Heated Weakend Hanmer hammering

Picked up by Wayne Warren and Steve(abba), drove to Hanmer meeting Steve and Pete, then Mark and Marie. Headed up Argelins Rd, sun beating down, she was gonna be a scorcher... hung a left round to Chatterton's valley, and then the up began. single track to start with was nice, couple little grunty rocky bits, then turning right, the not-often-used (by the looks of it) trail was overgrown with black berry vines, leaving blood on some of our forearms. trail condition improved a bit further up, then crossing the 4wd track and heading for the pylon, i knuckled down and managed to clean the entire climb. we regrouped in the shade and then headed off down into the darkness, nice cruise through down a bit, up a bit, down again, then clambering out, right into the middle of a bunch of very active beehives. nice and slow through them and then it was out to the road at the Tank.

Launched into the Tank Track, lovely descent, fun occasional rocks, lotsa nice roots, and cool twisty stuff at the bottom. regrouped, and headed into Majuba. (noticed from here, looking across to where Yankee Zephyr used to be, there's some new trail been built over there, will get to that next time i'm up). clambered up the high way, me bustin' it wrong-geared and making it the only climb i faffed. steve and pete (and others?) cleaned it. great descent from the top of it, blazing down and through and across, then gentle ride across to Timberlands, and another clamber up ensued.

Jolliffe's saddle, and up the track to Upper Dogstream. cleaned the tricky corner, and another regroup at the bench. then the descent, yippee, twisty switchbacky, steep gnarly, i dont know how Mark got his massively wide bars through some of the gaps. bollocksed the last corner i always do, just above the first bridge, then a lovely flight down to the next bridge, over this, and up Detox.

the climb longer than i'd remembered, but a good one, and into the down. awesome rail roosting trail, the xxx a bit exagerated, the ruts near the bottom not as bad as last time. yet another regroup, everyone with big grins, except abba, who was out of water and feeling it.

down the road and into Mach 1. from this direction, heaps more fun, mostly down, and i had an awesome rip down there. then it was down the road from the end, and up a 4wd track round and up to a downhill track that ends up behind Forest Camp. big rest in the shade and water and food taken on board most bods, then off through singletrack out to road, and up towards the Threshold...

helluva climb, in heat, up up up to turnoff, then the real climbing began. steep as hell, and a few of us cleaned it entirely.

into the down, i led off, some awesome corners, some lovely sections, interesting, flowy, a little too much climbing, but so much down too. excellent ride, cleaned everything too, including the bit i baulked on last time.

spent, we cruised back down the road and into town via the edge of the flatland forest. beer at the montieths pub, and back to the house for showers and lots more beer and a delicious meal cooked by Marie.

Sunday Morning we headed up Jack's Pass Rd, catching up to Alister and Nico on the way, blasting the Tank track again, then lower majuba, up timberlands, and into Red Rocks. lovely trail that, hanging a right at the bottom and into the forest things have changed a little in there, then back to the bakery for yummy lunch before heading home.

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.