Wednesday night hikes with bikes

Lots of up tonight, much of which was on foot. And down some never before travelled.  Newly regular pick up from Countdown Moorhouse and followed the sheepletraffic east, Ferry Rd, Causeway, to Sumner and up the hill to Evans Pass.  Parked and rode upwards, onto Greenwood and climbing this, meeting only one descender, up round the corners and at approximately the drop-jump we headed through the gate and followed a sidling-climbing sheep trail towards the ridge, then up the track we'd ridden couple weeks back, through the stinky macracarpa and over the fence.  This time we headed down Chalmers Track.  Steep, and once in the bush, greasy as all greasiness, rocks, and wet dirt accumulating on tires, proving sketchy as.  Rode and walked bits and rode, and explored and got to the bottom eventually - talking with a farmer lady cutting fly-blow off her little lamb.  Down the road, a long way, and left into College, climbing steeply up to the left, not really knowing if we'd find an access into the reserve from here.  Hmmm...  We did, but.

Found a wee singletrack at the end of this dead end street and started pushing.  And pushing, and pushing, and pushing.  Altitudinal insanity. Calves burning like crazy walking up this steep shitslope, eventually ending up on the ridge above Urumau Reserve.  Phew.  Down a skinny techy singletrack and onto the main track, into Looper, then Stormer, climbing and finding it a tad greasy.  over the top, steep techy descent then caught up to Nelson waiting and off he led, down the first steep arse drop, rolling down to the next, where I baulked, but then wheeled back and rode, and down over the next roller.  The straight-ahead track here was gonna be carnage, so we took the left hand, and rolled down around, a few greasy techy sections including the very steep section at the bottom which I walked.  Then around to the left, sidling and dropping, greasy corners, front wheel washouts, slipping and sliding.  Nelson dropped one of the log drops, I slid around it.  Then the trail got nice, with big roller dippers, and then it was time to climb again.  A few greasy corners, but pretty much all rideable (until you got to the track we'd gone down).  Next up it was round the sunny side of the hill, sidling across then climbing back up to the main track.  Climbed this, zig and zag and back up onto the ridgeline.  Sun was starting to lower, so we figured we'd find a way up the ridge, or across to Chalmers, rather than descending all the way down to the streets and climbing them.

So, up the ridge, pushing and carrying, a long way up, sketchy wee ridgeline track, with newly cut steps in places, and spectacular views, and carrying the bike.  Mostly pushing it to start, then picking it up sometimes, then near the top it was easier for me to just flip it up onto my shoulders, Mt Oxford style, and carry it, trudging up to the top of the ridge.  Did I say spectacular?  Well earned food rest up top here, watching the sun getting lower and lower to the hills, and then off again, past Chalmers top and up the way we'd gone two weeks ago, walking a bit again, then riding up to the gun emplacements, and across onto Greenwood.

Good blast down Greenwood, rocks slick-ish, but not so bad as to be uncontrollable.  Good pace, all the way down, meeting 2 climbing guys, and then around into Gloomy Gulch and rolling through and down, good pace, but Nelson getting away on me a bit down here.  He dropped the jump, I rolled the sideline of it, and we were off down through Dave's corners and around the way we'd come up.  I was exhausted by the time we made the rocky ups, and bailed for the first.  Then blasted down to the car. 

Bonus extra for me, I headed off down Captain Thomas, while Nelson drove down the road.  I had a pretty good run down here, fast in the top section, fast through to the first of the rocky techs, then cruising around and down to the next rocky techs, cleaning the first, but my front wheel slipped just before the second, so I got off and walked it.  Cleaned down the next bit and into the climb, walked 2 metres of that, then blasted down the rest of the trail and he picked me up in the cul de sac.

Awesome 13 and three quarter kilometres, and just over 700m climbed.

Saturday arvo, before and during the rain

Plan was Nelson'd finish work at 3 and we'd meet across at the end of Bowenvale Ave for to ride up the hill.  Paul d'Sp' was joining us too.  Meet we did, but the rain was sort of looking like it was getting a bit more serious, so Nelsie decided to bail (on account of not wanting to get all mucky and have to clean his just-cleaned bike again).  So, Paul and me (and Jet) headed on up the valley.  Going was good, up the valley-bottom track, and then we headed up the walking track to the left, riding, pushing up steps and riding, up to the stile on the Old Skool / Hidden Valley Link trail.  Down this, around the first two hairpins, then hung a left onto the walktrack that sidles across above the lower section of the trail.  Once or twice having to get off, cos rocks were slickity slick.  Then down the rocks and steps to the valley track (bottom of Lava Flow), and up this valley, climbing as per the Thursday Night crew of several months back.  Clamber clamber, off a few times and riding some more to the intersection where we hung a right, sidling down valley this time back down to the start of Bridges, up this to the bottom of Brents. 

Here it was a choice of up around to the right of Brent's, or up the valley.  We chose the latter, cos I'd not been up there for ages, negotiating our way up the steeeeep 4wd trail crossing through Tilted Sally and Cool Runnings then up to the corner start of Rad ^ Sick and on up to the skidder site.  Been many many years since I'd climbed any of that.  From here it was up the main grovel of a climb (K2 extension?) and up past Brake Free into the rabbit paddock where the extent of the fires could be seen.  Grass had burned (but already had green fresh growth), and the trees on the west side of the hill above the (see-saw) fence.  Climbed up through this, the burnt smell everywhere, and the trees immediately above the see-saw were fine (except for a couple) and the native plantings on the right (below the top track junction) were all burned through (cabbage trees should survive?), and then Thompson's entrance was 'Closed' and everything from there on was burned.  As well as above the road here, up towards Sugarloaf - those few big pines all cut out, nothing but black stumps now.

Turned downwards here, towards the Traverse, then around in the trees and back across above the see-saw, fast blast down the rabbit paddock and into the rockgarden.  Slick-as through here, and fire had burned to this point too.  Into the gums and they were all intact.  Around, greasy greasy, and then into my little favourite lefty, blitzing down this and careful on the steep corner (it's got some roots (wet) I'd never noticed before), and across and around and back and then back around out to the edge (where that jumpy trail is) and the fire had made it to there too, but hadn't got the gums (altho we could see some of the tops had burned) - man that was close. 

Back to the skidder site and into Shazza's.  Careful down here, and then down to Brents, careful in here too.  Mostly dry under the trees tho, so all those roots weren't actually that bad.  Then into Bridges, and starting to get pretty slick here, the wetness was visible on the surface of the clay.  Around this and into Flow, under the trees dry enough but that last rocky corner was dodgy.  Down valley here to Hidden Valley Link and up this, climbing climbing, rocks slick out, but dry under the trees. 

Finally, onto Old Skool.  Pretty good at the top but the rain was increasing and the lower we got the more mucky the trail was, mud actually making splecky sounds under tires.  Traction was never a major issue, slight drifts around corners and the requisite rockslips but all good.  Finally down the last and back to the cars, filthy bikes, filthy people, and a dirty wet dog...  Smiles all 'round.

Less than 10 kms and only 374 climbed (felt like more, what with all that steepness).

Tuesday Explorational Eastern Tops.

Nelson collected me from home after work and we headed for Sumner then Evans Pass. Parked up and he found his dropper post was stuck dropped. He clambered up the first section behind me, standing the whole way, and we decided to explore up the ridge walking track and to find somewhere out of the wind to have a go at fixing the post.  Climb was steep to start, pushing the bikes, riding a little, pushing a little more then we found a nice spot and fettled the dropper.  Got it staying up for a start, and so got riding (and a couple of short walks) again up the fenceline ridge.  Up on the tops, through a gate and following the walkway around the top, past the 329 trig, heaps of windage, and over to the harbour side, dropping down, interesting sections of rocks and descending to a hairpin, then sidling nicely across the back side of the hill, tail wind along awesome flowy singletrack.  This ended at a stile, over this and fast descent down to Livingston Col. 

By this time, Nelson's dropper was stuck dropped again, so he upped the post in the frame to nearly normal height.  Hung a right here and rode and pushed a little up a steep sheep trail which then curved around to sidle across a basin above the usual trail, then spotted another one slightly higher up, so rode up a rocky ridgeline to this, then followed it around til we were overlooking Breeze Col. Found our way down the slope through tussocks til a good sheepline was found, and descended fast down past pfmtbc rock and down to the Col. 

Through Breeze Col, and for a change instead of around the narrow singletrack above the road, we headed up the oldschool steep face trails, Nelson cleaning nearly all of it, me walking one or two bits, til eventually across the top then over a fence and up past the 246m trig, down to the Observation Post, bit of a look around, and then down past a couple of ladies, over stile, and found our way down to the end of the narrow trail.  Into this, it's obviously seen a bit more action lately, and around it in the reverse of usual, fun blast back towards Breeze Col.  Decision time...  Down the Snake?  or back up Goddles...?  With Nelson's seat the way it was (not quite high enough for good climbing) we decided against the Anaconda. 

Off up the Godley track, taking the zig and zag out past the pfmtbc rock (rather than straight up the face like usual), and around over to Livingston, fun on the rocks along the top.  Next up from Livingston, climbing nicely, and trying out the new zig zag bits which work very well indeed for climbing.  Then up the into the valley and out again and up onto the ridgeline / landing strip bit.  Here we hung a left and rode up the ridge back up to the top to check out our initial climb as a downhill.  Mint!  Fun down, interesting rock sections, and some cool tech at the bottom.  Then instead of following the usual trail at the bottom stayed on the ridge and dropped down back to the last corner before the road.  Sweet.

Short but interesting ride, 11.14 kms, 555m climbed.

Sunday Bottled Up Family

T's Aunt and Uncle (in their sixties) are doing the Central Otago rail trail later in the month, and were keen to do some sort of ride, so we showed them around Bottle Lake.  T, H, myself and Jet, and them, all met out at the carpark and headed in.  They're not so fast, so we took the internal route, stopping and gorging on blackberries on the first section, then continuing on.  They enjoyed it, H enjoyed it, T was on my fatty, I was on the Spot.  I trailed along behind a couple times, others was out ahead with H.  By the end, everybody was getting along the trails quite nicely and there was seldom too big a gap when we stopped at the front for the catch up.  After, we went to Under The Red Veranda for lunch.

Usual stuff all altitude, speed, and distance.  Strangely, we somehow managed to get to over 100m, and also nearly 200m in altitude...  These bits coincide with the deepest forest, so obviously some GPS confusion is occuring.

Tuesday evening off the eastern beaten track

Pick up from the Countdown carpark and through to Sumner in traffic and off up the Captain at 5.46pm.  Good climb, me not struggling quite as much as usual, even given the small head-cold I'm suffering from at present.  At Evans we spotted a clusterfuck of riders (group of more than 10) heading into the Godley, so decided to try something new.  Into the bottom of Greenwood, and up the worksite track up the ridge above.  STEEEEP.  Nelson cleaned it the whole way, I managed about half and then it got too much for me.  We had a wee look around and then got onto the walking track and headed up through some pines, over a fence, looked down Chalmers Track (into Lytt), and then headed on up some techy rocks and onwards to the Gun Emplacements.  From here we got onto what we usually descend down through the tussocks, climbing all the way up, quite enjoying it, to the stile.  Talked to a guy who didn't know where he was, explained to him how to get back to his car, and then we peaked up.... resting at the top for a bite with one more rider riding through while we were there.

Off down the trail, I nearly lost it after the first descent losing balance on the rocks on the way to the stile.  Over this, and flying.  I was tight on Nelson's tail the whole way, catching him on the corners, not quite so much on the straightaways.  My cornering was magic perfection.  So fast, and we were down to the 4wd in no time flat.  Down this and left into the old Greenwood start, flying around this, with Nelson getting the goods on me on the couple of climbs.  Before the end/start of the trail we hung the right onto the new track, getting good speed through this down and across above the road and under the rocks.  Awesome blast, tho one of the lower corners could really use a berm - sketchy.  Across the 4wd track, down near the gate, and into the other new one, this one mostly climbing but with a couple of small descents, hovering along close to the top of Jollies Bush, then numerous zig zags climbing up to above the ruins on Greenwood.

Into Greenwood at great speed, fanging down through the rocky top sections, me right on Nelson's tail right through this section, flowing good.  As we rounded through the rock gap and across the pumpy face to gloomy gulch he got the gap on me, and then I started to slow after the gulch where I usually rest, but I pushed on, and got good speed down the rocky section and through the swoopy bits.  I hauled up at the drop jump, and Nelson was in the tussocks just below here, resting.  I pushed back up a bit and then rode down and rolled the drop.  Easy, will drop it next time.  We got going before the next riders came down and bombed it all the way on down, me gaining on Nelson in sections, especially the face down to the first rocky up.  He cleaned this, I dabbed through it, and off again and out the bottom.

Stopped before entering Captain Thomas, let a few riders through and watched for the others who were all out and about tonight.  First, we spotted Robin finishing off Godley.  He rolled up to us and we chatted, then we saw Pete and Alistair doing the same, they rolled up and we all talked.  Robin was parked up here so the rest of us took off down, Nelson, Alistair, me then Pete.  Ali was tight on Nelson's tail for a good while, and I stayed latched on Ali's tail, pushing him harder in places.  Fast run down just over 7 minutes all done.  Good show on the first of the techy rocks with some other riders walking it as we rode through.  They were impressed.

These trails are getting a lot of traffic with the other end of the hills out of action.

All told, 18kms, 578m 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.

Tuesday pre-meeting blat.

New office, downtown now, so skedaddled and met Nelson in the Countdown carpark, Moorhouse. Limited time having to get all riding in before the 7.30 TFC meeting.  Traffic hell til we hit the hill, parking up same place as the other week on Parkridge off Longridge. Headed up the steep new single, both cleaning all of it this time (and gasping for air as a result). Around and up the usual Britten then around to and up Broadleaf Lane.

At the top we walked up to the Trig to have a look into the Harbour, seeing fires burning behind Governors Bay - not to mention all the smoke and choppers working.  Back on the bikes and heading down, the steep start here loose as and almost traction-free which threw me out a little but propelled Nelson pretty much off trail.  Battered our way around to the stile and over.  From here it was smooth flowy blazing.  I was tight on his tail all the way, weaving and grooving down and across through the tussocks.  Down the 4wd and into the original Greenwood entrance as if heading back up towards Mt Pleasant Rd, keeping a really good pace around here we turned onto the new trail we'd climbed last time, finding it to be quite a cool flowy wee descent.  Flew down this and into the other one we'd only descended before, finding it to be a really fun climb, with really not that much climbing, ending just up above the Ruins.

From here it was back up the Greenwood entrance, out to the road, up the road and into Britten, for the fang down here, me leading and keeping a good pace, railing around the bermy corners and then across the way we'd come up, flying down the steep descent and back to the car.  My watch said it was about 7.15, (but Nelson's car said 6.40something, which he thought was really slow), so we headed down and made it to TFC dead on 7.30... (nelson's car saying 6.56)... gates were locked and I was very confused, rang Steve to see what was up, and him saying it's only 7!...my watch had somehow wound itself ahead.  Oh well, gave Nelson and me time to get some food, making it back just in time for the meeting...

So, all up a short ride, but was intense and fun...  under 10kms, and only 320m gained.

Sunday, hot hill work

Out on my lonesome leaving home about 9.20, drove and parked at bottom of Bowenvale on Eastern Tce - and caught up with an old friend, Ben, who I'll definitely ride with sometime soon.  Headed up Major Aitken Drive, figuring there might be a bit shade on the way up.  There was, tho it was still pretty warm getting up there.  Ground away and got to the gravel and grabbed some shade up the first section on a nice singletrack next to the gravel.  Then out in the open thankfully a bit of breeze around.  Under the pylons and then up to the high part hung a right and climbed up onto the singletrack, heading for the landing strip then up the last gravel, feeling a bit weak from the heat and the downhilling yesterday.

Brief break at the start of the Traverse, breeze cooling a bit, then I was off.  Good ride around here, tho the wind was a headwind for a start.  Met a couple of uni-cyclists (one of which was a young girl (9 or so?)), and was sort of chasing a guy on a carbon XC steed.  Good blast down to Vic Park-top and then through Thomson and Thompson and across an insanely busy Kiwi, cars clusterfucked everywhere...  Up the road slowly gaining on XC dude, catching him juuuust at the top of Worsley.  Cooled right off here in the breeze under that big pine and chatted to a few other bikers.

Off down the Body Bag, hugging the left hand lane (on account of a guy riding up the middle), which only gave me a little bit of gorse sting on the way down.  Into the park, climbing up the steep trail, and touching base with Paul and family who were celebrating Luka's birthday down at base.  Into Yeah Yeah Gnar and then a little way down decided Tommy2's, why not (just over a year since last down here).  Into here, it was cool, following pretty much exactly where it used to.  Bloody dusty as hell, but fun, and familiar and I rocked my way down it, cleaning everything.  Out the bottom and into DOHC, blasting.  By the bottom my arm pump was mental, and quite sore.  Popped into the base and said happy birthday and caught up with peeps and had a beer (nothing else on the menu or in the fridge appealed!).  Then off again, down the road, freshly watered, so not dusty, and then around the foot of the hills back to the car.

A smidge under 20kms, 660m climbed, 1.5 hours.  Hot.


Later Edit:  the next day the fires started, burning for a week, over 2000 hectares, including most of the park, and the Thompsons, top of Harry Ell and Marleys, and all the way across the top of Worsleys Rd to Kennedy's and into Gov's Bay.

Saturday Parking with the boys

Took O and his buddy Tane into the park, buying Tane a 10 pass for his near-future-birthday, plus one for O. We lifted up and did the green all the way down to get Tane's eye in.  Rough as, but everybody enjoyed it.  I followed for a start, and Tane crashed in about the third corner, a high-side that he leaped off and ran with, then a little lower down I got past him and then O.  Then I stopped and turned on the MMR.  Caught them again and overtook and sped on ahead.  On Active Rest I zoomed ahead again, getting quite a lead, then stopped and waited til I could see them coming and got going again.  All good.  Both boys enjoyed it and were game for more. 

Round 2, hit Possum Lord and DOHC. Tane REALLY liked these ones.  We all had good blasts down, I think Tane offed a couple times but he was fine.  Back to the car for a bit of lunch after this run.

Then round 3, we headed down Yeah Gnar.  Pretty dusty, and I caught some rookies (who probably shouldn't really have been in here, I mean, they were really struggling).  I got past them and then the boys did too.  Then some faster guys got past the boys, and I let them by, but a little lower down they let me by again cos I was definitely riding it quicker than them.  The boys walked the worst steep bit, but rode everything else.  Across the midpoint and into DOHC again. This was another good run and faster than the last.  I'd been texting with Paul a bit earlier, and he was in the vicinity so came in and we caught up with him at the base, juices for the boys and an iced coffee for me. We were talking about another run, but after a quick blat on the pump track (while I hung with Paul) the boys decided they were knackered enough that we didn't need to do a final fourth run.

I forgot to turn the MMR off til most of the way down the access road...

Wednesday Night Adventure Climb Worse Nun Traverse Lava OldsKool

Pick up from work and across town to park on Ashgrove Tce next to the bridge into Ernle Reserve.  Over this and a mellow cruise up the Heathcote River past Cracroft and then up the gravel into the Park.  Straight into the Uphill climb, ziggy zaggy, jiggy jaggy...  we caught up to some other guys and sat behind them for a while, got past one and were happy enough having a rest behind the next guy, til it opened up and we plodded on ahead, up and over and down and through the midpoint and then on upwards the old way we used to climb out of Fightclub etc.  around and through the gate and up the techknuckle grovel little bitty shitty rut-city.  Cleaned our ways up this and then had a bit of a social rest outside the gate of the park, chatting with others, snacking and resting before heading off up the Bodybag.  Cleaned it a long way up.  Nelson got it all the way, but I blew out pretty near the top, rested, breathed and then got going again, cleaning up the rest.  Nice - best effort for a long time.

Over and into the Nun climb, quick piss stop and off down.  Nelson on fire, me chasing and struggling a little, flying down the Flying Nun, popping and grooving.  Big fuck up on the trail just after the big corner closest to the park - the Pioneer Race had been through on the weekend and all the muppets had fucked up the entrance to that rock you used to jump over...  On down through the rocky sections feeling pretty good, keeping Nelson in sight, but struggling a little to keep up.  Past the carpark and bombing through the lower section, no wuckers, Nelson still getting away but not too far ahead.  Strangely we met some dude riding up, near the bottom, and we finished it off. 

Across Dyers Pass and up the road, Nelson taking the lower Thompson, me staying on the road.  Up here were some dipshit boy racers with a lowered ute, mashed up front and tires off the scuffed up rims.  Dumb-arses had lost it into the barrier.  "Ohh, That doesn't look good.  Whoops" from me, and "Looks like you're gonna need a wheel alignment" from Nelson, to which they slung him some abuse, little shits.  Lucky no one had been riding or driving up cos they'd crossed the centre line to hit the barrier, obviously at some speed, the skid marks were lonnnng - hope the little fuckers get done for dangerous driving.  Into the upper Thomson for us, dropping down the recent wood-chip entrance, laughing at their misfortune all the way.  At the top there was a couple with electric plus-size bikes with kid trailers hitched up.  They'd come up Bowenvale Valley and the K2s!!!

Into the Traverse and a good blat round here, meeting quite a few other riders.  Legs were getting tired on the last few climbs, ending up at the top of Lava Flow.  Guy and a dog were here getting ready to go down, so we headed in and Nelson rode everything...  I walked one or two bits, but rode a heap I'd never had thought of in the past.  Was fun. It's a cool track (7 years since I'd last attempted it).  At the bottom we headed up the steps next to the 3rd bridge (we'd come down them one night back with the Thursday Night Crew).  Bit of a hike, but once you're up it's a cool singletrack across to the Hidden Valley Link Track - avoiding losing altitude on boring track, the creek crossing and the first two hairpins.  Into this and climbing climbing up to Old Skool. Great blast down this, seems to have been cleaned up a bit in the middle traversing section and looks to be seeing quite a bit of traffic.  Fast down the bottom and then out and down the road and round the river and back through Ernle to the car.

All up, 634 m climbed, in 22.1 kms over an hour and three-quarters riding.

Thursday Night loopy loopy convolutey

Nelson picked me up from mine and we headed east not really knowing where we might go - considering Lyttelton or Mt Pleasant localities.  Low easterly cloud (that had drizzled earlier in the day) was scudding across the hills, and for some reason we headed up into it, parking up on Parkridge Place.  Some sun to the west but also fast moving dampness ploughing in from the east, we headed up the new track I'd come down when riding with the boys (that they'd missed) back in November.  Quite a crunty wee climb, with even Nelson having to get off and walk a little, then across the face of the park and onto the old well trodden path up.  We held a good pace up here, ensconced in the fast moving fog, grass and tussocks rather damp, and Nelson only dropped me a couple hundy metres from the top.  Around the 'long' way across the top of Britten with the tail wind pushing Nelson off the trail as we rounded the top of the ridge, I took the lead from here through to where the climbers park their cars.

Across the road and up the Mt Pleasant access climb, but turning right and bombing down the steep single to the stile and over and down and into the ziggy zaggy climb to the Gondola building.  Sunglasses had to come off as they were steaming up big time.  Grunt grunt and clamber, up we went, the fog chasing us, and spectacularly swirling out over the bridle path.  At the gondola building we headed down the Crater Rim steppy section towards the Bridle Path top, with the fog starting to burn off and the sun shining through.  Good bomb down here, seemed bonier than usual, and we struggled to find a good way onto our sidling-around-the-munty-bits track (that hugs the fenceline just above the road).

At the Bridle-top we headed up the Crater Rim / 360 degree track that we've come down a couple times now, and found it quite good most of the way.  Further up than we remembered coming down, but got up through the overgrowing broom and steps.  We took a break on the way up and watched some loony riders climbing the Bridle Path, doing well.  Around the ridge top and downhill began back towards the Tors and CastleRock, nice flow down here with fun rocks to jump off.  Then across a light saddle and climbing again, up around to above the Castle Rock, final fun little descent down to there.  Sat and snacked and watched the loony climbers climbing up Castle Rock track, all three of them cleaning it to the top.  Chatted with them a bit, they'd come around from Gov's Bay, and were the builders of the steep singletrack over there, the reknowned "Governors Bay crew"...  They took off and a guy that'd chuffed up the road dropped into the trail ahead of us so we gave him some space and then Nelson led the way in.  I mumbled my way through the first descent and rocks, but once around the bend I started to flow, and quickly reeled Nelson in gaining on his tail before the first hairpin.  Around this and chasing again til the climb when I started to drop back again - just not enough oomph up the hills.  Easy roll out to the road and he was really huffing as we started our way along the Summit Rd under the gondola.

Around the bend just after the gondola the winds funneling through here nearly had us stopped.  SO strong.  Battled our way up around and into the singletrack at Cavendish Saddle, climbing up the steep mother and onwards up to Mt Pleasant, fog now but a memory, just damp tussocks and a little bit of dirt to show for it.  Straight into the descent from the top of Pleasant, fanging down through the rocks and over the stile.  From here, looking down on the Greenwood entrance, I spotted a new ribbon of singletrack coming up the hill to that entrance, filing it for later...  then onwards down, awesome blast down the singletrack, weaving through the tussocks and out to the 4wd track.  Into the Greenwood, but only to the first jump, where we peeled off to the left and onto the new trail I'd discovered last time up (the other week).  Great wee weavy trail, ducking and diving across the slope towards the big Richmond Hill pines, we had a very hurried and urgent time.  Out to the gate and 4wd, and found the entrance to the new climbing track (back up to original Greenwood entrance) that I'd spotted from above.  This was a great wee climber, zigging when it needed to, and looking quite established and like it's been there a while.  How we'd ever missed in the past I don't know.  It's even got gravel in places that would have been wheelbarrowed in.  Made our way up (and would be a fun down too) to the original Greenwood entrance and onto the road, climbing back up this short stretch to Britten.

Bombed into Britten, me tight on Nelson's tail the whole way, til the sun came piercing into our left eyes as we rounded down to the corner...  This sun made most of the rest of the trail quite tricky, but we found the left hander easily enough onto the new stretch of trail and absolutely flew across the slope and down the new techy bits back to the car.

A hard won 16kms with over 600m climbed, nearly all minty singletrack.

Family Adventure Parking

Borrowed a spanky SC Bullitt from Josh for Tra'y and we loaded up and trekked off to the Park.  First time up the lifts for all of us, bought myself a 10 ride pass and the family all had the 3 ride samplers we'd got for Xmas.  So, off up the lift, (the top of which I turned on the MMR).  Off down Duncan's Donuts to start with, O and me soon putting some distance between T and H.  Regrouped and I rode with H and T jetted on ahead with O.  Nice cruisy descent, a little on the slow side, and H was really getting bumped around.  It looked like his forks weren't doing anything ( - they weren't, I discovered a little lower down).  Bit of whinging ensued, from the start of Active Rest and for the rest of the way down.  O and me jetted off ahead again and got regrouped a couple times eventually getting to the bottom tho and waiting and waiting for them.  H was not happy, and I really was wondering if we'd get him up again.  But, sorted out his fork a bit, and got his brake lever closer to the bar, and put a bandaid on the blister forming on his hand, and off up the lift we went again.  Caught up with Mark down here too.

This time, O and me hooked up with Mark at the top and we headed into Yeah Yeah Gnar.  Nice, the old top bit of T2, so was good.  O did amazingly well, handing the 'tech' really well.  We blazed on down this, him only walking one steep section just below the volcanic rock wall (on Alice's), and cleaning out the rest nicely.  Then we headed into Double Overhead Cam, and it was a hoot.  Both of us really enjoying it and blazing down, overtaking a slower couple on hardtails, and I'd blast ahead for a bit, then stop and wait for him, the blast ahead again.  Was good.  At the bottom again we watched and waited for H and T, and chatted to Mark again.  H and T turned up, we jollied H along again and he was much happier after that descent and another bandaid and a juice and he perked up well.  Whilst waiting down here I managed to witness a guy crash pretty bad on the last Airtearoa jump, landing on his side and smacking down just out of view.  He didn't get up again.  We watched while the medics all arrived and actually while I was getting bandaid for H there was a guy in the First Aid bay with a broken collarbone too...  2 crashes within 10 minutes of each other. 

Off up the lift again, and this time O and me did Lord of the Possums and regrouped with H and T at the mid point.  Stupidly I sent T off with O down DOHC...  oh dear, what a mistake.  H and me had a nice time down Active Rest and spotted T and O below and T was cursing me.  Then much much lower down I saw O finishing off DOHC and we stopped right where they nearly touch and waited for T.  Eventually I saw her walking down with the bike.  As soon as she saw me she yelled she was leaving it there, and did and walked off.  I had to send H on his way and clamber my way through gorse and up to get her bike, ride it down to mine, then ride mine and wheel hers down the rest of the Green trail.  Not a happy girl...  I'd totally misjudged her ability, and just thought no worries, it's easy (for me and O, obvs)...

End of day, with unhappiness in the car.  Made up now, but she'll never trust my trail judgement again.  "yeah, it's easy", when it's not.

three rounds...

Wednesday night Eastern noose

Home with the boys for school holidays cos T was back at work today, so Nelson came to mine and we ate a little then headed out to Scumner.  Parked again in Slumnervale and headed up the Captain, not quite slow pace we'd had last week with Craig, but probably not much faster, as I was gasping down the air as usual.  I nearly offed on the wee descent before the rocky challenges, having dropped my front wheel into a dip or behind a rock badly, and only just got it under control, with visions of myself toppling head first down the steep hill onto more rocks.  Adrenalin pumped big time...  Walked the usual bits and rode everything else, including cleaning one bit I haven't cleaned in years...  Eventually the Summit Rd was reached and across Evans Pass we trundled.

Into Godley, cleaning the easy climb and then the beginnings of me-not-doing-very-well began.  I proceeded to dab a bunch of times on the various rocky outcrops that ensued, balance all off, and struggling with power.  Made it in the end and found I wasn't that far behind Nelson towards the end.  Brief regroup and then off down towards Livingston Col with a bunch of parasailers floating about above the last (fast) section of track.  Man we hooned down there.  The track's seen some work so is really fast again, swooping through to the cool swoopy bits.  Then Nelson flatted.  At least, got a hole in his tire the the goop didn't fix. Waited for ages, perched on the hillside, watching the parasailing people catching updrafts of the persistent easterly.  But no, it wasn't going to heal itself, so he pulled it off and whipped in a tube.  Off again and down through Livingston, then climbing again.  Good wee climb this.  I remember in the past I used to hate it but it's really pretty short now.  Over the top and around, gravel a little sketchy around here then onto sweet trail flying tailwind to the last bend and around to PFMTBC Rock, Nelson launching it and not even touching the rocks on the down side of it, me picking the line and kinda floating down them on my back wheel.

Next into Anaconda.  Fuck.  What a fucking debacle that is.  Who the fuck did that.  Stupid fucking highway of gravel, not so bad for a start, but in the corners it's just like riding on ballbearings, skittery as all shit.  Glad to be off it, and onto dirt again and the speed increased again.  Nelson jetted on ahead, but I somehow managed to keep him at least in sight until the 'Tail, where he vanished and I didn't see him til much further down it, disappearing around the last corner...  Nice run down this, especially the floaty bit in the grass above the walking track, tail wind and smooth runnings.  Not so bad through the rock sections and then was flying down to the paddock and out to the carpark. 

Climby climb climb, delayered at the first corner, then climb climb, into the zig-zag singletrack that took us back up to the Godley Head Rd.  Fricking steep, I walked a section along the fenceline near the top, but rode everything else, huffing and chuffing.  Around the road and up the track back to the Godley Track, where we pointed our noses into the sun and rode like the wind.  I was doing okay but then I started to muppet my way along, and had good and bad moments down to Evans. 

Across the pass again and into the Captain.  Nice blast down this, both of us rolling really well, cleaning everything (except the climb) and then Nelson flatted down in the lower zig zags, just before the turn-off to the Cabbage Tree diversion.  I rode on, having a sweet blast down round the cabbage tree, and he nursed it down til he walked out.  I waited at the stile, then we cruised slowly down back to the car.

Ride time 1 and half hours, 17.6 kms, 712m climbed...

Friday afternoon 'Tour'

Youngest deSpa's 21st birthday party being held out at Little River Campground in the Okuti Valley, and my family headed out earlier in the day, so I figured I'd bike it.  Headed from work at 3.30pm, straight down Lincoln Rd, brief stop at the Halswell Supermarket for a couple of beers and some Powerade, and then headed out round the Old Tai Tapu Rd.  Wind nicely low around here, nice countryside views of all the fancy houses along there.  Golf Links Rd to the main Highway briefly into Tai Tapu, then towards Lincoln for a km or so.  Turned left into Davis, then River Rd meandering around to the start of the Rail Trail.  The head-wind started here and never let up, getting stronger and stronger as I approached Birdlings Flat - reflected in my ever lowering average speed.  Met two touring cyclists racing towards me along here, then further along I caught up to a guy with a pack on his back (and totally crossed gears), headphones on so he couldn't hear me til I went past.  Park Rd past Motukarara then onto the original bit of the Rail Trail.  Onwards for multiple kilometers, into the fricking wind, through Kaituna and then around past Birdlings and towards Forsythe, the wind turning around into my face again.  Ugh.  Getting pretty sore by this stage.  Halfway along Lake Forsythe spotted a few ripe blackberries, so I stopped and gorged myself on them, giving me the energy to continue.  On round past  the pub, then the final stretch to the road where I hung a right and headed up the Okuti Valley.  Final hill climbs really tapping out my sapped legs.  Rolling in 3 hours after I'd left work...  Beer, water, dinner and a good evening had...

58kms, bugger all altitudes. 

Tuesday night Captain GreenHeat Pleasant and back

Nelson picked me up from work in his big blue van and we went to Craig's place to pick him up.  He had a very flash new Commencal that he'd only built up the night before.  Nelson had forgotten his shoes (in his car) so grabbed some regular pedals off Craig.

Hot nor-west day, blustery winds and sunshine, we parked up in Sumnervale and headed up the Captain Thomas.  Craig took the lead and set a really pleasant pace that even I could keep up with, which meant the three of us stuck together all the way up.  He made various adjustments to the new bike as we proceeded.  Cleaned everything we'd normally clean and not those we don't.

At Evans we headed into Greenwood, the first 'new' 50m or so fricking steep, the rest a nice cruise.  This is a great climb, and with Craig setting the pace again I got ahead of Nelson cos he was struggling on rocks so much with not being clipped in.  We stopped for a break at the top of the steepest rocky section (just before Gloomy Gulch) and then got going again, cleaning most until some of the rocky bits up in the corners section.  As we approached the ruins I spotted a new trail over to the right.  I'd heard something of this but had looked for it in the past and not seen it, but there it was, so we headed on up to take it in.  Craig decided here that he was tired and wanted to go home so he headed onwards and Nelson and me headed down into the new trail  Sweet rolling flowing wee trail takes you across above that bush reserve below there and then across to the big trees on the Richmond Hill corner.  From here we headed back up the 4wd track, chatting to a bloke on a big Yeti most of the way.  We peeled right and he headed off down Greenwood.  Around to the road and met another guy here (on an interesting Banshee Paradox (29r Hardtail)) we chatted to for ages - watching roadies struggling on the newly sealed and chipped road, up which eventually we headed into Britten.

Around Britten the overgrowth making it perilous and once on the west side the wind and overgrown tussocks making for some even more bloody tricky riding.  Across the road and into the climb, tail wind helping here and all the way I was in the lead and feeling pretty good.  Clambered up to the top of Pleasant and sat down for a snack.  Up rolls another rider, older guy, but fit (on some crabon 29r HT), just climbed up from Greenwood and proceeds to chat away with us for a good while, laughing about how someone's been feeding the rocks something to make them grow bigger.  Talk about a friendly night out...

Into the descent.  Lee of the hill or tail winds, made for fantastic riding, quiet, just the sound of freewheel, tires scuffing dirt and rocks, and flowy.  Had a really awesome blast down, grip in corners was magic and blazed down through the tussocks to the 4wd.  Then down into Greenwood, again, fast, and in pretty good form.  Some stumbling in some rocky sections, Nelson would catch me up, then I'd drop him, only to have him catch up again, then drop him again.  Was a game of cat'n'mouse with him never quite getting me, being pinball pinged rock to rock and losing his footing.  Took a break where we'd breaked before and (stupidly) I let a little air out of my tires.  Off again, blazing down, Nelson dropped the drop (and finding it bigger than he remembered), and then down through Dave's corners, I was thinking my rear tire felt a little washy, but figured it was just grippy...  til through the fence, fssh fssh fssh...  damn!  Quick turn-around replacing the tube and putting plenty of air in, then checked my front axle and found it loose - another thing contributing to the washiness of earlier...  On down, steaming down to the first rocky up, wrong-geared, and then out the rest at speed.

Across the road and I gave Nelson the lead, and we blasted down the Captain.  There was a couple further ahead I'd spotted, but they were miles ahead.  Cleaned everything beautifully and at speed and then both wrong geared on the climby bit, then blasted out the rest, catching the woman of the couple as we entered the cabbage tree detour, (the guy was a little further down, but behind us when we got out of the detour), then fanged it down to the bottom, amped at 9pm.

1 hour 36 riding time, 600m climbed in 18.7kms

Saturday Parapara round 2 Explorations

Allowed out on the last day of Collingwood headed back round to Parapara Valley Rd and rode up the highway much I did the other day. This time I detoured exploring anywhere I could. Up the 4wd DOC road, checking out a singletrack up the first knoll, with seemingly several options, none of which bore fruit.  Back down to the road and onwards up, past the access points to the zig-zag trail, up the straight and into the sort of hidden entrance to one I'd checked out the other day.  This, I thought was going to go down to the pond, but nope, it just curved back around to the 4wd lower down.  So, on up the 4wd track to the seat and onwards beyond eventually arriving at a funky gate (albeit with crosses on it) of a private Christian hideaway, next gate had lots of "Keep Out Private Property Electronic Surveillance" signs. Turned around, and climbed and rolled and back to the seat for a snack and this picture

(note the tide in, vs the tide mostly out on the previous pic from up here)...
Then zoomed down to the steep trail.  

Faster this time, fun down the steep tightness, bombing between manuka trunks and ferns.  Some flow, but also a bit of brakeage to make it around the tight bits.  Down into the valley...checked out another trail I'd spotted on Tuesday, back uphill for a bit, around a slip and then met tightness and a few steps.  Left the bike and followed it up and up for a while before giving up as it wasn't rideable.  Rode out and on down the trail, checking out another bit of track leading into this one briefly, riding through to a creek and back out and onwards down.  Fun wee blast, again faster than last time but with the stally bits included.  Across the creek and some climbing but not much out to the quad-track.  Now, another explore up a singletrack, which ended at a dam for the pond, back down this and up the zig-zag trail, not a bad climb at all, upwards chuffing to the 4wd track.  

Climbed back up this to the 'steep track' and at the top of this spotted a track heading off towards the Tukurua catchment...  hmmmmmm...  Walked down this 50m or so and could see it continuing down, wondering, wondering.  Walked back up and sat on the bike thinking, "should I? Should I? I kinda wanna. Nah, who knows where I'll end up, Onekaka? then have to bike all the way back around the road or back up...  Should I?"  Decided not to.  Headed down the steep trail, faster even than the previous time, getting into the flow of it more so and relishing it.  Around the first hairpin smoothly and on down, next hairpin, next corner, down through over the bridge and on down.  This time noticing for the first time lower down some evidence of goldworkings (piles and walls of rocks).  Across the creek and up to the quad track, and down, speeeeeeed down here and peeling off to the quarry this time.  Other bike tracks from when it was wet had turned back here but I followed onwards and found a trail off up to the left which I rode through, getting ever slower and less rideable til I was walking the bike. Then I walked a bit, more exploring, finding more gold workings, gullys, trenches, and some really deep holes.  Wandered back to the bike and back along the track to the quarry, and back onto the fast descending trail.  More speeeeed.  Wooohoooooo.

Another trail entering from the left in one of the last corners, I stopped and rode a wee way up it, finding a wee bridge over trench of a creek, then steps.  Walked a bit up this, deciding it must be coming from the walking track I'd found earlier, and also finding an old goldworking tunnel.  Deep, couldn't see much up it.  Scary.  Back to the bike, rode back to the main track, rode out to the road, and back along the gravel to the car.

More than the other day, with the extra climbing... 467m climbed and 14.4 kms covered

Aorere Gold, Wednesday 11th

Today, family headed round to the Devil's Boots and parked at the gate at the end of the road. O and me riding, the rest walking. The two of us headed up the 4wd track (the others, the walktrack that we'd ride down later). Steep heat, hot sun pounding down, hardly any shade, resting in it when we could. Got to the turn off left and headed into some trail I'd never done, but some of the boys had come thru on the Golden Bay trip of a few years back.  More up and down than I'd expected, but eventually we got to where the ill-fated Bedstead Gully track came out (having been cleared apparently a couple weeks after O and me rode it last year). Last couple of climbs and we descended to Druggans Dam. Snacked here and got going again dropping the tech down to the water race, O crashing hard on the steep - front wheel dropping into a hole and OTB onto a prostrate tree, scuffing his four corners.  He lay there a while before getting up, but soldiered on brilliantly, keeping up with me on most of the waterrace from there on around.

Around the water race to the caves, popped down to both, nice and cool in the Ballroom cave, total respite from the muggy heat outside, but the others weren't at either, so we kept going down the trail. Woot!!! Caught them up, giving them a hell of a fright, then bombed onwards the car, meeting some other riders on their way up.  Loaded up our bikes on the car and then drove cloading it up and driving through the gate and further up to the beginning of the tracks to wait, only a few minutes, forty the family.

Roughly 10kms and a hot steep 270m climbed

Mill Rd, Parapara trails, Tuesday 10th

Staying at Collingwood, rode along the beach 4kms to Milnethorpe for a bit of a leg stretch.  Whilst there, I bumped into one of the Ground Effectors, who has a bach at Milnethorpe, brief chat and then I rode a couple of slightly dodgy (but sweet) tracks back to the beach, and then back the 4kms along the sand to the house.  Later in the day him and family popped in and visited for a bit.  He knows his way around these parts, and so told me about the local riding: built and maintained mostly by Martin who runs the Takaka bike shop.

So, on his advice, later on, I drove round and parked at corner of Parapara Valley Rd, then headed up the highway a km or so then up a DOC access track. Climbed to the seat at pretty near the top,

somewhere around 300m.  Had spotted about 3 different options off the climbing track on way up, so hooned back to the last one, chasing a falcon spectacularly on the way, and dropped in (bars unable to fit one of the entrance options). Tight rough single track meandering quite steeply down thru the regenerating scrub, manuka trunks trying their darnedest to snag my bars. Eventually down into valley bottoms and flats across, a couple creek crossings, then opening up and out to a quad bike sized trail.

Headed upwards and found my way onto what turned out to be one of the earlier tracks off the climb; zigged and zagged my up it back to the DOC track, up this a little way then back down to and down that which I'd just climbed.  Fun descent back to where I'd come out earlier.  (Spotted an exit here right next to where I'd come out earlier - filed for future reference). On from here down fast descending on quite open trail, regen bush, flying, one other option to explore next time, then more valley bottom rolling, out to a groovy gate and a driveway down to the road and then back along a km or so of gravel road to the car.

11kms, 340m climbed

 

Totes and the Rameka Projection Fatstas, Wednesday 4th

Fat bike on holiday...

One ride from Totaranui, up the road and over towards Awaroa, down to the car we'd left at the top of the Waiharakeke Track. 200m up in 4kms, down a hundred if I's lucky, in about 1.5kms...

Wednesday 4th, O and me headed out of the bay, brief detour thru Takaka, then up the Rameka Valley. Parked at the bottom of the Klicks and rode up the road to the top of Great Expectations. The last km I pushed both bikes as he just couldn't keep up the climbing.

I let him lead down. Awesome ride, such a great trail and he really enjoyed it, as did I. Across the creek at the bottom and into the Klicks, taking in all of them, no broken ribs this time, fat bike handling nicely thank you.

9.4 kms, only 270 m climbed

Wednesday Mt Oxford Epic

Rather large ride today, and likely the last of the year for me. 

Paul and Luka arrived at mine at 7.15 and we Brava'd out to Nelson's. Weeded my garlic in short time then we hit the road for Coopers Creek, Nelson following in his own car.  Parked at the end of Mountain Road and got riding about 8.50... When I say ride, all was well for a start, but eventually ducked down over a bridge and there was a bit of a walk, then rideable climbing, but it got steeper and steeper with less opportunities for riding and more opportunities for walking. Eventually we were all walking, pushing at first, then carrying. One or two small taunts of riding and then above the treeline we were all carrying (tho Luka held out and managed to push (rather than carry) most of the way).  All of us found a method of carrying that worked for us - Nelson, kinda seattube across his soulders, back wheel behind his head, rest of bike hanging down behind; Paul - either arm through the triangle, top tube on shoulder, pedal in elbow, hand on front wheel; me - sort of top tube across my shoulders, wheels out either side, but for a long haul I somehow managed to have it similar to Nelson, with maybe my pedal hooked on my pack and I was hands free walking, trudging, up the incline. We probably carried for an hour, at least. It was very long and quite arduous, taking around 2 hours 40 mins to reach the top.  A couple of women and 3 kids up there when we arrived, tho they'd gone by the time Nelson got there.

Bit of a break and feed, then off down the ridge to the west. Passing the family on the way.  Some steep stuff, and a little bit of climb. Then down the side into the bush and wicked steepness. A few nasty climbs thrown in for good measure just to keep the rinsing, and rooty gnarl and steep steep steep. Stopped at one stage and Nelson took out his brake pads to see if the spares he had were any good, they weren't, and the ones he'd taken out weren't as worn as he'd thought, so got going again.  More steep rooty goodness, with a few really flowy sections chucked in.  Then finally(!), Wharfdale hove-to and we hung a left and clambered up this to the Link Track. 

This held a HELL of a lot more climbing than I'd ever recalled, and lots of getting off and walking/carrying over rooty boggy bits. Met a few walkers on on their way up while we were on the way down too.  We were all getting pretty rinsed by the time we got out, just over 5 hours after we'd departed

We climbed 1075m in total, over a 19.25 km loop.

Boxing Day Picnic, Park, Home

Eight Hundred and Fiftieth Post!!!!!

Big extended family picnic in Vic Park, so I took the bike and rode from there, - up the hill thru skidder site, up the steep bastard, past Brake Free, and up into the Thomsons.Across the Kiwi, txting-base with Nelson who was doing laps in the Park,  planning to meet at the top.  Up the road to top of Worsley and fanged it down the Body Bag.

Through the gate and chatted with some guys here before heading up the uphill track to the Chair, 3pm. Sat there expecting Nelson to show any second, to no avail. So rang him as I needed to get going, they still hadn't hit the lift, so off I went on my own. Considered doing the old favourite Throw the Goat, but figured I should explore a new one, so headed down Lord of the Possums... Berms berms and more berms. Through familiar country including an area from Wayne's World to Fight Club (R.I.P.). Caught up to some guys near the bottom, so mustn't have been going too slow.

Big open area with only 2 choices today due to some Muppet having crashed on the one I wanted to do, DOHC and requiring helicoptering out, so, it was either the easy riding green track, Active Rest, or the black option, Airtearoa. I chose the latter. Boost after boost after jump after jump, taking it pretty easy and never giving momentum too much free reign against gravity. Eventually made it down in one piece and headed down the access road (a surprisingly long way out!), then hoofed it into the wind home by about 3.45pm.

This here being the start of my ride...  it seems to stop around where I stopped to turn ON the clutch on my new derailleur, part way down Possum.  263m gained, and wouldn't have gained much more than that as it was all downhill from here.

Sunday Morning Fat Posse

9am meeting at Steve's, and I was on the Commando because I'd only gotten the parts (SLX 11spd cluster, shifter, chain, and derailleur + Blackspire Snaggletooth) to repair the Turner's drivetrain on Saturday afternoon and hadn't had a chance to put them on it yet.  So, angry bees buzzed across town to find Steve, Tony, Andy and Wayne waiting on the corner for Pete (who didn't show) and finding me instead.  Then I got a text from Paul saying he was 5 minutes away.  The boys took off at a leisurely pace and Paul arrived and we chased, catching them just after Grange.

Around Aynsley Tce and then on up Crapaki - busy as always.  Reasonable pace up here but Steve was complaining of his guts when we headed into the Taramea Loop.  I stopped to adjust my suspension - ie, let a little air out of the tires.  Nice climb up and around with me at the back, then fun bits, with only me taking the 'harder' option, getting in behind Andy and Steve for the next section rolling across the face of the hill.  Fat tires gripping so so well on the off camber corners; very sure footed.  We stopped and peered down at Glenelg spur (just now realised Glenelg is a palindrome) looking for potential ways up here.  Steve, here, decided that he'd be bailing when we got back to the main track.  We cruised the climb through to the end, Steve bailed and I led the way up the singletrack above the main drag.  Good roll up here, the fat bike feeling pretty good.  All the smooth trails were sweet on it, but the rough stuff is hard work.  Only Paul and me stayed on the singletrack, the others choosing the easier climb, and I blew up at exactly the same place as last time, just before a rocky steep.  Walked that and then rode the rest just fine, peaking before the others, then a regroup at the top.

Up around Vernon, easy riding, and then into Traverse, speaking with a clusterfuck of riders all seemingly taking turns at attempting to fix some guy's tire...  Left them to it and had an awesome run around the Traverse.. Regroup at the usual spot, and let some riders through, then on around to Vic Park for another regroup before the trees.  Into the trees and down past the see-saw then down through the rockgarden and my favourite gummies trail.  Even this was fun on the fatty, tho the roughest stuff was hard, and the seat doesn't drop easily, so it was oldskool stylez.  Rolled out to the skidder site and there's a guy under a space-blanket being tended to, blood on his head, not looking too flash.  Usual over cooking of the jump, landing nose first and being polevaulted head first into the ground.  Ambulance on it's way.

Off down Spazza's, the lower rooty bits bloody difficult, battling the bike with who's steering it.  Then straight down between Pono's and Brents and out the ridge straight ahead, and into a new wee one I'd done a wee while back on my own.  Sweet steep entry, then a couple of techy features, then more steep and then zigs and zags in an oak forest, then onto Flow (or bridges?).  Down this main trail into the lower swoopy zigs and zags and down the bottom of the valley.

Into Hidden Valley Track, I cleaned the creek nicely and was just making my way up the steep bit after it when I couldn't hold onto my balance and started tipping.  Left foot wouldn't eject and over I went, landing upside down, bike pretty much still on the trail, with me attached, lying in a big old pile of blackberry.  Elbow blooded, and knee must have smacked the bike somewhere, and arm a little shredded by the blackberry, but managed to climb out and get riding, cleaning the first and last two switchbacks but not the second.

Into Old Skool.  Mostly a good run, some of the rocks proving a bit pushy, but I reckon I'm getting the jist of this fatbike thing, and quite enjoyed it til the last few corners.

Down Bowenvale, and Paul and I went our separate ways (and it looks like Andy, Tones and Wayno went for coffee).

So, what with all the riding across town and all, totalled 31 kms, and climbed 585.

Replaced the drivetrain on the Turner when I got home, and then we headed out to Bottle Lake for a family ride with Lisa and Tane, and Ollie...  Alas, Hugo had a big smash on one of the jumps on the pump track before we left for the ride, smacking his head and scraping up his whole right side.  I took him home and the others went for their ride.  However, the chain on the fatbike snapped when they were most of the way out and T had to walk back.  (my bad I think, I should have checked the click -- click -- click -- I'd noticed on the way back across town in the morning... ooops).

Also.  On Saturday, Mark had his first session in the Chch Adventure Park, and Nelson had his first day on Monday...

Wednesday Evening Lungs Sprung around up and back

Usual pick up, traffic navigations, up Hackthorn, Dyers and over the hill - parking at the Governor's Bay jetty. Rode round the waterfront trail, quite enjoying high tide and pleasant odours, -ish. Thru Allandale, spotting kingfishers galore, and then some kereru swooping around as we headed up the road and into the bottom of Living Springs. Climbed in the valley, cross the stream a couple times and around onto the nice new Totara Valley climb into the Pines then on up up up - noticing a lot of onga-onga around the place, looking lush and vigorous.  Clamber clamber, through Rhymes with Orange and then up the grass and through a couple of gates.

Above the Outdoor Centre, climbing through the gums, through a dodgy gate, then into the forest, sidling and climbing, up more, in the bush on the awesome twisty turny climbing trail.  Stopped to pull some weeds (foxgloves), and then I brushed my arm through some onga-onga and no dock was to be found.  Yowch a bit.  Thru the difficult fence and then a bit more bush before coming out onto the open lands.  Across to the cabbage tree, and back up the other direction, getting steeperer and steeperer til I walked a bit.  Re-mounted and rode on for a while, through the gate and the trail was nice and cleared, having been weedsprayed at some stage recently.  On a particularly steep grunt I completely exploded my drive train. Got to work fixing, and half an hour it took, using rocks and breaking Nelson's mini pliers in the process, we managed to remove a couple of bent-arse links, cobble together the chain with a couple of 9spd quicklinks, and bash my granny ring out of the way sufficiently for me to continue upwards using the 36t (2nd gear).

Nelson rode most of it, but I walked a bunch of the steepest bits, and eventually we made the top, walking over the fence and up the hill a bit; observing dickhead boyracers taking blind corners on the wrong side of the road at speed.

The view from the top:

brief snackage, and then it was time to head down. Fun blast. So so good. Back down into the bush and it was exhausting, twisting and turning, avoiding bar-strike, sketchy, slightly greasy bush soils, but just so good. Puffing a lot by the time we got to the dodgy gate.  Then down past the Outdoor Ed Centre, gates, and into Mississippi, me nearly getting taken out by a couple of big lambs, but catching up Nelson, and swooping down and through the kanuka forest.  Then around to Zane's, the climb not so bad, and then down, what a blast.  An off camber root and my own muppetry made me stop briefly (without crashing) about half way down, and Nelson got a good lead on me which I never gained back.  Finishing off with an awesome floaty jump at the bottom.  

And nearly done, back around into the new Totara Gully for a super fun downhill and then around the hill and down again, funtimes, finally cruising down between the fences to the road again.  Thru the Freedom Campers at Allandale and we blazed back around the waterfront to the car.  All good.

16kms travelled, 638m climbed and descended

Sunday Bottle Ache with the kids

Another round of Bottle Lake.  T away for weekend, so sole charge parenting in action.  Picked up H's new (tardme purchase) Xmas present bike from Rangoon, then home and load the other bikes, O, H, O's friend Ollie, and Jet, out to the pond.  Did the main loop, me on the fatty.  H found the new (26 inch) bike much faster than his old 24 incher. And had the hang of the gears by the end too, which was cool.  Jet, as usual, had a glorious time.  And O and O were pretty quick.

13.4 kms, and a massive 85m climbed... Family fun.

Wednesday night family ride

I was gagging for a ride, and asked my boys if they wanted to come then T said why don't we all go...  The Turner was at Josh's getting new suspension bushes and lower linkage so we were short one bike, meaning T needed to ride the Fatty, and I had to settle for the townie...  So, chucked all the weight bikes on the back of the Fiat (cos T had a work car home), and we wallowed out to the forest.  Hit the trail, me with my be-slicked tires, cruiser bars and basket(ish thing) on front, T on the fatbike and the two boys on theirs, Jet racing off ahead.  Headed in, hung a left and headed through to the pond, then on through and out to the beach.  Stopped and checked out the beach, Jet had a swim, I was tempted to skinny dip, but no one else was keen.  On southwards.  An encounter for Jet with a slightly dodgy dog, then in the quickest way back and through the forest back to the car by 9pm, a late night for the boys...

Slow, no altitude, and short, but fun.

Sunday Morning HuntsTraversiVicOldSkool

Needed to be home by 11, so left home before 8am, drove to Paul(deSp)'s and we parked over in Bowenvale Ave.  Headed around the road and up Major Aitken Drive, then up Kenmure.  Paul's just gotten a new (to him) bike, but it only had slicks on it, which we let some air out of once we were up on the gravel.  But they sure were noticeably fast on the seal...  Up the gravel of Huntsbury and then short detour up onto the singletrack for the final bit of climb through to the landing strip and then on up to the top.

Onto the Traverse.  Nice roll across here, Paul really enjoying it, with his skills-of-old coming back to him.  Been more than 10 years since he's had an off-road bike.  Under Sugarloaf and then into Vic Park, down past the see-saw and down the rabbit paddock into the rock garden and into the gums.  My usual favourite lines down through here and out to the skidder.  Then into Spazza's, winding our way down and Brent's, taking the right-hand direct route, which slips into the bottom 50m or so of Rad^Sick.  Then into Bridges and Flow or whatever and down the valley.

Into Hidden Valley Link track, I cleaned the creek crossing and bit after, then the first hairpin.  Second hairpin, however, caught me out.  Onwards and upwards, relishing the climb and the top couple corners, which Paul didn't do so well on.  Out to Old Skool and down this, lots of fun, pumping and weaving the way down here and out, back to the car. 

1 hour 9 minutes riding, 14 kms, and just shy of 500m climbed.  Back to his place for a coffee just after 10, and I was home well before 11.

Wednesday Slickery El Capitano Livingstoned

Usual pick up from work, with more diabolicalness than ever before on the traffic front.  But, eventually we made our way to Scumner and up to Slumnervale, whereuponst we parked and changed and got riding.  Up past the horse paddock and around up the steps and onto the Captain.  Clamber clamber, me not dying as hard as usual.  However, just after the cabbage tree diversion exit I snot-rocketted my nose and proceeded to bleed from said nose...  annoying.  Staunched it a bit then got riding again, sniffing the blood for a good while up through the hairpins, finally settling it down along the flatter bits.  Through the first rocky wee descent and up the first of the techy challenges, and the drizzle set in, finally wetting the place up a bunch.  We debated what to do and continued onwards up, the rocks getting doused slightly more than was desirable.  Dirt was still okay, although it was starting to sort of cake a little on the tires, still dry underneath.  We took a break under a tree up at the old stile (to the road) and watched roadies negotiating their climb in the wet.  The drizzle kinda eased, but was still there in a very light manner, so we continued up, desperate to have some altitude.

Across Evans and up onto the Godley track, cleaning entirely all the first climbing bits, and onwards still.  Nelson I think managed everything, but much further on I dabbed once or twice, but never stopped.  Eventually to the high point and overlooking Scarborough and south-east towards all the headlands and View Hill (above Little Ak), we were out of the drizzle, but up the harbour and Mt Herbert was engulfed.  While we stood there it seemed to be looming so we thought to Livingston and back would be okay. Off down and a great speedy descent, traction all good and trail our friend.  Lower down they've lowest-common-demoninated the fuck out of it, somewhat pointlessly.  The swoopy cornery stuff near the bottom was still raw like it should be tho.  At the col we could see the drizzle approaching again so we headed on back up, straight up the face and then veering slightly to the right.  Nelson cleaned it all, but it was too steep for me a couple of times so I walked.  Rode out and spotted that they're building a zig and a zag, which will be good for the climb in the future.  On up and around and the drizzle increased a bit, and we peaked and then skedaddled for the Pass.  Rocks were slick as slipperiness, and pinged our wheels leftwards, rightwards, and centrewards.  I baulked twice, dabbing to a stop, but also flowed and grooved some of the hairiest rocky sections, pinballing down the track.  Nelson blazed ahead, seemingly not worried about the wetness at all.

Across the pass again and into the Captain, slick rocks and nice friendly dirt, all the way down.  Cleaned 2 of the techs, but saw Nelson blow out the bottom one, so walked that then watched him do it again (nearly getting pinged off again).  The rest of the descent was pretty decent, and we rolled through the bottom and back to the car in due course.

12 and a half kms, and 485 m climbed there and back again

Saturday Worsley Jet Loner

Finally got out for a ride... A week in Fiordland, then family time all week.  Couldn't join Steve and others on their meander today, so got out a little later after dropping H off at a friend's.  Parked just above the hairpin on Worsleys Rd and headed up the singletrack next to the road.  Hung a right and having a look found that there is no longer an entrance to my old favourite, Utopia.  So, jumped into Farside for a quick blast down.  This is still fun, and less open ground so less overgrown than OneShotLucy (which I rode down later on).  Fun to the bottom and then back up the grinding climb, this time continuing on up on the grass beside the road and up the next bit of overgrown-by-long-grass singletrack and then up the road proper, Jet loping along side me all the way.

Headed through the gate from the carpark and up the singletrack-doubletrack up into the relief of some shade in the trees.  Ground up the steeps and clambered onwards and upwards, noting all the exits from above as I climbed.  Up round and through Braille and up to the top to find a whole bunch of bikers resting, including a dog (and it's accompanying rider) Nelson and me saw another time right here.  I headed off down the newby that travels below the Worsley main-drag, bombing down and ticking off the entrances to the alternative routes down, choosing number 3 (or 4, depending), and blasting down it.  It's one of the shorter ones, spitting you out onto the 4wd climber in no time.

Back up the 4wd climbing track, and back up through Braille and there're all the riders again...  Jet talked to the other dog this time, and tried to have his way with her - dirty boy.  Back into the singletrack again and a sweet blast, all the way on the high line all the way to the end this time, finding some of the riders at the bottom again (weird).  I walked up the steep walking bit to the jumpy trail entrance and the blitzed down this, popping some of the jumps but not the big ones and not the fence gap, again.  Down through the lower section, more popping and weaving and out the bottom then up to Epitaph and riding down this to the carpark.

Jet got a nice drink (belonging to the other dog, methinks), from an icecream container that I kept refilling, and he had a wee rest here too.  Then I made him follow me down the road, not rocketship fast like usual, as I didn't wanna get too far ahead of him, then down the overgrown-by-long-grass singletrack and down the roadside into the Farside zone, this time blitzing down OneShotLucy, all the way.  Man, it's overgrown now, moreso than the other week with Nelson.  Finally the last climby bits and back down to the car.  Hot and bothered, jetty panting happily but me a little worried about his heat.

Only 12.35 kms, and only 468 m climbed...  but they wuz steeeeep(ish)

Sunday Morning Hilltop Meander

T was out doing the stupidmarket shopping and so I couldn't leave home til 9am, the same time as Steve and Wayno were leaving his.  I cruised at a good pace across town and followed them up Crapaki Track, getting a text about half way up but not reading it til I got up to the flat bit, less than 10 minutes later.  Sat on a seat and read the text which was saying they were doing the new 'Full Monty' ride out round Montgomery Spur.  I didn't want to chase them around that, so I sat and watched the punters ride- and jog- and walk-by below me for about 15 minutes til the two boys turned up.  We got rolling again on the singletrack above the main drag, and then continued up the newest section (just finished the day before as per link above), above the top section.  Got a little steep in here and Wayne bailed while Steve ran out of oomph exactly where I had.  We walked maybe 20 m and then got steep riding again, then across to the gate.  Quite good up there...  Suggested improvement is a zig and zag or two out for the steepest bit...

Onto Witch Hill, cleaning all the technicals and cruising around, along the road, into Castle Rock, me chasing down a woman on a Santa Cruz.  I had insane bursts of speed at times, weaving and gnarling down the trail, catching her just around the first hairpin, her pulling over to let me by, climbing nicely out and over and then awaiting the two boyz.  Dampness of previous days rain keeping the dust nice and low.

Around the road, and figured why not head over Mt Pleasant and get the top section down to Greenwood, so that's what we did.  Slightly damper riding up here than further back (cos its higher, I guess), but nice down the rocks, boogying through to the end.  Then my ride around the original Greenwood entrance was smooth and sweet.

Finally, up the road and into Britten.  Quite long grass down here, so trail narrowing a little.  Good fang down and around, then where the old stile and fence/gate were I noticed a new trail to the left, so followed.  I wove right across the Britten Reserve, one nice rock section, in the middle, then all the way over the far side, and around under some rocks and cool descending down to the top of Longridge Pl.  The boys had missed the turn and arrived above me down one of the original trails in there... 

Zoooom down the road to Craigieburn, and into the zigs and zags, nice roll down through McCormacks, enjoying it except for the carefulness on the spikey boardwalk bridges, then the final blast down the bottom reaching rocketship speeds.  Finally, around the bay, onto the main road and I split at the bridge and cruised the length of Linwood Ave home.

Good number of kms (30+), 750 m climbed.

Wednesday Evening Worsle None Guv

Usual pick-up from work with the usual traffic issues getting to where we were going.  Parked by the poplars next to the Adventure Park entrance, and we headed up the hill. Next to the road for the first steep, and up the singletrack beside the road higher up too.  Finally to the carpark and then on up the main drag, meandering out left of the trees overlooking the park again (like last time) climbing the singletrack to the watertank then on up, this all way more overgrown than last time.  Then over the fence and up the main rutted usual Worsley old skool track.  Nelson pulled ahead, chasing some other rider, and passing a walker, who I took ages to catch, dabbing out in lots of the technical stuff, til finally I passed her and kept on rolling.  Brief stop at the bottom of the Body Bag, deciding where to go, and choosing the same, heading on up, with me dying a slow death up here til eventually I had to walk. 

Over and up to the top of the nun, chatting to some folks up here before following them in. Not a bad run down here for me, with Nelson pulling over to add air to his rather soft rear-end, and so I flowed and popped and wound my way down.  Pulling out at the half way(ish) stop and watching as Nelson came down the hill.  

We crossed the road here and headed into the Governors Bay trail, down this, with a close call for me (nearly launching myself off the trail) and then around the hill and up the grunty climb, most of which Nelson cleaned (seemingly effortlessly), while I cleaned heaps, but just blew up towards the end, dying on the final steep bit that I'm sure wasn't there last time.  

From here we headed up onto the Crater Rim walkeway above the road, walking the first few rocks then riding the rest nicely, back to the start of the Gov's Bay track, then across the road again, and onto the next section of Crater Rim walkway, walking all the bigger steps and steeps.  Up to Worsley Rd and over the top and down the fang-worthy Body Bag, keeping on top of the rut-ridge at speed is tricky, and I couldn't see a thing as I approached the big launchy jump at the bottom due to Nelson-raised dust.  

Down a little and off to the left, into the 'new' trail in the forest before the Braille entrance.  Into here and, 'huh!', a new track peeling off to the left not too far in. Explored this and it flowed quite nicely, with one or two wee pops but eventually it petered out (in an area we'd explored before), and so we rolled on down through the sort of trail to the 4wd track, and climbed this back up the 4wd thru Braille, nearly getting taken out by a speeding youngster who was ripping down Braille (obviously fast enough to clear all the gap jumps).  Finally reached the top and headed back into the 'new' trail.  Nelson took the wrong turn towards the jump (that's too big), and I blindly followed him, then got back on track and led the way down, keeping the gap a reasonabl size.  Great flow down here with nice wee jumps over roots and some rocketship speed zones and skiddy loose rear endage.  Kept on the highline all the way down, and dropped out onto the 4wd just above the wee creek.  

Peeled right here, and walked and walked up the hill (under the powerlines) to the jumpy trail.  Nelson did the first really big double, and I followed him through most of the other jumps pretty well, but baulked, as usual, on the fence gap.  Good speed through the rest, tho I pulled over for a grom who was bombing through, and then over the last few jumps and down onto the 4wd again.  Peeled right again, climbing up to do the final Epitaph and out through the gate.  

Down the road tucked into speed mode, grabbed One Trick Lucy - which was a little on the overgrown side.  I got loose in the lower gummy/wattle area, and Nelson got past me, then this vine got all tangled in his rear wheel, so we stopped and cleared that, then lower down everything was really overgrown, hard to see the trail ahead.  Final wee climb out and bombed down the last dirt trail and onto the road at the corner, rolling fast back to car.

17 kms and 700m gained...  all good
What wasn't good was listening to the US Election coverage on the way home.  What a bunch of fucking morons.

Saturday morning Hanmerlicious

Hanmer for the weekend.  Got out and did a short loop with my boys, about half an hour, then dropped them back at the house and took off for my own ride.  Together we did Swamp and Swoop, H doing well on the climb, and pretty cool on the descent, and O just flying the lot of it, both really enjoying the downhill.

Dropped them back at the house, and headed up Chalet Cres, finding my way firstly down a long drive to a house, turning around and then cutting through onto a walking track down to the end of Swoop.  From here I went up Timberlands, huffing and chuffing like crazy, then up Jolliffe Saddle Track, gasping and grovelling the top few tens of metres.  Had a rest at the top here, and then headed off down Upper Dogstream to the first bridge.  Awesome descent, with some really tight trees for the wide bars.

Across the bridge and up to Bigfoot, climbing away zigging and zagging like crazy up through the forest, then ducking out into the open on every second corner whilst gaining more and more height.  Descending, this trail with it's aspect and views reminded me a lot of K2 in Rotorua, except there were none of the log-droppy challenges that K2 had.  Heaps of fun, and had me wondering when it was gonna stop it went on for so long.

Out to the road and down a little to the entrance of Detox.  As usual, seemingly long climb up and around then I had a nice rest and ate the only food I had in the shade of a tree.  Off again, and a nice blast down, nearly having a mishap or two, but not quite, and blitzing it down, and across the road straight into Mach 1.  Nice ups and downs along here, kept my speed up and pedaled hard on the climbs.

Across the road onto Camp Track, and finding a brand new trail off here.  Headed into it, freshly gravelled, and under-bermed corners meant keeping speed was hard, but it was quite fun, albeit very easy.  It seemed to go for ages, looping out then back, with a couple of nice descents, very short, and short climbs back up to the level.  Eventually it spat me back out onto Camp Track, and so headed along here and then up the Dog Stream Track to half way or so, and up the road to Jolliffe Saddle again.

From here, headed into Red Rocks, climb climb, false descent, final climb, then bombing...  rocks and fun.  Grabbed Eeny Meeny, then chose Meeny this time (had taken Eeny the last two times (and just now realised these last two options should be called Miney and Mo)).

Back out to the road and decided randomly to head back up Swamp, then stupidly all the way up Pawson's Rd, which was a nightmare due to the logging that's gone on - think: extremely churned up mud by big machinery and logs, turned hard by drying out...  nasty.  From here it was Tank Track down, swooping and weaving and launching, lots of fun, and then straight onto Flax Gully Trail down.  Don't remember ever riding it this way, (but may have back with Al years ago), short climbs, but mostly nice, and back out to Jacks Pass Rd, and bombed down (nearly 60kph on the gravel) back to town, straight to the bakery to fill my starving belly.

24.5 kms and 600 m gained.  Felt like more, I guess cos the climbs are mostly pretty steep, even tho never that long or high in themselves.  Highlights are Bigfoot, Tank, and Red Rocks...  all three by far my favourites up there.  I considered doing two laps of Bigfoot, but alas...  Was feeling really good the whole way, even tho I was a bit seedy to start, but climbing Pawsons really killed me, made me starving and tired.

Wedkneesday Night, XC beat up

Pick up on Moorhouse by Nelson and as per usual we trafficjammed it, tonight to the top of Huntsbury.  I headed off up the jumpsy track, gasping away on the clunk that's still in the bottom of my lungs.  Part way up I looked back expecting to see him catching me up but he wasn't there.  Hmmm, that's strange.  Figured I'd keep going and check further up.  Again, not there.  Over the brow of the hill now and up to the gate, wondering what was keeping him.  So, from the gate I rang him, and then saw him right down at the bottom, so killed the call and settled in to wait.  Eventually he turned up across the fenceline, having come up the main track - it being faster.  Then we set off up the singletrack, me in the lead and pushing hard, getting the air into the lungs and burning up the legs...  Over the fence and up the landingstrip onto the gravel, where another, older, rider was powering off ahead of us.  Nelson overtook him up past the cattlestop, and I didn't catch him til the top.

Off over Vernon, for a start, blasting down the older line and then peeling off down across the road into the top of Farm Track.  Been a while, that's for sure (all the last few times have been upwards).  We avoided the main track, choosing the tussocks and sheep trails instead, meandering down finding a really good line, albeit slightly rutted in places, to the pond above the gate.  Dropped to the gate, over this, and on down the main track for a while, until I chose a sheeptrail off to the right, around through tussocks to the pylon track.  Ignored the (obviously out of date) No Bikes sign on the gate, and headed up and over, into the steeper and steeperer descent into the Rapaki Valley, stopping to admire the view of all the wee bods cruising up and down Rapaki, then dropping in, down down down to the bottom, some fun techy steep shit near the end.

Over the gate and up the valley, reminiscing on the old singletrack up here, cleaning lots of the fun tech, before eventually cutting across onto Rapaki at the bottom of the last climb.  Headed back down Crapaki, on the singletrack above, down to the new sheep/cattlestops and into the new Montgomery Spur (Taramea) Loop the boys explored the day before.  Good zig zaggy climb then swoopy, some off camber weaving down.  I took the 'Harder' line and Nelson took the 'Easier' line and I ended up miles ahead of him.  Enjoyed the vista across here, and the carved in bits were quite cool.  Thought the trail was a lot further than it looked too.  Finally, lots of climb back up to the start, and off down back to the singletrack above Crapaki until the drudging climb continued.  My right calf feeling knotted and sore all the way up, puffing and chuffing, to the top where the views were spectacular and the breeze nice and cool.

Into Witch, both cleaning everything, and powering through it all pretty good.  Onto the road and Nelson chose the walking track above, while I took the easy option of riding along the road below.  I ended up at the top of CastleRock track first, Nelson having cruised up on the verge-side of the road to save his tires.  Whilst here the sun finally disappeared behind the clouds in the west and it suddenly got really cold.  I layered on, and we decided light was gonna be pushing it to loop Castle Rock, so up above the road and up onto the Tors track.  I found this more technical than usual, but cleaned nearly all of it, then rolled down across the road and onto the walking track Nelson had climbed.  Nice blast down this and through onto Witch for to climb hard, cleaning it all to where Nelson was waiting at the high point.  Then off down, popping and grooving all the knobbly rocky bits, making for a much smoother roll than usual stalling on the rocks.

Across Crapaki Top, no one around now, and into Vernon, me starting to get pretty tired, climbing climbing up and around and over.  Then across the road, where there was an Enduro-as-fuck group of guys, who took off down Huntsbury and then into Old Skool.  We took the traverse across then dropped down through the tussocks and blasted down the gravel (on account of slowly losing light) and across the landing strip, over the fence and onto the singletrack, sweet blast down this, Nelson messing up the big jump.  Then over the gate and down, jumping all the jumps (except the wooden one for me), and flying down to the car.  Awesome.

20.4 kms, and over 700 climbed.  All good.  I was really feeling it, the beat up by the rocky sections, and the overall size of the ride, having not done much lately.