Wednesday Evening - Captain Godley's Escape Plan

Good ride tonight. Met Nelson at Scumnervale and we treadled off up into the Thomas.  I led the way up, gasping like a mofo but doing okay, getting the wind back on the flatter spots.  Short rest at the seat (top of zigs) then along the way and into the rock sections.  Nelson cleaned ALL of them!  Remarkable to watch.  Whereas I biffed all of them.  With Nelson in the lead from here, we cleaned up the rest of the trail bar a couple of dabs, my suspension or my fatness was making for a LOT of pedal strike which kept putting me off.  Balance was all out of whack.  

A gale was hitting the gums above Evans when we got there, and this proved to be our lot for most of the way out Godley, a godforsaken wind.  Nelson leading the climb, then giving it to me for the nicely wind-pushed blast down towards Livingston.  I caned this, albeit with some super sketchy moments.  Bit of a fiddle with my rebound settings (not sure I've got it right yet) and off around the back from Livingston towards Breeze Col.  Nelson leading the climb again, and me super wary of pedal strike through here with all that exposure ('specially at the start).  I took lead on the descent, my suspension feeling a bit deader than it had been (settings now out of whack), but a good blast, although the cross wind at Breeze Col was scary with all the speed we were carrying.  

Onto Godley track back up, into the howling gale over the top, then down towards Livingston, bailing over the fence at an opportune spot.  On the road heading around to the (known to us) entrance of the Escape and we see more trail below, so turned back and headed up to Livingston Col proper finding a newly marked out zig then zag back towards the rest of the trail.  Nice rolling through here, me in the lead and man what a long downhill.  Minutes and minutes went by as we descended and still we were high up.  Trail nothing to write home about, no tech, but still fun.  On the switchbacks, coming back around into the wind proved pedally, but mostly gravity was sufficient to keep some speed on.  Down into the valley and a nice blasty tailwind down to the carpark.  Fast.  

Finally, up the sodding road, grind grind grind over Scarborough, but wasnt so bad.  Then dropped into Nicholson park dropping down the rooty steep (which really wasnt as bad as I recalled), steppy zig and zag on Flowers, then the access way out to Whitewashhead Rd, bombing back down and cruising up Sumner back streets to the cars.

All told, nearly 17 kms and nearly 600 m climbed.

Tuesday Night East End Triangle

Parked at Slumnervale and in no time Nelson turned up.  He had is XCWhippet, I had the Rocky.  I changed and we headed up the Captain.  Mucky in spots and beautifully dry in others.  Stopped for a dose of Asthma below the cabbage tree trail exit, and continued on, hoping for relief from the lack of air.  A worthy climb, I chuffed and huffed my way, feeling weak in my legs and gasping for oxygen through the lungs... 

Crossed Evans to Godley and started climbing.  Nelson cleaned away the whole damned thing.  I struggled and dabbed and walked and then lost my light and fixed it and was miles behind.  Regrouped at the top and then headed for Livingston.  Teddington Shit section annoyingly bad, but the rest of the trail sweet as.  He let me past on the lower swoops to the bottom, and we headed up for Breeze.  Around and down, the last paddock below PFMTBC Rock a sucky mucky quagmire piece of crap.

Where to from here?  Lets go check out the new section that leads into Anaconda from above.  Back up the road a to the second corner, and found a wee solar light marking the start of the new track.  Hmm, lets come back via this way.  So, back down to Breeze Col and into the climb for the skinny track.  Again, gasping, but once on the narrows I was okay, around, tight, then up to Breeze Bay track.  Huh, another couple of lights.  Oh, gudday Daryl.  Stopped for a chat with Daryl (Ex-Cactus GM) and a mate on road/cross bikes.  We carried on, bombing around the Breeze Bay trail, fun descent, a couple of wee climbs, but all good.  Finally over the stile and back down to the road.

Up to the new entrance, and into it.  Barely built, lots of nice swoopy corners down the sunny (dry) ridge, til they ran out and it was off camber, just sketched into the hill, but leading down to a natural entrance onto the Conda.  Good blast down here, mostly dry, tho a couple of sections with running water, and in the lower wobbles, one or two bloody awful bits, but no damage, and onwards down the 'Tail.  Nice, and then across and I really needed a snack at the Carpark.

Final Climb, ugh, somewhat of a second wind towards the top, dropping down a couple gears and standing and cranking for a bit, made the top and into Nicholson's Park we headed, down the steeeeeps, slightly slippery on the rooty, and then down onto the Flowers, and down the alleyway out to Whitewash, bomb to road, and ride back up, picking our way back to our cars.

Ended up being 18 kms with a very respectable 763 m climbed

Thursday Night McBritten, Pleasant Green Godsnake

Pretty quick one tonight... Met Nelsie at McCormacks Bay, and we headed up the valley.  Grunter always gets my breathing badly, so stopped at first opportunity to puff some anti-asthma, and we managed to scrounge a few blackberries too.  On up the valley, scoffing on more blackberries a couple of times a bit further up, then into the hairpins, me dying on a two.  Up the road, and then up the reserve to the bath and over the fence.

Up through Britten for a well earned rest at the top, before heading around the top of it, and over the stile and up Broadleaf to the towers.  STraight into the descent, boff boff boff, super quick and super smooth with a bit of a tail wind the whole way.  The corners were railing!  Meandered into Greenwood and the bombed it too, both on record times for the descents, methinks.  I slowed a bit on the traverse to Gloomy Gulch, but beyond this we bombed.  Nelson flatted jumping off the jump to flat, so stopped for a good while while he fixed that.  Then off again, fresh and fast, stayed on his tail til the pumpy bit into the valley and so he'd dropped me for my usual favourite bit before the two rocky ups. 

Across Evans, and into Godley.  Cleaned it up to the first break then bollocksed a few rocks then less so further along, even cleaning something Nelson bollocksed.  Good go most of the way til i crapped out on the rocks before the first boardwalky thing.  Brief break at the usual ridgetop,

and then we were off again, fanging down the way to Livingston, some of the fastest ever we reckoned.  Good climb from here, and then fastness down to Breeze.

Into the 'Conda, cruising to start then nailing it lower down.  Nelson got the drop on me on the 'Tail and was rolling across the paddock at the end while I was still above the houses. 

Finally, ugh, the grind up the road.  Luckily I'd brought my flashies, cos she was pretty dim light (heavy nor'west cloud cover).  Made it to the top though, and we headed into Nicholson Park, dropping down the steepest lines (over rocks and roots) and into the top of the Flowers, cleaning all the switchbacks with our switchback technique (except the last one for me), and then flying down the narrow alleyway to Whitewash Head Rd, down here, jumpy jumpy flow to the Esplanade and a nice cruise along this before the increasingly fast slipstream back through Redcliffs and around to the car.

A tiny smidge under both 24kms and 900m climbed

Sunday Posse in the Sun and Cold Wind

Steve doing a shortened ride again, meeting us up the top...  I parked at Ferrymead Bridge and awaited the boys. Wayhayno arrived first, then Andy in his van, parked next to my car, then Robin, then Pete and Alistair, then Nelsie. We toodled up St Andrew's Hill, Nelson putting on the gas and me struggling to keep up a bit, while the others all just chatted away behind.  A couple of breathers here and there as we had plenty of time before meeting Steve at 10.  Top of Major Hornbrook all but Robin took the singletrack under the pylons.  Everyone walked the steepest bit.  Then it was across and here we met Steve (who'd done a wee loop of his own across the lower slopes).  We set him to lead, and he gave us a very nice pace up to the top.  Then I led off around the top/front and up to the road cutting and up onto the climbing track.

Long break here then off up the zig and the zag and the rest to the top of Mt Pleasant all at various speeds.  I led down, having a lovely ride, flowy and fast and smooth.  The new gate and entrance flow quite nicely.  Lower down, in the tussocks I had a great run.  At the ruins Steve peeled off to ride the skinny tracks before heading back, and the rest of us bombed off down Greenwood, Nelson leading the way.  I started off with a bit of a gap behind him, but I slowly (and surprisingly) reeled him in until for a while I started stalling on the traverse with muck before Gloomy.  He stalled on the rock in there, so we regrouped just there til all arrived.  Then off down the rest of it, fast and fun.  Heard a loud noise above me when Pete dropped the drop, but continued on and bombed the rest of the way, reeling in Nelson until the two rocky ups.  Got to the bottom and watched as one by one the rest of the boys (except for Pete and Andy), plus a few randoms, rolled in.  We could see them waaay up the hill just below the drop.  Turned out Pete had burped but also holed his rear, stopping to pump it twice on the way down.  Nelson and him worked on it for a bit once he was down.

Here at Evans, Pete, Alistair and Robin scooted off down the Captain, leaving just four of us to hit up the Godley.  I had one of my worst times up and out the rocky climb and sections beyond.  Smacking pedals left right and centre, generally struggling to keep forward motion.  Was pretty fucked off by it all before too long.  We stopped at one point and watched the boys below negotiating parts of the Captain, and could see that Pete and Alistair didn't appear to know Robin was following them.  At the highpoint, where we had a short rest, we discussed options other than Taylors, but decided to continue onwards, and from here on down I had a much better run, with uber-speed down towards Livingston - reeling in Nelson again!, albeit gradually.  A better climb up from here, but gasping for air, then a sweet spin down to Breeze.

Finally, Anaconda.  This was fast and smooth runnings.  Heaps of fun, I think we all railed it better than ever.  Brief pause before the 'tail, and Nelson and Andy careened off ahead.  I was knackered before we even started the climb out of Taylors.  Pushed hard with lots of huffing and puffing, up and over, then we dropped into Nicholson Park, taking the steep(fun) route down to Flowers and then out the between-the-houses track to Whitewash Head Rd, bombing down this, down the road and bunnyhopping onto the footpath narrowly missing pedestrians and wheelchairs and children on bikes and in prams and pushchairs...  haha.  Nice slow meander along the Esplanade and the other three peeled off for coffee, while I had to get going.

Pushed it hard all the way back to the car, which seemed to take forever and absolutely killed me.

Felt longer than 27.7kms but I can believe the 935m climbed...

Saturday Afternoon-Evening Eastern Loop

Nelson finished work at 3 and picked me up. We parked in Sumner and headed up valley and into Sumnervale, onto the Captain Thomas, which was dry to the point of almost being dusty, except for the odd wet spot.  Made good time up here, tho taking it easy with my legs still tired from the 80kms earlier in the week riding and kinda hungry from lack of eats in the day.

At Evans we headed up onto the bottom of Greenwood, sidling up the chainlink fence to look over the view of the harbour, then up the old track around the orange plastic fencing onto the main track and climbed.  Cruising and enjoying the techknuckleness, only meeting two men lower down, and up around the Gulch, two ~12 year old boys struggling with the boniness.  Clamber clamber up through the rocky upper reaches, with Nelson crashing off near the top, then through to the ruins and a bit of a break and snack.  Cold nor-west blowing across the tops.

Up here Nelson set up his new gimbal for his GoPro.  Got it all running and the sun was lowering in the sky, so off I led back down, him filming.  I had an excellent run, weaving and flowing smoothly all the way.  A couple of stops to align the camera, and onwards, flowing fast and smooth.  Excellent blast, tho I was getting bloody exhausted by the bottom.

Sun well behind the hill, but still plenty of light left, we headed up onto Godley.  First section all good, but second section the bony rocks were chucking us all over the place. Nelson seemed to struggle to stay on a bit more than me, but I wasn't finding it that easy either.  Once up on tops it was better, except for that cold nor-west blasting across the hill, so we stopped just around the corner through the cattlestop, and before we hit the descent Nelson got the camera going again.  Another awesome blast, with some massive speed being carried through the lower section towards Livingston Col, with whoops and w00ts when we got there.  Camera stayed on as we climbed up the next bit, enjoying the techy rocks and then a good blaze around towards Breeze, mind the nasty wetspot heading across the slope above the PFMTBC Rock, and just before it too, I bailed out to the right, whereas Nelson kept flying through the mucky bit and over the rock.  Blasting cold breeze through Breeze Col.

So I chucked on my vest and we headed off down Anaconda, not knowing what to expect, but expecting the worst.  Top half was mint, second third was mint, lower wiggles were okay - one hole I avoided but Nelson smacked a back wheel through, and one wet bit that was below where you rode, so no problem.  Into the Tail and cruised the first, then I's getting sorer towards the end, (which I always do if I don't stop at the bottom of the snake), but enjoyed the final rocky bits and down through the paddock, me slowing right down for the muckfest before the bridge.

Last slog, up the hill, light getting pretty diminished (street lights may even have come on, actually), over the hill and down into Nicholson Park, Nelson turning on his light, but I found I could still see okay, taking the steeeeeeeeep drop down to Flowers, then three switchbacks in there then across the narrow trail between the houses and down Whitewash Head, blasting through onto the esplanade and cruising back to the car.

Good blast, 21kms, 740 m gained

Thursday, somewhat long...

Big ride for a weeknight tonight.  Nelson picked me up from home after work, and we cruised to McCormacks Bay.  Parked up and headed off up the road, then the singletrack.  He forgot his wee red flashy so went back for it, which was good, meant I could ride at my pace and not get too knackered too quickly.  I plodded away, and he said he could see me going through that first wee pinch at the end of the straight when he got onto the bottom end.  I moseyed on up, cleaning everything except the second hairpin, and he caught me when I stopped for air on the bridge. From here we headed up and hung a right, taking the trail around to Drayton, so's to show him where Joy's new house is.  Up Mt Pleasant Rd, then up Clearview etc, and then over the fence by the bath, and up the trails to the regular climb.  Nelson slowly but steadily increasing the gap.  At the top we headed around and out round below the rock out crop then back around onto the regular Britten Track.  Helluva wind on that west face.  Then up across the road and climbing up Mt Pleasant to the top for a snack out of the wind.

Into the descent, mildly sketchy, but kinda not too.  Rocks were all dry anyway, but the tires certainly pinged around a bit.  I had some good bits some not so good.  Bombed it down through the tussocks, a few wet spots, then onto Greenwood.  Nelson gapping me slowly for a start, then majorly lower down.  I had a couple of stops, one for the chain and one for my handlebar light plug, but otherwise a pretty good run down.  Not my fastest, whereas I reckon it might have been one of Nelson's fastest...

Onto Godley, my, haven't they cleaned that start up.  Not so much some of the later rock sections, which is fine.  Good run up here, tho my tiredness was showing and I seemed to lose balance a lot.  Not much wind this low.  Caught up with Nelson at the usual spot, and more break again then off down towards Livingston, fanging it.  Really smooth fast run down here, chopping and weaving all the way through to the bottom.  Good speed, good balance.  On the climb from Livingston I got way left behind and by the time I was coming around to where I could see Breeze Col, Nelson was already bombing out the bottom.  Otherwise I had a sweet run down here - it's so much wider and faster than it's been for years.  Sketchy as with the damp tires on the final cattlestop

Anda the Anaconda.  Good blast, nothing sketchy, just speed and balance.  Awesome jumps in places, and good railing of berms.  Tho, bottom few corners my handlebar light was out again.  Stopped to replug and Nelson was goneburger round the tail.  I took this a bit slower than usual, not sure why.  No bollocking, which was good, and a fast final blast down to the paddock. 

Then the greebly climb.  Ugh.  Did good for a while, but up around the tight corners (above where the walk track peels off left), I had to drop it down a couple gears and crawl...  Made the top in due time and we headed into Nicholson (where my MapMyRide gave up the ghost...).  Took a steep track down that joined the steep stuff we'd ridden last time, and it were certainly steep.  Down onto the path, a couple of steppy hairpins then onto the blasty wee alleyway between the houses out onto Whitewash Head and down onto the road and around the waterfront.  At Cave Rock there were tonnes and tonnes of people around, and cars parked randomly and people all looking at their phones...  POKEMON...  One person, referring to us, said "There's some real people doing real stuff..."  Haha.  Must have been 20 or 30 cars, and more arriving, and a hundred people?  Nuts...  Around the road and hauling ass back to the car, thankfully not along the Causeway. 

All up a couple hours riding, just about 26 kms, and nearly 900m climbed.  Big for a weeknight.. (Nelson's full course).

Wednesday night CaptleyConda

Met at Nelson's work and drove to Scumner, parking down by the water.  Got riding at 6.15, straight up Wakefield and into Sumnervale.  Up Captain Thomas, chuffing and wheezing, but managing most bar the usual walky rocks.  Eventually we made the top and headed for Godley.  Both failed the first rocks, so tried again, and again, and again, til finally I got it, but Nelson still didn't but on we rode.  Nelson gapping me as we climbed, the techy rocks making for interesting times.  Lots of wind at times, but not everywhere.  Over the top and around and brief break eating and admiring the view, then I headed off down in the lead, bombing and weaving nicely down and around and down to Livingston Col, my handlebar light cutting out on the way.  Unplugged, replugged, and all good.  Into the climb away from the col and Nelson spotted something in the grass, a nice light.  On up, Nelson getting way ahead, but I was happy with that cos of the dust being picked up by the wind.  On round and less wind, tail wind in fact, on the down and around, over the rock and down to Breeze Col. 

Nelson faffed with his jockey wheel then off up and around, on the skinny track above the road, around, me in the lead, keeping it real on the skinny skinny trail, then climbed up to the Breeze Bay track.  Nelson took off, flying around it, while I took it pretty easy.  Someone has put a backside on the rock we built the entry ramp to.  Then on the final down hill bits, towards the stile, they've grubbed out the ruts, wrecking the track a bit. 

Across to Anaconda, and Nelson led in.  I soon backed off on account of the dust, which was really bad.  So, had a solo ride down, my own pace, pretty quick, but no where near as quick as Nelse.  I was only about half way through the 'tail when I saw him heading across the carpark in Taylors...  Not long later, so was I.  Next, up the road, no cars did we meet, til right at the top, where we headed down into Nicholson, and found a steep downhill I'd spotted on Monday, taking this and bypassing a good portion of concrete steps.  One tiny section of 2 hairpins and we were on the alley way that led us out to Whitewash, then down here onto the road and finally along the Esplanade, dodging the waves - sea was HIGH and big.

18 kms, and over 600 climbed.  At 8.45 pm, we'd just grabbed our dinners and were leaving when the 4.7 hit.  Felt like a loud vibration, and a bottle fell off a shelf at the restaurant, and an alarm went off too...

Monday - The long way to dinner

Not really a valid ride, but kinda was...  Dinner at Joy's in Taylors, so, rode there from work, on the Troll - via Whitewash Head, Flowers Track and Nicholson Park...  rode up Whitewash to the path way that cuts back through the houses to Flowers Track, then up a few zigs and steps of that, then across and up through Nicholson, before the cooling rush down into Taylors...

apparently 248 m...  not sure how that happened...  and 16.5 kms.

Sunday's easternlinguists

No riding this week on account of Robin's Wednesday's 50th bollocksing up my form disabling me from riding with Nelson Thursday night, then Mum going into a freakin' coma - which I'm glad to say she's out of now, but still with a long road to recovery.

Met the posse at Ferrymead bridge.  I drove there, whereas they'd all biked. There, were Pete, Steve, Andy, Wazza, Wayno and Marie.  We battled road cones around to the Causeway then cruised through to Scumner and up Bitch-mond Hill.  Usual staggering out of the group and regrouping top of road and then the trees at the top and then it was up the 4wd track to Greenwood and a nice long rest.  Headed into the singletrack and I seemed to be on fire.  Good flow most of the way, one or two weird stall-ups but mostly just blazed down the hill.  Very good.  Dropped the chain just before the wee valley near the bottom, and then again just before the very end.  Pete practically had a flat front tire by the end.  Tiny hole in his tire pissing air and goo, which stopped once it got hole side down.  Air inserted.  Steve complained of a bad run, but most others seemed chuffed.  Re-assembled here and rode across Evans Pass to Godley.

Nice and easy into here, tootling up the first bits, and then I dug it in and cleaned up the grunty rocky climb.  Dabbed in the second one up top but felt pretty good having got the first one.  No one else had my luck, and Steve had another bad run out the climby bits.  Re-grouped at the 'landing strip' top, and Marie continued on through, Steve and Wazza jumping in behind her, while the other 4 of us just hung back for a bit, Andy pumping air into his now-low pressure tire.  I took off and had an awesome run down here.  Everything flowed, was mint.  Across Livingston, the others in view on the climb.  Passed Marie before the rockiest section, spotted Steve ahead and gunned it but didn't catch him before the end.  His riding had improved and his descent to Livingston and the rest was goooood.

Another regroup at Breeze and off down Anaconda.  Again.  Speed was my friend, with very few dodginesses.  As I got lower I contemplated the, shall we say, risk of my endeavours and would have crossed my fingers to not crash had I been able to.  Seemed to work cos I jettisoned across the final stile into the field at the bottom at a ridiculous speed. Cant remember the last time I had such a good run down here.  The others all agreeing they'd had pretty damned fine descents too.

Regroupage and off up the road.  Pete and me gapped the others, keeping a good pace all the way and got a nice rest at the top before I led everyone off down through the new-ish route through Nicholson Park that Nelson and me have done the last couple times.  Awesome blast through dirt sections and fun wee hoon down between the houses.  Finally flying down Whitewash and onto the road around the water front and kai at Dotcom.  Got word here that Mum was out of the coma, which was good news.  Last but not least, a bit of slipstreaming across the Causeway and me back to the car, home around 1.

Saturday, mostly sealed, and a couple new bikes...

Another short but worthy wee spin today. All sealed, pretty much. We assembled at Steve's: Pete, Robin, myself, Tony, Andrew and Marie. Prior to departure I was discussing my new front wheel, test ridden for the first time, the 29inches of largess, when Andrew said, "I've got a new front wheel too." I wandered over to admire it, noticing the juicy looking Nobby Nic onboard, when, hang on! Fork, Fox, white. Frame, metallic grey and red, reading Bergamont!!! Not only a new front wheel, a whole new bike with it! Awesome! Well done, congratulations and all that, Andrew!

 Off we headed, streets, river path, behind Ferrymead industrial, then into the climb, Sint Ahndrooh's Hyill. Chug chug chug, up we moseyed, taking breaks as necessary, layering off not far in, on up, up up Major Hornbrooks. Then into the Longridge Clearview cluster of Close's and the Upper Major, checking out and deciding against a very wet trail before continuing up the main road into fog to the top. Layers for the descent and bladder relief, tried for the first time my chilli chocolate coated coffee beans (Bushfire Hot!) and off we headed.

A big mother of a gate blocking our path, easily opened and on down the road we headed. Greenwood was unrideable, so on we shot. Eventually we rounded a corner from where we could see "Car Crash Corner" on the Sumner-Evans Rd, where they blasted last week. Pulled up and ooh'd and aah'd over the volume of rocks. Also noticeable everywhere on the hills were the slumps and slips from the last week's month's worth of rain.

Marie, Steve and me took off and bombed it down to Evans, passing where a massive slip had slumped earlier in the week.  Hmmm... The others hadn't followed, but Robin caught us and said Pete's broken his bike. Phone call, Pete's walking to get picked up by Alister. Non-drive chainstay snapped by the drop out, AND the carbon pivot-thing snapped on the seatstay... fucked.

 We awaited the others and carried on our Godley Head road, climbing then down the Scarborough track, top section heavily rutted. Steve opening the gates and we were through. Down for coffee, and on home, event free...  29r front wheel, on what little off-road it saw, proved to be much smoother than 26.  Think I'll stick with it.

So, Andrew's got a new bike, and Pete soon will do too.