Vegas 4: Back into the Forest Tuesday 18th

Not such a terrible night's sleep, thanks to cough mixture and Otrivin nose clearer made me slightly healthier in the morning, but still potentially not the best for riding.

We chose a different path into the forest, this time riding up Tarawera Rd, and up a little singletrack on the side of the road around to the big water tank.  I collapsed into a coughing-nearly-puking mess at the top of this, managing to extricate a couple of small lung cookies from myself and feeling a little better afterwards.  We moseyed up Tokoaarangi Pa Rd, or something.  Anyway, climbed horribly for a bit, making me walk, and eventually leveled out on the ridge, undulating up and down a couple of times - much nicer.  We made our way surprisingly quickly across til we could see the top of K2.  Explored briefly an apparent trail (unmarked) up top here, but to no avail.  (Tho, I spotted one diving off into the bush up here and thought that would be interesting some time.  I'd love to explore a bit more...).

Around to and parked up top of K2, ready for this grade 5 descent.  Headed off down, Pete and Nelson first.  The very first filter, a rooty drop caught me out and I dabbed through it, but from here on down I managed nicely, cleaning everything else.  Mostly all very fun and rideable, but there were one or two good challenges, with big drops below holding roots.  Nothing a little commitment and roll-through couldn't handle tho.  We sorta regrouped once or twice, and various members of the party struggled on some of the tech, but we all got down safely and regrouped at the bottom, rapt with our performances.  A climb out up to Red Tank Rd (or Pipeline/Windy Rd according to Trailforks (which I think is wrong)), and around to the BRudeNot2 intersection.

From here we dropped into Bunny Juggs 1, which was a ripper of a wee trail, rooty and tight, swerving down through tight forest (immediately next to the end of Sweet'n'Sour).  Back up onto the Direct Rd for a bit then short climb into Bunny Juggs 2.  This climbed in native then was out into cleared chaff, open, new trail.  Fun little thing, some loose edges and jumpies to pump.  Around and back to the road, for the roll up to the shuttle stop.

It was about 12.40 or so here, so we decided to hang out, considering several of us were under the weather by now.  Chatted to the other shuttle driver (who'd visited our house the day before) for a bit here while he waited for his private shuttlers to return.  1pm rolled around and at about 1.15 the Shuttle rolled up, pretty much full.  We gave the few remaining seats to the few singles that had turned up, and we awaited it's return.  20 odd minutes later, we got our uplift. Corners first, or Upper Corners, wafted and bombed this down, all very nicely groomed, tho rutted and soft in places from all the weather and riding of previous weeks, with rideable tabletop type jumps, rolling or launching, all the way down.  Got to a road, and crossed back into the singletrack, taking us around to Corners proper.  This, again, back and forth, jumpy pumpy down, everybody enjoying it profusely, through the forest and out to a big clearing.  Crossed over Little Red Riding Huck a couple times in here too, I think.  Not sure where to go for a start, I pointed Nelson into a (secred unmarked) trail which was called Eddie the Crow, which he said started with a massively rooty gnarly looking drop.  We didn't pursue this.  Back into the clearing and there's our trail in that corner, so, back on it, a couple of quite steep wee corners and then Riding Huck went left and we went straight ahead, and this section, tho it looked on the map like it was quite close to the bottom, went on for ages.  I was wondering when it was gonna finish it took so long.  Poor old Wazza pulled out here, and headed back to base.

Out to the shuttle stop and another wee wait.  Uplift, and this time into Huckleberry Hound.  Nice trail, better groomed than Upper Corners, and had once big drop feature that all but Nelson baulked on.  I rode up to it thinking oh yeah, no worries, saw Nelson drop straight over it, and then I stopped dead at the top when I saw the under cut vertical top...  Bugger.  Not sick, I might have considered it.  Not needing to to nurse my shoulder, likely so too.  Around it and onwards, a few gap jumps appearing on the side of the trail, was still fun to cruise beside these and not hurt ourselves.  Across the road again, and Corners continued directly from here, so down the road a few metres and into Little Red Riding Huck, for more jumpy goodness.  Excellent descending with a mite more challenge than Corners.  Near the bottom of this section before the big clearing there was a roll over jump that nearly had me over the bars.  I think I spoke out loud, "someone's gonna crash on that", thankfully no one did, but I bet they were close.  Out the edge of the clearing and into another steep rutted soft section of trail, with a couple of rooty sections thrown in, that I think caught one or two out, and we regrouped where Corners went ahead and we peeled left, for the final blast to the shuttle.  This section had some cool features in it too, near the bottom a couple of really big swoopy corners, one of which with a nasty soft edged rut which I rolled through and said out loud "somebody's gonna lose it in here..."  And so I rolled out, arms fully pumped, to meet Nelson, and no sign of Pete behind.  Then Steve turned up, and eventually one or two others then Pete, his knee all bloodied up good, from that sweepy corner.  Jinxed.

Uplift number 3.  This time from the top, we decided we were finishing off.  There were 5 uplifts left on the ticket, and Nelson was gonna ride more, so he took these.  Off down Eagle vs Shark we blazed.  Me with the camera on, chasing (read, attempting to keep up with) Nelson.  Both of us on the ragged edge.  Was fantastic.  What a trail.  Extremely well made, predictable, good features, jumpies, corners, roots, fun.  He slowed now and then to let me reel him in, but mostly I stayed on him.  Was probably the best riding I'd done up there this year.  I took my shades off at some point, then we blasted out into the sunshine where it was open for a few corners.  In here a bug flew straight into my mouth.  Rolled it with my tongue out and spat, then spat a few more times for good measure (it felt like a blow-fly, bleugh) - hopefully that'll be on camera.  Kept chasing, the corners kept coming and the speed and flow kept doing it.  It flattened off and there was an exit out to a trail down to the road.  We regrouped here and in ones and twos the rest of the crew rolled in.  Set off again, along the flat section of this trail to an eventual log collection point and forestry roads to follow around for a while.  Red Tank Rd, I believe, tho, called Pipeline/Windy on the 'Forks App.

Where Lynmore Link peeled off, Nelson parted his way from us, and we headed down across a bridge and down into a valley, then up a gnarly rooty pipelined track climb, all off and pushing, up to eventually the watertank.  From here, instead of heading down the road the way we'd come in, we rode and pushed up for some more lung burning efforts to connect onto the Tank To Town trail.  Shared, walk and bike trail, I led off down the downhill bits with gusto and speed, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for any pedestrians - thankfully, we met none on the descents.  Fun we trail this too, easy, but flowy and quick, eventually out to near the road and through open grassland forest, then back into the forest's edge where As You Do dives in.  A couple of false exits later and we found our street, across, and back to base for a well earned rest, and then bike breakdown, box up and packing ready for the morning, while we waited for Nelson to come back.

His adventures became quite epic, and he ended up doing twice as much altitude and distance than any of our efforts.  He rode round from where he left us, the short distance to where K2 came out, Juggs, uplifted to Te Rua, rode around again, uplifted and did the Taniwha DH track, then uplifted with the 'elite' of Rotorua's post work crowd, hooked up with a few of them, and did Billy T, Split Enz, and by the sound of it, No Brains, and Taura, or something new over there, and out to Waipa, then finally back to us (who were all getting fucking hungry by this time...), just on dark.

So, all up, 32 kms ridden (a few of which on the bus) and nearly 1400 descended, with 960 or so of that climbed by bus...

Vegas 2: Whakarewarewa Sunday 16th

Got going in the morning and headed across Tarawera Rd and straight into the forest, finding As You Do upon which to climb.  It shortly dove into the forest away from the road and started climbing.  It was pretty mucky from the previous day's Endurogeeks so was soft and messy making for quite difficult climbing.  Nelson cleaned a heap of it, whereas I spun out and most did too, so lots of walking was done.  Eventually we reached the top.  Checked out K2 for future reference, and then reassembled and headed down to Gunna Gotta.  Oh, and Bernie was with us, on a rental, visiting from Cambridge.  He was struggling with what we thought of as fun.  Thought we were a bunch of mad bastards.  Gunna Gotta was good, regrowing pines on the top (was all cleared last time I was in there), with the lower native section still in place, and still just as fun.  Everyone enjoyed this, muckfest withstanding.  Bernie still thought we were insane.

Regrouped, then up to A-Trail, now called Paddy's Run (Formerly A-Trail), and descending, smooth curvy fun through nice forest around and down to another road.  Bernie, I think, liked this better.  Along a bit and into Tickler, me baulking at the big droppy bit on at the bottom of the first descent, most of the crew opting for the right hand line.  Meander and then climbing and meandering around about the place, catching some other riders, and eventually out to the intersection so many trails start from.  We thought we'd be able get a shuttle from Waipa base at 1pm, so we were aiming for this, heading down BRude from here.  Nice blast, tho personally I liked it better before it was logged all those years ago.  Into the forest section and more interesting again, onwards down and out to take Pig Track across, somehow turning left and ending up at a road, catching a little Grinder, down and out, into the tail end of Creek, then we're back at the end of BRude again...  Huh.  Oh, kay.  Into Mad If You Dont and headed down towards the road where we rode down to the base.  No sign of any shuttles, we asked someone and they told us they only leave there once in the morning then loop up top.  Oh well.  Bernie bailed from here.

Lunch was had and we headed off up the road again, Ball and Chain, then up the road to the pick-up point.  Cant remember waiting long and the big bus arrived and off up we went.  Some faffing at the top and then up the steep to Billy's entrance.  This trail was a blast.  I ended up on my own.  I held onto the sight of Nelson and Pete for a while, but then they went and no-one was close behind me, so I just kept my own company and pace, a reasonably fast one, nothing too scary.  Got to where Tihi o Tawa comes in and a girl was waiting for me to ride past, she followed me down to the big drop.  Nelson just disappearing over the lip.  I though, oh yeah, no worries, then looked closer and talked myself out of it.  As did Pete, and the girl (who's boy dropped it too).  Hung out here, all the rest turned up and we all assembled at the bottom where there's a big double gap jump, which Nelson bombed the drop and gapped the gap nicely on.  Then off again, and out to the bottom.

Into G Rock.  Great blast down through this, typical Whakarewarewa style trail.  Hauled some ass, chasing Pete and Nelson, down to Chesnut Link, then into Rollercoaster with it being a bit soft therefore making the climbs annoying.  Next up was the chinese takeaways and they got worse and worse and worse, the climbs ever more painful, til finally we were just below the BRude start intersection again.  Jumped into Dragon's Tail, which was a blast, and then across to finish off BRude again, this time turning right to head for the Lion's Trail climber which took us back up to the bottom of Gunna Gotta and from here we went down Katore Rd and into Exit Track, a final ballsy blast down this, Nelson cutting me up near the bottom in order to slay the final jumps.  Rode along Nursery past the Redwoods and back up to the house.

42 kms, with a 913 gain (of which 300 or so was in the bus - so still not much climbed, really - compared to our usual style of riding)

Saturday Whakarewarewa explorations, Vegas Vol. 3

After a week of field work, climbing up through steep bush hills in the Coromandel, Kaimais, and Ikawhenua Range, I found myself with most of the day to kill in Rotorua, so Friday night I got on Vorb and asked who was best to rent from and 2 came back to say Outdoorsman, so, this morning, rang, and then went there and rolled out at 10am on a Scott Genius.  Fox Talas fork was a bit stiff, and Shimaingo shifters are just plain weird after running Sram for so long, and over time the sag on when on full squish seemed to get lower, having me clipping pedals on stuff over roots and stuff...  but anyway.

Rode in Nursery Rd, and up this through to Katore Rd, round and up to top of Gunna Gotta, the top logged since last I rode it, the whole way down thinking "rear brake left", "rear brake left", "rear brake left", "rear brake left", into the native and way more fun, not as tech as I'd remembered it, which, considering it's only grade 3 is no surprise.  Back to Katore Rd, and up to the A-Trail, cruising me round through to The Tickler, down through the open and across and up and down and up and down and up and finally to the big junction at the start of B Rude Not To.  First half of this wide open, all the trees gone, and quite floaty and fun and fast, then into the forest again and it got much rougher and like how it was in the past.  Blasted away in here and down to the end, across the road and straight into Mad If You Dont, which was better still, wafty and blazin'.  Towards the end, weirdly, there was sprinklers going in the forest.

An hour since I headed in, and onto the 'Easy' Ball and Chain and up to another map board which I perused deciding where to go next, with the main option being riding up Hill Rd.  Chatted to some guys here (two of them on nice steel hardtails) and they offered me to join them, but I really wanted to hit up a trail above Billy T that I'd not done yet, so, they went their way and I went mine and caught up to a guy (from South Canty, working for NZFireService training staff up there regularly) on another steel hardtail (a Singular) and we cruised up Hill Rd chatting til he peeled off onto Spring Roll and I rolled up just as the bus and trailer did, and there were absolute fuckloads of bikers all waiting for it.  I joined the end of the queue and got the 2nd to last spot on the trailer and paids my $10 for uplift and sat down in nearly the last seat on the bus.  Got chatting to the guy here, down from Auckers for the day, trailbuilds at 440 (some articles, here, here and here).  Looking at the topo, the bus saves you the climb from about 380m to 700m.  Pretty good!

At the top, I cruised up the road, past the entrance to Billy T, and on up to the top of Tuhoto Ariki.  Caught up to a guy with a black trail dog, and chatted with him all the way.  Local, and when we got to the top his riding buddies, a couple other guys and a girl, caught up to us.  One of the guys had just done a heli drop on Mt Royal, in the Richmond Range, that leads down into the Wakamarina, with some Chch locals (Monsieur Sutcliffe couldnt make it, apparently) - said it was the best down hill he'd ever done.  Anyway, while we were yarning, a couple headed off into the trail ahead of us (and another group waited til we'd all gone - never saw them again).  I followed these locals into the dark, and not having a pocket to put my sunnies in I was committed to riding in the near dark...  The local guy with the dog I lost in no time, but eventually overtook the woman of the earlier couple, then caught up with the group as they took a left line into the new trail down to Blue Lake (which is meant to be pretty cool), while I continued on my own down T.A., blazing.  All native, it's rooty and interesting all the way.  Loved it.  Bit of a climb in the middle then this weird clearing and not long after, the turn off for Hatu Patu, a black line.  I took this and I can see why.  Not anything so techy we cant ride, but I'd have preferred my own bike.  I didn't trust the rental.  I had one OTB, where I landed on my feet, and the pedals kept slamming shit - otherwise it was a sweet wee trail with heaps of features to keep you keen.  Eventually it ended (last few hundred metres) down in forestry (the Rotorua kind, biiiiig trees, all understoreyed by ferns).

Down the road a little, past the exit of Billy T, and then hung a left into G-Rock.  Swoopy funtimes ensued and at the end of it and start of Chesnut Link there was a group of guys who I gave a good headstart.  Bombed on into this and caught them all at the end.  Then followed them into Rollercoaster and was having to curb my speed for their tailender, then passed him and then they'd all pulled up so I fanged through and did the rest of Rollercoaster with the thought of them on my tail.  Eventually they all pulled off onto Moonshine (which now I think I should have done) and I continued down and had the struggle of the climb on Chop Suey, then across to the Spring Roll, and then the Sweet, and mostly the Sour of Sweet and Sour, up up and down and up and up and down over and again, wearing the shit out of me.  Getting on for 12.30 by now, with only water for sustenance I was lagging.

Finally I got out to the road where B Rude starts, and decided on the Dragon's Tail, other side of the road.  Sweet trail here blasting down, all this time switching to Locked Out for climbing, 'Trail' for flat bits, and 'DH' for all the downhill, I got quite adept at changing as the trail changed.  Most of the way down Dragon's Tail there was an exit line which I grabbed which took me across the road and back into the bottom of B Rude, and from there I took a right hander that chucked me down in perfect positioning for accessing the Lions Tail trail, which I followed some faster guys into, for the climb, which I was starting to really hurt on.  Some amazing big gums near the top of this.

Then along an offshoot of and then Katore Rd for a bit and I (kinda stupidly) pulled right into Turkish Delight (and bits of Soakhole) which climbed again, but then kinda swooped all over the joint and eventually threw me down and out by big intersection in Easyville.  I rolled through this, spotting a big dude on a fatbike, onto Exit Trail, which had a small climb to start then a blast.  Hehe, this was cool.  A few neat jumps and drops, and my switching of suspension setting was exactly what was needed, with the final shutey out all on the DH setting blasting down and then out, and along the road, sore and worn out, and down to the shop to return the bike almost exactly 3 hours since renting it...

Vegas, volume 2

(see here for vegas volume 1...)... So. I'm at a conference of fellow GIS geeks for three days in Rotorua... Thursday morning the agenda doesnt look all that interesting, so i turn up in my bike gear, helmet strapped to my pack, pedals inside, and at 9am i walk out and up the road to BikeVegas, where i take possession of a Steel(is real) Jamis hardtail. the frame isnt a bad weight, the brakes are Avid BB7 (cable disks), and the gears are SRAM... unfortunately for me, the forks are Manitou Axels, supposed to have 4 inches of travel, which would be great, but these things were so blown that they sat right down in their travel and at best gave an inch. in short, they sucked... plus, handlebars too flat, and stem too long, putting way too much weight over this screwed up geometry's front wheel...so, i leave the bike shop, head along a gravelled bike track that leads through this scrubby zone between town and the lake where there's all these bubbling mud puddles and fumeroles steaming their sulphur stench and then makes its way following up a creek for a while, across and past the local DOC office (HI!), then on up towards the Redwoods.

i ride in the entrance by the bottom of the Exit trail, up the hill, then up Tokorangi Pa Rd, over GunnaGotta which i took really carefully cos of the bike being new to me and cos of the lack of travel, lotsa new bits in there that weren't there last year... then onto the ATrail, linking into the Tickler to the water tap at the bottom of HotXBuns. from here, i headed up Direct Rd, up up up up up past sidewinder and onto the FrontalLobotomy upon which i snapped the chain (legs are THAT strong, hah), removed the bad link, and replaced it with my quicklink, then continued on up to Tawa Rd taking me to BillyT which TOTALLY ROCKED! it is sooo mint. i loved it. packed in beautifully since we rode it last year, bombed down it and hung a left and headed on into the wilderness to catch SplitEnz (a brand spanker). overtook some soundingly australian chicks who were gunning along good, just before the descent, so made some good time on them and never saw them again... Split Enz leads to PondyDH, which would have been SOOO much fun with some shocks that worked, jarring my gammy thumb all the way down, from there to PondyNew (nice twisty climb and descent) which joins the bottom of the Roller Coaster which leads into the Chinese menu- ChopSuey ChopSuey, Spring Roll SpringRoll finishing with Sweet&Sour. then down the beautiful B-Rude-Not-2, peeling off that and hitting the LionTrail up to Katore Rd, then a quick flit down to the ExitTrail which is always fun. then back downtown to the bikeshop, returning the bike almost exactly 4 hours since i got it... exhausted, sapped, drained... wicked...

ROTORUA, 2006 UCI... and riding...

Where to start????

Vegas. The Worlds. Boxed up the Switchback and flew up Thursday last week. Watched some trials, downhill practice, and then the big event of the day, 4X on Friday. Saturday was the DH day, in the am when we got there we skylined up to top and walked rest of way to the start gate, then perched at various positions all the way down the course, watching the first drop from the start for a while, then the Kia Kaha jump, then down into the Larches, which was an INSANE section, then further and further down as the day progressed, to end up next to the Wall ride for the last few riders, seeing them hurtling past, inches away at probably 70 kph was amazing. then sunday was the XC, women in the morning, where we were positioned for their last little bit before the finish, and then afternoon the mens, We started up near the top of the course, in the wide open section then made our way down the trails again. all very good...

then, monday, round to Waipa Mill entrance to the Mtnbike park in Whakarewarewa. Tracks we hit first session: the Repco, the Creek, the vetta, Challenger, Diamondback, sidewinder, the Grinder, and i'm bummed i missed the Rosebank... took time out for lunch, then after chatting with Jeff Anderson(Jeffson), of kiwibikes he suggested we ride up the tarawera road and up hill road and down Hot X buns etc... so, took his advice, and did it. hot x buns, hot, then B rude not 2, and pig track, which strangely spat us out on Nursery road so we just followed that up and out the Exit.

tuesday, drove beautiful roads out to Murupara, then on to Minginui, and Whirinaki, brand new track, purpose built, very very very fun downhill sections, but mostly it needs work, packing down firming up... awesome country tho. north island Kahikatea and Tawa forest.

wednesday, back into Whakarewarewa, up to top of Gunna Gotta, down A trail, up Tickler, along Link(?) road to Hill road, up up up Moerangi road, top to Billy T, down Chesnut links to rollercoaster, then chopsuey, springroll and the other one. then down B rude not 2 and nelson and me went up Lions Trail, looped about in the sidewinder again then out the Exit/Rat/NDo trails... sweeeeeet. all up, only did B rude not 2 twice, all the rest once, and probably had 9 hours total of riding in there. thats pretty impressive. you'd have to cover the porthills and bottle lake to get something similar here. and still there was stuff in whakarewarewa we could have done. and i'd so love to do some of those trails again and again and again...

will fill in these details at a later date, by updating...