Drove through rain from our showers in Reefton and made Hanmer by 6.30pm, meeting up with Steve, Robin, Matt and Lance.
Next morning, Nelson arrived, and so we were a party of 14.
Tricky having freshness and staleness mixed together, but it worked out pretty well. Round we rode and up Jacks Pass Rd, to Flax Gully Track. nice wee blitz down and the legs sure felt the climb. Then i took a wrong turn and lead a bunch of the group up a garden path (of excessive steepness) to the Yankee Zephyr, while Steve led some of the rest of them the right way. Nelson and me jetted back round to them and then rode it with them meeting Pete and Andy on the way.
The new Yankee Zephyr is a blast. great blast down with swoopy back and forth corner after corner after corner down this halfpipey landform. then crosses over the road into a new Swamp track and that just went on and on and on, eventually spitting you out now at pretty much the bottom of Timberlands. Up this to Jolliffe Saddle, and out Red Rocks, a tree clipping me, then richocheting Nelson, then actually throwing Dallas miles down the bank into blackberry and gorse, but otherwise a sweet descent and now continuing right thru to Dog Stream, that we went up the Lower and rested in the shade at the end of Mach1 and opposite the start of Detox. Nelson and me blitzed there and back on the new section of Mach1 here, then Him, Pete, Matt, Lance and me headed up Detox while the rest just went down Mach1.
Detox was fun, tho nelson had some issues, and then new to me Mach1 bits were sweet as. Nelson dropped me on this, but we all regrouped at the end. then headed round behind the Forest Camp to Jollies Pass Rd. Up up up, losing Matt and Lance to the heat, spotted the rest of the crew bypassing the usual Threshold entrance, and so followed and caught them before the firebreak, cursing the person who invented granny gear and hills. a hot slog. big regroup in the shade half way up access road then final grunt of the trip to top.
Mark, Nelson, Me, Pete, Steve then not sure the rest of the order back to Robin into the forest down the glorious sidling then switching back round and sidling, repeat, indefinitely, til the bottom. How long will Threshold last? As with all the best Hanmer trails of yesteryear, the forest cant be far from harvesting and like Big Foot will go the way of memory.
Out the bottom, cross the road, sketchy steep, then flick back up and onto an interesting singletrack down to a ditchcreek crossing that got Pete to off. bit of a play on the jump for everyone, and off we went, 3 of us back behind the camp, the rest not, then we chased them down the singletrack just inside the forest on the left hand side of the road, final drop to creekcrossing and a pie and 2 raspberry buns and a coke for me thank you very much.
Final tally for the trip. no major injuries. Dallas's knee, and Andrew's buttocks probably the most injured regions.
Showing posts with label Threshold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Threshold. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, Monday, Tuesday. Denniston and Hanmer
Family holiday away got me into the wilds of the west coast. allowed one opportunity to explore, saturday (25th) morning we drove up onto the Denniston plateau. It was a crisp frosty clear blueskied west coast morning. the museum was closed, but T said go for it anyway. i had chosen to do the Drill Track because it appeared to be short yet interesting enough, so off i treadled.
lots of ice around, with many of the techy descents made moreso by frozen streamwater glazing the rocks. trail was fun, climbs good and descents fun. singletrack bits were cool, and the landscape was super cool. got down to a bridge where Miner's Track peeled left, and started down it, but then decided to go for the Drill track instead. cruised up that and really enjoyed all the climbs and the descents were good too. less ice on that section. got to marker 4.3 and made a biiig mistake. because i'd left Drill Track map in the car, i had in my head that it was a little longer than i thought, so i turned right, when i should have turned left. Ended up riding Cedar Creek Road for about 5 kms til i got to a sign that said "No Admittance - Closed Area" and was a bit confused. txtd T and turned back, thinking all the way back that i'd missed a turn off, but not seeing it got all the way back and realised my mistake. so, last descent down to a bridge and there's our car, (thankfully T and the boys had driven down to Burnetts Face to meet me). so, what would have only been about a 40 minute ride had turned into 2 hours...
Next stop was Hanmer. more sun filled days, i got out Monday (27th) afternoon. left the bach we were staying at and headed up to Flax trail, cruised it through to where i climbed up and caught the lower C-Line, down to a muddy rutty Majuba. across to Timberlands, and up to Jolliffe saddle, where i climbed onto Red Rocks, enjoying it down into a mucky newly cleared bit (was being logged last time i was up) and out onto Pawsons, down to Camp Track, and then out onto the road to head for Threshold. through the Road Closed sign and up up up. hit Threshold, enjoyed the little blurb written at beginning, then struggled up the climb, granny all the way, it beat me and i walked maybe 10 metres... on past the lower entrance, and on up to top. looks like people have been riding down to there, but i didnt explore cos the sun was getting really low in the sky.
Threshold downhill, niiiiiice. weavy cruisy steep corners and flowy groovy singletrack through dark forest. sun set behind the peaks while i was descending. went on for ages. one corner beat me, and i nearly toppled when i bailed at the top of it. cleaned all the rest. contemplated riding back up and taking just the low line but decided i was pretty beat, so headed down. into a little single track i spotted off the road which took me into the back of the Forest Camp, where i found another track and rode up it (normally a downhill), then i grabbed Mack 1 up through, nice trail, onto McIntyre Rd, rode up that to bottom of Detox, but crossed Dog Stream and bombed down to Jolliffe Saddle Rd again, up to the saddle and down Timberlands and back through into town.
Next day, took O for a ride, him on his bike, through some of the flat forest trails. was fun, but not enough, so took off on another hilly ride, up Chatterton's Valley up the new (-to me) Link Track, down the Tank track (nice new top corners off Pawsons) and then down (for the first time in that direction) Flax trail. all good.
lots of ice around, with many of the techy descents made moreso by frozen streamwater glazing the rocks. trail was fun, climbs good and descents fun. singletrack bits were cool, and the landscape was super cool. got down to a bridge where Miner's Track peeled left, and started down it, but then decided to go for the Drill track instead. cruised up that and really enjoyed all the climbs and the descents were good too. less ice on that section. got to marker 4.3 and made a biiig mistake. because i'd left Drill Track map in the car, i had in my head that it was a little longer than i thought, so i turned right, when i should have turned left. Ended up riding Cedar Creek Road for about 5 kms til i got to a sign that said "No Admittance - Closed Area" and was a bit confused. txtd T and turned back, thinking all the way back that i'd missed a turn off, but not seeing it got all the way back and realised my mistake. so, last descent down to a bridge and there's our car, (thankfully T and the boys had driven down to Burnetts Face to meet me). so, what would have only been about a 40 minute ride had turned into 2 hours...
Next stop was Hanmer. more sun filled days, i got out Monday (27th) afternoon. left the bach we were staying at and headed up to Flax trail, cruised it through to where i climbed up and caught the lower C-Line, down to a muddy rutty Majuba. across to Timberlands, and up to Jolliffe saddle, where i climbed onto Red Rocks, enjoying it down into a mucky newly cleared bit (was being logged last time i was up) and out onto Pawsons, down to Camp Track, and then out onto the road to head for Threshold. through the Road Closed sign and up up up. hit Threshold, enjoyed the little blurb written at beginning, then struggled up the climb, granny all the way, it beat me and i walked maybe 10 metres... on past the lower entrance, and on up to top. looks like people have been riding down to there, but i didnt explore cos the sun was getting really low in the sky.
Threshold downhill, niiiiiice. weavy cruisy steep corners and flowy groovy singletrack through dark forest. sun set behind the peaks while i was descending. went on for ages. one corner beat me, and i nearly toppled when i bailed at the top of it. cleaned all the rest. contemplated riding back up and taking just the low line but decided i was pretty beat, so headed down. into a little single track i spotted off the road which took me into the back of the Forest Camp, where i found another track and rode up it (normally a downhill), then i grabbed Mack 1 up through, nice trail, onto McIntyre Rd, rode up that to bottom of Detox, but crossed Dog Stream and bombed down to Jolliffe Saddle Rd again, up to the saddle and down Timberlands and back through into town.
Next day, took O for a ride, him on his bike, through some of the flat forest trails. was fun, but not enough, so took off on another hilly ride, up Chatterton's Valley up the new (-to me) Link Track, down the Tank track (nice new top corners off Pawsons) and then down (for the first time in that direction) Flax trail. all good.
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