Wednesday, Extended Hanmering

Out on my own yesterday, no dog, no boy.  Toodled through town and on the road around to Chatterton's, up the valley to the single track.  Up the steep pylon track, into the forest and across to Tank.  Great bomb down this, then for the first time ever, headed up the back of Conical Hill - stopping to answer some directional questions from someone at the C-Line/Eagles Nest juncture.  Continued on up to the top and had a rest and small snack. 

Then off down Eagle's Nest for some technicality, and straight across into C-Line some extra (walking some of the corners on account of not trusting myself on the steep-head-angled rigid Fatty.  Into the rest of Swoop, swooping through the turns, and then across the flat to Timberland.  Grunty climb up here then straight into Jolliffes, gruntier still, with a break at the top.  Into the descent, bomb bomb, corners steep and handlebars nearly scraping.

Across the bridge and up into Bigfoot for the nice slow meandering climb.  Great views from the top and off down, slightly faster than the day before.  Next into Detox, climby climb climb, and bombing of the descent, around the top of Mach 1 and across the bridge and down half way down Dogstream,  hanging a right up the road to Red Rocks, good run here and finally back round to the house.

20 kms covered, and strangely only 575 m climbed.

Saturday Kaiteri Scribblings

Nelson and me scribbled or way around Kaiteriteri today. It was fun. Parked at beach, headed into Easy Rider for a start, then across to Cruise Control and up Tank.  Dropped into Remedy, which was fun, with some nice wee drops and pops, across into Shady Lady, which is still as tight as ever, weaving down through handlebar clipping trees.  Then into Revelation, around to and up Ziggy then the Cork Screw.  In here I was starting to struggle.  I'd had stuff all sleep the night before and I was tired, so was gasping and legs were dying and I'd not eaten enough breakfast so my tummy was geting dodgy too.  Struggled up the last bit to the top rest area and had a big rest and snacks and stood in the breeze at the top.

Off down and into Jaws which wasn't nearly as fun as I'd remembered.  I was pretty tight on Nelson's tail most of the way down.  Certainly I enjoyed the lower new bit, that was fun, but the jumpiness at the top half wasn't as good as I'd remembered, and she was getting a little overgrown too.  Anyway, brief climb out of the valley before the last fun section to the intersection.  Bit of a rest here then off up Big Ups, and watched a bunch of groms dropping into to Big Air before we ourselves dropped in.  Funtimes.  Catching good air on everything, even clearing quite a few of the doubly tables.  The groms all bailed at the exit to the intersection and we continued on down, some of the corners getting crazy near the bottom, but fun.

Brief rest at the bottom then off up Zigg again, struggling struggling, me, and then up Big Ups again, and into Skullduggery.  Always a bit of a favourite, narrower and more 'old skool' than those big machine built things.  More climbing than I remembered, but I think I always remember that.  At the Bay View intersection we'd been recommended Tree Hugger, and so we dropped into it.  Definitely fun.  long enough to be interesting and lots of cool features, and narrow and gooood.  Ending at the bottom of ShadyLady, we headed up Puff and around to Tank for pretty much the last biggish climb, in which Nelson got a new set of lungs and powered ahead, while I slowly found my demise.

Into Scoot for a nice short blast across to Swish - a wrong turn off this thinking Humphrey's might be good, but decided it wasnt so we back tracked and headed across til we got onto the Lower Skullduggery and bombed that down and down and down some interesting corners eventually ending up right at the Riwaka end of the entrance to the park and Easy Rider.  Jumped on this and got grinding, me struggling so much on the uphill even tho it was nothing really, then over and down and across to Half Pipe for the last few corners, a couple of fun jumps and out the exit of the park and down for a cool and refreshing swim at the beach, glorious views to be beheld.

22kms and only 550m climbed...  felt like a lot more.