Saturday Cadging Some Codgy Goodgeness

Great Ride out on my own.  We were in Nelson for Phoe's 18th and I brought my bike.  

From the new pad, down the link pathway, steps and sidelines, then another wee walking drop down to a Place, then made my way down past the Rutherford and Flamedaisy then up onto Nile St, cruising along here to then find my way up onto Cleveland Tce, then up Atmore Place to get onto Jack's Track, which was certainly an interesting way into Codgers, but not necessarily the nicest way...

Crossed across Firball, and then onto middle road climbing up to the top of Turners etc.  Hung there for a bit and judged my options and what I thought I might like to do.  Decided on Hulk n Hogan, which was okay, sidled around and dropped and jumped and cruised around to eventually lower down on Jacks Track, which I proceeded to climb again, then up the middle road again back to Turners Top.  

This time into Turners, some groms all hanging at the top, I headed on past and proceeded to ride it like a 51 year old.  No big air, but good pace round the berms etc.  Some quite sloppy bits but mostly it was pretty dry.  Out the bottom of the gums and across to Take Me To Your Leader for the climb.  In here I could hear 'something' then two guys on ebikes powered past me.  Huh.  I continued on up, cleaning everything and quite enjoying it even tho it was steep.  Out the top onto Skidder Saddle.  From here along the Fireball Rd to the the Turners Top again.

This time into the climb to the Firball Trig.  Good climb up here and an ebiker topped out same time as me.  We chatted a bit then I headed off a brand new (to me) trail that headed towards Smasher.  Te Tirohanga Marama o Koata (Koata Marama).  New, fresh, one or two off camber corners, some jumps, quite a distance, nothing techy tho, other than some looseness.  Then it spat me out about where that big jump clearing was on Smasher.  I headed on into Smasher and proceeded to ride heaps but then got baulked and scared on the worst 4 corners which I edged down, then the rest of it was mint.  Not sure I'll use Koata Marama again, prefer the top section of Smasher.

From the bottom of Smasher, out along the Maitai river, following it down back to Nile St and heading home with a bad climb up the access track next to their new place.

All up, a very grand 18.5 kms and slightly surprising 693 m climbed

Queen's Birthday Old Codger

Took Jet into Codgers for a spin. Forgot to turn on the MMR til just up the road. Headed up the main trail towards Tantragee, overtaking a dad and his kid.  Hung a left into Pipeline, around and then up Jack's, which had a fair bit of grease under tread. Spotted a couple of riders ahead, catching them up in the bushy part of Jacks, and then finding a couple more waiting for them at the Middle Rd.  Hung a right here and headed up to Fireball Rd where I found some dude waiting - I asked him what Turners might be like after the rain overnight.  He didn't know cos he was from Chch too.  We exchanged stories a bit then he headed for Smasher, while I headed off up the access link to Turners.  Cool 'Reign' seat/sculpture thing here.  Dropped in to the trail and it was good.  Greasy in places so's not to be too careless, and carefulness was needed in one or two bits.  Bombed down swooping and popping, to the bottom and then headed up Take Me To Your Leader, nice steep wee zig zaggy climb. Big skidder site here with Fireball to the left, and heading up round to the right I rode up to top of Lollipop (also the top of Hot Buns and Top Dog) for a look. Walked down a ways to check it out but decided not to ride it - was looking scary greasy.  So, from the parkbench I headed down the top of Top Dog, fun, not tooo steep, interesting trail through fir and pines and gum, rolling out to the road again.  The trail continued downwards, but I didn't wanna climb all the way back up, so figured I'd go check out Smasher.  Headed back down to the skidder site and the up the start of Fireball and into the Smasher Climb.  Steep little bastard through trees (last time, with Ian and Leigh, this wasnt here), that got me walking near the top.  Into the start of Smasher and I remembered how cool this top section was.  Once through the open bit and back into the forest the trail sidles nicely for a while before starting into a few corners back and forth that just get steeper and steeperer and steepererer until I had to walk.  One, then another.  Then, 'oh bugger', another one, then 'uh oh, shiiiiit' another one, then uh huh...  but once into the gums near the bottom all good and rolled down through the rest of it back to the Sunday Hole swimming spot.  Jet was pretty grubby from mucky bits on the trails so I chucked a stick in for him and he washed off.  From here we cruised back down the Maitai, him meeting lots of new friends.  Passed by Nile St and headed further down to stop in at the Suter Gallery where the family were and found them just leaving, so I headed back to Flamedaisy and cleaned up before they got home.

1 hour 20 ridden, 15kms, with 500m climbed.  Not bad for a post-hungover morning spin.

Sunday Morning, Nelsonia tough stuff

Delivering the niece and nephew to their home in Nelson, drove up Saturday and home on today.  Took the Spot and Jet the dog and made contact with Ian for a ride.  Met him and Leigh (and her dog Middy) at the entrance to Codger's at 10am, and off we trundled.  Up the main trail, left on Pipeline, then up Jack's Track and around to the top of Turners.  Here Leigh and me and the dogs headed down Turners, and Ian headed up to grub a new line at the start of Lollipop.  Turners is big and wide and swoopy.  If you knew it well you'd catch massive air on it.  Was pretty good, I lost my chain half way down and had to keep the pace to roll up a few bits and I recognised the bottom half of it in some gums.  We rode it back in '05 (referred to there as a "new track" off Fireball...).  At the bottom, there's a nice wee climbing track (called Take Me To Your Leader) that'd been started by Ian and friends, granny pretty much the whole way, lots of switchbacks, in the native (with one or two old man pines too).  The top of this is a skidder site from whence we headed to the right and up an access road to a corner, then up a steep wee grunt (i walked, but Leigh cleaned it.  At the top there's a picnic table, and the dogs had a really good play up here while they waited for us.  Looking down the trail I was greeted by a taste of things to come.  STEEP and a bit greasy too.  Ian led off ahead and cleaned everything, stopping every now and then to let us catch up.  I walked heaps, and Leigh cleaned most stuff, but walked a few spots too..  It was SO steep and some of the corners just so dodgy.  So many bits that I'd barely ever be able to ride...

At the bottom we headed back up the climbing trail again and from the skidder site in the opposite direction (back towards Turners) to the next small saddle and up a steeeep ass and greasy thawed-frost access track that we all walked.  At the top of this started what began as a wickedly good track, apparently called Smasher.  Off camber, through dark forest, douglas fir mostly, and big swoopy corners.  First section was great, then it crossed a fire-road and was rideable for a while, but the lower it got the steeper it got and was a bit mental, in a completely different way to the mental that was Lollipop.  Walked a bunch of this track, too, but rode out the bottom and we were down at the Maitai River Sunday Swimming Hole.  From here we cruised down the Maitai track and back to town.  I got back to Flamedaisy about 12.30.

Okiwi, Nelson, Linkwater, and since...

so much to cover... so many rides done, so many trail miles completed, and soooo much altitude gained and lost. Nelson and me rode ~150kms, and climbed and lost over 4 kms of altitude...

Okiwi Bay
The journey began, departure from the smaug city bout 5.30, dropped my dog off at Surrey's and carried on to Okiwi Bay, north of Kaikoura, just south of the Clarence River mouth. Found the carpark which is on the landward side of the railway tracks, which at this point lie on the landward side of the road. small driveway off the road over the tracks into a nice and newly crushed limestoned carpark, from the corner of which the Okiwi bay track leaves... this pic is from on the way up the track, and is the pic that alerted me to the existence of the track. http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/snaps_summ2006/pages/02-2006.htm It was about 11 pm when we pulled in, so pitched the tent under these old Totara trees. Pretty heinous sleep, cos of trains and trucks hauling past all night. and the crashing of the ocean, and then at about 3.30am we heard a vehicle shifting down through its gears, and obviously pulling off the road into our wee driveway... then heard the engine running for ages, and then this flashing light... "what, is that the cops?" poked heads out of tent and there was one of the Railway workers little Suzuki jeeps equipped to drive on the tracks, heading off. phew. Got a little more sleep then once light, got up, had breakfast, and rode the track. Steeeep. UP. 0 to 600 m in about 5 kms, with a couple of small downs, took us about 2-2.5 hours up. rewarded with WICKED views. and then an incredible downhill, 20mins back to the van.

Annual Trip prePFMTBCInc, in Nelson City
On up to blenheim, dropped some stuff off to N's Dad, and then on to the town of Nelson. Arrived at the house to find the boys, and a nice backyard.

Fringed, Devil's, Third House, Dun Walkway.
Saturday, rode up Fringed Hill, 793 m, then down the Devils Tail to the Dun Mtn Walkway, then up it to the Third House and back down. a hoot. Devils tail is ALWAYS sweet, with a couple new lines experienced this time, including Nanna's, which was a sweet wee section of trail. i utterly bonked on the way up to the third house. was TOTALLY out of steam, and had no boost to get me there, so just had to persevere and plod up the trail to the hut... had a leppin off steve and lots of nuts and raisins off others. fixed me right up.back down we went, speedy speedy, steve and me ahead. what a blast. back to the house, and lots of beer and bourbon'n'drys.

Codgers - before it was called Codgers
next day morning up to Tantragee, up Fireball Rd, down a new track, then round to the Dogs. the new track was steeper than some of the boys had ever done, but was no worse than the Devil's and no where near as long. fun. only dabbed once i think. forgot to mention, we'd hooked up with this local guy, a friend of Tony's. Bloody good bloke he was too, riding a Spec. Enduro. good rider too, especially for someone who's only been riding 2 years and is in his early 40's. the Dogs, i think there's the Tired Dog, the Lazy dog and one other, are a selection of wee trails that traverse and drop in some wickedly steep ass pine forestry, down to the Maitai. we had lots of fun, including Steve who crashed right in front of Pete filming... alas, pete wasnt actually filming bah! oh to have seen steve go down again and again. ne'er mind.
Sharland's Valley
that afternoon we went up Sharland's Rd, up Bob's Fern Rd, to the top of the 506 trig, then down the Doublehappy into the Scotswoods. NIICE. i did this last time i was up in nelson, back at PHoenix's birthday weekend.

Grampians
Sunday, we went up the Grampians, but took the wrong way up. ended up walking alot, up a very steeeep pylon track to the lookout. but then we went down Fuschia, and down Kahikatea, beautiful trails in there. That was good.
NZ Centre
That night, we rode with lights up the Centre of NZ, then round Walter's Bluff and down the zigzag. it was here that Mark had us all trained in the art of quick-cornering. a method that will disturb hardcore XC'ers, and trail makers, cos it involves: unclipping your inside foot, hanging your leg down, and skidding your back wheel around the corner. it makes for very fast and controllable cornering, but it skids on the trails. we promise we wont be doing it too often!

Cullen's first time.
Nelson times over, the next morning we cleaned up, and Nelson and me took off in the Van. on the way to Waikawa Bay, we stopped up the valley behind Linkwater, at the site of Cullensville, a town that had over 600 souls at its peak, and is now just paddocks and trees, and a few indentations in the ground. one gold nugget pulled out of there was 26 ounces! and rode up at track that was built by goldminers between 1888 and 1893, hand cut into cliffs, a nice sidling benched single track up the valley. DoC were blasting a section so on the way up and beyond we heard a couple of really loud bangs... this trail is called the Linkwater Long Cut in the Kennett's 'guidebook'. rode til we were in beech forest, and then turned back. 2 hours up, will have reached about 720 m, and 20 mins down.


Home again, Bottled, Quarried, Crocked.
Then had a week in Waikawa with T and O. lovely. orca. paddling in canoe, little fishing. suntan. then since i've been back, i've only managed to get a friday evening quickspin round bottle lake, and then last night steve, pete andrew tony and me rode up round Halswell Quarry, up Kennedy's a ways, and back down the newish singletracks. down the crocodile and out. quick.



ANNUAL TRIP HISTORY:
Post Script:  This was the third Annual Trip I'd done, the 4th of all trips by 'the group' (in future to be called PFMTBCInc...

The very first was just Pete, Steve and Andy, and was on the Queen Charlotte.

The next year, 2003, my first, were Pete, Steve, Andy and me, at Lake Kaniere where we rode the water-race, a loop north of the lake and No Name Rd.  Can't really remember if we rode anywhere else.

The following year, 2004, Nelson joined us this year and we went to Naseby and Alexandra.  I remember Naseby being really good. Except that it was on this trip that Andrew crashed and nearly broke his leg.  Taking the bark off a tree.  It was a truly spectacular crash, viewed by Nelson and me, and heard by all the others.  Over a jump, flying through the air, leg out to one side, and colliding with said tree, just above the knee.  Lower it would have destroyed his knee, higher might have broken the femur.  OUCH.l
But I have no recollection what or where we rode in Alex...