site and out to the 19th Memorial, across the road and down the blast of a run down to Dyers Pass Rd, across and into KamaSutra and LoessRider.  I wasnt game on Kama, but Nelsie wanted to check it out on his trailbike, so we parted here and I had a flowy cruise, catching and passing a few people, and grabbing double-air wherever I was able.  Nice.  Meanwhile, Nelson plummetted down Kama Sutra, and was waiting a few minutes for me at the bottom.

Down the road to the car, him completing 17.6 kms and me 19 kms.  And accounting for 2 x lift rides, we'd probably only had to climb about 100 m ourselves.

Saturday Parking with the boys

Took O and his buddy Tane into the park, buying Tane a 10 pass for his near-future-birthday, plus one for O. We lifted up and did the green all the way down to get Tane's eye in.  Rough as, but everybody enjoyed it.  I followed for a start, and Tane crashed in about the third corner, a high-side that he leaped off and ran with, then a little lower down I got past him and then O.  Then I stopped and turned on the MMR.  Caught them again and overtook and sped on ahead.  On Active Rest I zoomed ahead again, getting quite a lead, then stopped and waited til I could see them coming and got going again.  All good.  Both boys enjoyed it and were game for more. 

Round 2, hit Possum Lord and DOHC. Tane REALLY liked these ones.  We all had good blasts down, I think Tane offed a couple times but he was fine.  Back to the car for a bit of lunch after this run.

Then round 3, we headed down Yeah Gnar.  Pretty dusty, and I caught some rookies (who probably shouldn't really have been in here, I mean, they were really struggling).  I got past them and then the boys did too.  Then some faster guys got past the boys, and I let them by, but a little lower down they let me by again cos I was definitely riding it quicker than them.  The boys walked the worst steep bit, but rode everything else.  Across the midpoint and into DOHC again. This was another good run and faster than the last.  I'd been texting with Paul a bit earlier, and he was in the vicinity so came in and we caught up with him at the base, juices for the boys and an iced coffee for me. We were talking about another run, but after a quick blat on the pump track (while I hung with Paul) the boys decided they were knackered enough that we didn't need to do a final fourth run.

I forgot to turn the MMR off til most of the way down the access road...

Family Adventure Parking

Borrowed a spanky SC Bullitt from Josh for Tra'y and we loaded up and trekked off to the Park.  First time up the lifts for all of us, bought myself a 10 ride pass and the family all had the 3 ride samplers we'd got for Xmas.  So, off up the lift, (the top of which I turned on the MMR).  Off down Duncan's Donuts to start with, O and me soon putting some distance between T and H.  Regrouped and I rode with H and T jetted on ahead with O.  Nice cruisy descent, a little on the slow side, and H was really getting bumped around.  It looked like his forks weren't doing anything ( - they weren't, I discovered a little lower down).  Bit of whinging ensued, from the start of Active Rest and for the rest of the way down.  O and me jetted off ahead again and got regrouped a couple times eventually getting to the bottom tho and waiting and waiting for them.  H was not happy, and I really was wondering if we'd get him up again.  But, sorted out his fork a bit, and got his brake lever closer to the bar, and put a bandaid on the blister forming on his hand, and off up the lift we went again.  Caught up with Mark down here too.

This time, O and me hooked up with Mark at the top and we headed into Yeah Yeah Gnar.  Nice, the old top bit of T2, so was good.  O did amazingly well, handing the 'tech' really well.  We blazed on down this, him only walking one steep section just below the volcanic rock wall (on Alice's), and cleaning out the rest nicely.  Then we headed into Double Overhead Cam, and it was a hoot.  Both of us really enjoying it and blazing down, overtaking a slower couple on hardtails, and I'd blast ahead for a bit, then stop and wait for him, the blast ahead again.  Was good.  At the bottom again we watched and waited for H and T, and chatted to Mark again.  H and T turned up, we jollied H along again and he was much happier after that descent and another bandaid and a juice and he perked up well.  Whilst waiting down here I managed to witness a guy crash pretty bad on the last Airtearoa jump, landing on his side and smacking down just out of view.  He didn't get up again.  We watched while the medics all arrived and actually while I was getting bandaid for H there was a guy in the First Aid bay with a broken collarbone too...  2 crashes within 10 minutes of each other. 

Off up the lift again, and this time O and me did Lord of the Possums and regrouped with H and T at the mid point.  Stupidly I sent T off with O down DOHC...  oh dear, what a mistake.  H and me had a nice time down Active Rest and spotted T and O below and T was cursing me.  Then much much lower down I saw O finishing off DOHC and we stopped right where they nearly touch and waited for T.  Eventually I saw her walking down with the bike.  As soon as she saw me she yelled she was leaving it there, and did and walked off.  I had to send H on his way and clamber my way through gorse and up to get her bike, ride it down to mine, then ride mine and wheel hers down the rest of the Green trail.  Not a happy girl...  I'd totally misjudged her ability, and just thought no worries, it's easy (for me and O, obvs)...

End of day, with unhappiness in the car.  Made up now, but she'll never trust my trail judgement again.  "yeah, it's easy", when it's not.

three rounds...

Boxing Day Picnic, Park, Home

Eight Hundred and Fiftieth Post!!!!!

Big extended family picnic in Vic Park, so I took the bike and rode from there, - up the hill thru skidder site, up the steep bastard, past Brake Free, and up into the Thomsons.Across the Kiwi, txting-base with Nelson who was doing laps in the Park,  planning to meet at the top.  Up the road to top of Worsley and fanged it down the Body Bag.

Through the gate and chatted with some guys here before heading up the uphill track to the Chair, 3pm. Sat there expecting Nelson to show any second, to no avail. So rang him as I needed to get going, they still hadn't hit the lift, so off I went on my own. Considered doing the old favourite Throw the Goat, but figured I should explore a new one, so headed down Lord of the Possums... Berms berms and more berms. Through familiar country including an area from Wayne's World to Fight Club (R.I.P.). Caught up to some guys near the bottom, so mustn't have been going too slow.

Big open area with only 2 choices today due to some Muppet having crashed on the one I wanted to do, DOHC and requiring helicoptering out, so, it was either the easy riding green track, Active Rest, or the black option, Airtearoa. I chose the latter. Boost after boost after jump after jump, taking it pretty easy and never giving momentum too much free reign against gravity. Eventually made it down in one piece and headed down the access road (a surprisingly long way out!), then hoofed it into the wind home by about 3.45pm.

This here being the start of my ride...  it seems to stop around where I stopped to turn ON the clutch on my new derailleur, part way down Possum.  263m gained, and wouldn't have gained much more than that as it was all downhill from here.