Thursday Evening Out the Numb

Bloody good one tonight. I popped down at 5ish and picked Nelson up from Bowenvale Ave, leaving his car there, and we rode up into Vic from mine. Up thru the usual combo of: road, 19th, Skidder, gutser to the top.  Spotted a FLOCK of kereru from up here, flying past.  Musta been about 12-15 of them.  Amazing!.  Then dropped into both Thompsons for the funtimes they always provide (walkers leaping out of the way etc).  

From Kiwi up the Scummit to the upper Governor's bay trail entrance for a good blast down.  I was taking it a bit cautiously, not sure why.  Wasn't feeling on my game at this point.  Hit this all the way around above the dude's stone house then down the zigs and zags, progressively tighter and now flowing through very nice bushy tunnels.  Across the dude's driveway and stopped in the gums for a moment, then hit downhill trail, which was cool and had been a long time (over 4 years).  It was tinder dry.  Stopped at Reuters Park (halfway down, trail heading around above Gov's to the right), spotted some blackberries, then more, then more. 

Had a good gorge on them.  Then knucked in for the rest.  Across, then dropping down through the valley, cleaning all, nice and dry (wet in the past) followed by a couple of tight wee climbs, before sidling around a little more and dropping into the switchies to the finish.  This time (unlike the last two (only) times) we headed up up the road.  Thankfully hardly any traffic.  Bit of a grind but a hell of a lot less taxing than riding (and walking) up the singletrack.  From the Kiwi, up the road to the top of Vic.

Down here, around over the two jumps, see-saw, Brakefree, and onto Sesame St.  I baulked and rode nanna line into it, but had fun on the rest.  Through the skidder, lots of people here, and into Razza's which was fun as hell, steep and dry and loose.  Into Rad, I should have, but didn't jump the jump in here (gotta session it some time), then across into Sneaky Ridge for a rock filled gravity propelled gnar-fest down and around.  Nelson dropped me by taking the No Road Bikes section.  Jump of the fence and then down through nuBridges, bombing down the valley and straight into Hidden Valley Climb.  Hot work.  Around and we stopped at the high point for Old Skool.  Some blokes turned up, they rested so we took off.  Gooooood blast down here, but starting to feel tired.  Then I heard a rim-strike and after that was paranoid my rear tyre was going down and getting washy so was kinda nursing it down.  At the bottom I discovered this was not so, and we cruised effortlessly down the road to Nelson's car.

A superlative 527m climbed (740ish descended on account of starting high), with 14.8km roamed.

Saturday Arvo Vic Park Meander

Nelson came over in the afternoon and we headed up into the Park. 

Up the road, seeing Sophie's parents and little bro walking up Vic, quick chat, then onwards up the road.  My route around the top of the 19th and over to the skidder, then up the grunter guts climb, to the top of Vic. 

 Across to the edge of the trees and dropped down to the top of the black and double black lines, looking down Cowabungaitis and wondering...  Decided tho on original plan, upper fenceline.  I was untrusting of the slick but Nelson bombed off down ahead.  Around and across, looked into Roam (which got very mucky below the massive log drop), and Flow Rider, but dropped into Cool Runnings, wafting down with a brief sessioning of one step-up feature.  Then down all the way into the gulley.  Climb out, this time through Cool Runnings towards Rad^Sick, which is steep but maybe not as steep as the other way I went last time I ground out of there.  

At the 40fter we headed across into Ponos, which was very sloppy in places, especially where there was water and muck on redrock, sliiiccckk as.  Out to the 23fter, back up the 4wd climb.  Zig and Zag around and up to Skidder, then up the grunter guts following a mum & daughter(?) who were walking faster than me, but the same speed as Nelson.  

Then it was around a 'new' access to Sesame St, dropping down this, pop pop pop, and out through skidsville down Vic and into the 235, ducking under the tree and not too greasy til the wet spot in the oaks.  Clamber back up to the road and upwards, lo and behold, there's Sophies folks and bro again walking down.  Lolz all round.  Into the descent behind the houses, a little sloppy in one section but the rest good.  Back home.

A pretty steep sub-8 km, with only 336 m climbed.

Saturday Morning Solo Holliss Vic Old Skool

Lots of steep ups today.  Parked in Landsdowne Ave just next to Holliss Reserve and headed through this and up Holliss Ave.  Stopped and feasted on easily accessed blackberries for a little while just before the valley corner.  Then hit the real steep, getting steeper nearer the top.  Into the stairs, buddha buddha buddha buddha down, then along a bit and up, push push push push, more blackberries, push push push up the stairs.  Across Longhurst and into the lower Latters Spur track, climbing up under the houses and cleaning all the hairpins except the very last.  Ugh...  Clamber clamber clamber and finally at the stile, where I took this pic.

Looking across at where I would come down a little later...

Let a couple of walkers go on ahead, and then rode and pushed on up under the pines, over the roots and next to the barbed wire to the dog park.  Left and clambering up the rock section then up to the gate, and on up through Vic Park, past 19th, into the Skidder where I filled up water and rested.  Warm, and my cold wasn't doing my head any good.  Hit the steeptrack climb, cleaning it all, only just, then up past Brake Free and on up to the very top of Vic.

Time for the down.  Entry of the Traverse, then hard left into the swoopy double, pop and down to the see-saw, over this, into Brake Free, pop pop, ugh, speed broken by the first berm, then pedal across to the Sesame St entrance.  Straight in, pop the first jump then waft over the big one, pop, pop, around drop, around, wall-ride, drop, around, oop - miss that double, drop that, off the edge and down over the jump to skidder...  Into Shazza's, bomb bomb rail jump rail, across rail, around, down into Sneaky Ridge, lower speed than usual, droppity drop down through around, ooh, lots of leaves, jump, drop into Bridges, across and wending through Nu Bridges, and finally out the bottom, downvalley, hard right into Hidden.

Easy climb now with all the trail work, making for nearly like a rest bar the steepness, then past a mum and daughter up the steepest, cleaning both hairpins and gasping for air at the stile.  Into the Old Skool.  Across and little climb, bit of a rest, then fanging it.  Nice flow, good railing, fun times.  Blast blast blast...  First big left hand hairpin I could see an XC dude flying up the hill (to the point I almost wondered if he was on a leckie - he wasnt!).  Pulled up before the next hairpin to let him fly past, then dropped on down, swoopy pump pump waft, push fly.  Blasting over the rocks, around the bend and dowwwwn, weave weave pop and roll, finally out the bottom and coasting the rest of the way down.  Down the road, left into Wedgewood, right into Landsdowne back to the car.

Surprisingly short, less than 10 kms, with 399 m climbed.

Saturday Up Down Up Down

With Sunday expected to be 35 I figured getting out early today might be a good bet.

Parked on Ashgrove, bottom of Barrington, and headed through Thorrington, shortcuts and sidestreets, across to Major Aitken and up up up to the top. Had earlier thought I might do Lavaflow but decided against it so after a very short rest, dropped into Four Pause.  First rocks to encounter, and "crack!", busted a front spoke.  Continued on down, jumpy jumpy with a strong cross easterly wind, and down through the newish bits, over the edge and down to the stile. 

Checked the front wheel and sure enough, one broken spoke.  Slightly concerned for a weaker front wheel, I made my way like normal down the droppy fun blitz of rocks and steepness.  At the bottom, I hung a left into the Hidden Valley 'bonus' dropping down through the newly re-built lower reaches...  I guess they're high-waying it for all the new Lavaflow traffic?  From the bottom, turned uphill and straight up K2, righthander into the trees, and then up under the 23foooter. Ugh. Steep pricks.  Onwards up the the skidder where I refilled my bottle.  From here, chuffed on up the rest of the park, causing a CRUNCH in the gears.  Higher up, I passed through the cattlestop next to the see-saw, I found granny was a bit clickity, so stopped to look.  Oh dear!  A crack and bend in my biggest ring causing the chain to lift off.  I had to use a couple of rocks to pound it straight, and seemed to set it right, on up to the top.

Down, around, jumpy, see-saw, Brake Free and into Sesame St, dropping the big jump and bombing through the next few, wallride, past the double gap and then peeled off into lower gums, staying on the singletrack, down and thru and down to the road and down to Dyers Pass Rd and down to the Park.  Straight in and up the 4wd track (which was actually mostly down from here), easy climbing up to Gung Ho for the first time ever.  This was a nice blast.  Enjoyed the busy-ness of it, lots of interesting wee features, and I kept a pretty solid pace all the way down, even tho I was riding blind...  Didn't encounter anyone else in here at all.

Final lower reaches, down and out to the base, where I just sat and coasted down through all the hoards, down the road, around back to the car.

A valid 18.22 kms, with a worthy 691 m climbed.

Tuesday Victraverse Bowenvic Latters

Climby McClimbface.  Parked up at my folks place (which will be ours at the end of next year) and checked out the place with T and H. 

They'd brought H's bike, so they drove to top of Vic Park while I rode with Jet up the road and up from Skidder through to top.  H's rear brakes needs some serious looking at, lever to the bar and barely any response...  Usually a bunch of pumping and flicking fixes it up a bit but not tonight.  "You're just gonna have to use your front brake more..." "Okay."  So, off we went, down into the trees and we swept round to that first jump which I popped nicely, then down to the cattlestop, opening the gate for Jet.  Then down Brake Free, and into Sesame St, but peeling left into the gums, all the way down but not my usual lefty (cos the steep would be too hard with his brakes).  He did amazingly well, and didn't crash due to brakes once.  Bypassed the skidder site on that swoopy through trees, and then down the old (obviously hardly ever used) singletrack to the end of the road.  T was at 19th Memorial.  H rode from here on the road with her following and I booked back up into the park.

Up next to Sesame St, 2nd climb up here tonight, and I hopped up to BrakeFree just to try out that first Sesame jump again after last week.  Way over popped it and flew, actually dabbing the rear brake in the air, then landing with a stopped wheel, miles down the ramp, straight into the next pop, then finally gaining some composure as I flew over the next double...  Round the woodwall, and contemplated but didn't commit into the next double, popped off the ! drop and then around and straight back up K2 climbing, up, up, then up Worm and onto the Traverse.

Got riding around here, been a while since last in this direction in particular.  It was rush hour, I pulled over quite a few times to let others through.  One guy I didn't (he was descending, and had a perfect opportunity to pull into a wee spot, but missed it) and he looked very confused.  Meh.  Rest of the run was good, and got to the top of Fourpause with four paws intact and had a nice pause here.

Dropped in, fanging, wooah, a little overgrown, making for a bit of edge catching sketchiness.  First jump was further down than memory served, nice, then overgrown corners slowed me down into the second one, and the third I popped nicely, landing on the transition.  Bombed down through to the final one for a nice leap and landing.  Continued on, and MAN was it overgrown.  Wading through tire-deep grass, barely able to find the line, and not seeing any rocks under it all.  All the way through and down to the gate, over grown long grass as hell.  Over the stile and into the first shortcut, not so bad, second, hmmm, rocks???  dropped, into next steep one, better, but everything from here on down was too overgrown to function...  not as fun as usual, especially the lower switchbacks which you couldn't even see and had to go really slow. 

Decision time.  Left, down HiddenValley, or right and down Old Skool for some more descending goodness.  Obviously I decided on the latter, and had a smooth and fun blast down here, with a couple of very close calls. 

Straight into the climb up the valley, oh the grind, 3rd time in as many weeks, meeting several of those who had passed me on the Traverse, and then after some seat adjustments, up K2, cleaning, again, and on up past 40fter and zig and zag to the Skidder. 

Blast down the road, detour around the back of the slide, then into the lower Dog Park and over to the Harry Ell Drive track, but detouring to head all the way down the back of the houses, fast next to the trees, then over the stile and down the (VERY OVERGROWN) Latters Spur track below the houses all the way to the bottom of Longhurst.  Finally, climbing again, back up (STEEP) Longhurst, and finally up Amherst to our new house.  Phew.

A surprising 15.25 kms with even more surprisingly over 650 m climbed

Tuesday Pre-Trees Bowen-Victorian Sessions

Thinking we would meet workmates either at the bottom or at the Skidder Site for a bit of a skills session Nelson and me rode up Bowenvale Valley and K2 like I did last week...  Got news half way up that they were piking (cos the Park was closed and they couldn't Lift up, lazy kids), so we continued up the grind (which didn't seem as bad as last week (muscle memory??)), and got to the top of Vic Park ready for some action. 

Figured we'd keep it a skills session, and rode down to the first jump in the trees, scoping it out and clambering back up for another go.  Nicely cleaned first time round, then into the see-saw, which I baulked on first, then did the 2nd time round, no problem at all (wtf was I worried about??).  Don't know why I've been so psyched out by it for so long.  Into BrakeFree, and rode back up for the first few jumps to ride again - I reckon I rode it best the first time...  Then into Sesame St.  First big gap jump Nelson just piled over it no problem and I baulked.  We climbed up, back into it, I baulked again.  Back up, baulked, but rode down through the rest of it nice following jumps and wallride no problem.  Stopped and walked back up, right to the top again, and met a young fella here - got chatting, then I followed them in and GOT IT!  Again, WTF was I worried about?  It was easy.  Enjoyed the rest of the jumpies and wall ride and Nelson cleaned the big gap below the Wall, and then we got chatting again with the young guy, Michael. 

Headed into Shazza's, and stopped not too far in to check out a couple of the jumps in there.  Decided the wooden feature with a downhill landing was too dodgy.  At this point we were joined by a lovely young woman Michael knew (Hannah, I think?) who rolled up and decided to join us on our way down.  From here we bombed down the rest of Shazz and down and into Sneaky Ridge, which Mike hadn't ridden before.  He decided to try the No Road Bikes section, while the rest of us rode around it.  Then him and Nelson decided to do the big drop in the oaks...  Both cleaned nicely and then we hoofed off down over the wee jump onto Bridges (or Flow?).  Regrouped and bombed it across into Nu-Bridges, zigging and zagging down this to the bottom of the valley.  Hannah split into Hidden Valley bonus and the three boys fanged it down the valley, and we made our 7pm curfew to get to our meeting (after grabbing some dinner), juuust on time.

A massive 7.5 kms, with a huge 350 m climbed....