Sunday Mucky Fatty Jetty Slowy, lotsy off Pistey

Beautiful morning to be out early. Parked up Evans Pass and on the fat bike with Jet poached in on the (closed) Godley track. One or 2 mucky spots but the fat tires do no damage and leave little trace of having been through.  And I walked on several of the mucky bits (as well as some of the techy bits) anyway.  A good run down to Livingstone, only a bit splecky on the Teddington Schipt bit, with smooth fun sailing, no puddles or muck the rest of the way down.  Jet struggled with the cattlestop, and a runner helped me out with the little doggy gate, and then we headed up and over to Breeze - again, no mucky bits, tho I was cautious on that last paddock ruttsville zone before the final cattlestop, not to mention the cattlestop itself.

Next, it was across to the stile and onto the Breeze Bay walking track.  Jet seemed to know we were going that way and led the way to the stile, over it, and off up the track, without any direction from me.  Nice to ride in this way, mostly climbing, and the gravel is starting to be grown into by the surrounding grass, so the trail is getting a better feel.  Still way less tech than it used to be, ie, none now.  Over the stile at the end, and I stopped to take a couple of pics.

(in the glare behind the Kaikoura Mountains were in their full glory...)

From here, treadled across to the bunker on the hill, then headed up towards the trig, zigging and zagging a couple times. Over the fence, across to the higher bunker and up to the trig where I was tempted to take more pics.  View up Lyttelton Harbour and over Chch to the mountains and out to see spectacular all around.  A runner grunted up here and past, stopping to take in the view but completely not engaging with me...  I headed off down the fenceline for a start, then had a second thought and went back over the fence and back up the hill, then over down, where sheepshit flew off my tires and onto my face.  Nice and fresh it was, all over my lips, nose and mustache, nearly in my mouth - eeewwwcchhhh..  Took a bit of wiping to make me not smell it any more.  Continued down and met with our usual wee tight narrow singletrack above the road back towards Breeze Col.  This was fun. And tricky. And quite slow.

Through Breeze Col and off up the road, then decided to ride a sheep trail below the road (above the Anaconda), and along this to the first corner which when I rounded, decided too many sheep to not freak them out with Jet, so climbed back up to the road.   Stayed on this, around past Livingstone, up past the Para's launching spit, and around above Scarborough to the usual gate (now moved) to head back up to the Godley Track.

Climbed up and crossed over this and continued up the 'landing strip', all the way to the top, nice long climb, and joined the 360 trail up here, ready for the descent to Evans.  Excellent downhill this - couple of rocky tech sections that were too much for me on the fatty, but fun bits in between and in no time I was back on the rock part of the trail, then I continued with the walking track section above the entrance, and dropped down to the final stile (dog gate for Jet) and back to the car.

Very happy dog, and me well satisfied with my micro-adventure.  A 13kms round trip, climbing around 520m.

Wednesday Night Mt Relatively Pleasant (out of the wind), Greenwood and Bluffs

Bike fits good in the new car.

Left work 4.30ish and drove to park at McCormack's Bay park, watching the big clouds and sunset drift away.  Nelson turned up eventually, parking, and we headed up the valley track.  Not a bad start, but when it got steep I started to struggle big time, gasping and wheezing up through the switchbacks, and then losing momentum on the bridgies (which have had their stupid posts removed, thankfully).  Food choices in the day, or general lack of riding fitness getting the better of me. Greasy as greasy in a few of the corners on the upper zigzags, but cleaned one of them, and didn't clean a couple of others.  Nelson dabbed once, I think.  Up the road, to the wee reserve steep climb then up to the bath-trough and up into Britten.

Good climb up Britten, trail in good knick even with the day's rain, and, for a change, round the top, then over the road and up the trail to the top of Pleasant, southerly wind blasting across this face as we climbed.  Bit of a rest on the top by the trig, nice views to be had, and a bit of shelter out of the wind.

Hit the descent before we got too cold, into the down, over the stile and down, a little greasy on the Lyttelton side, but good through the tussocks.  Around above the ruins and into Greenwood, which was boney as, rocks all bigger than ever, and not too slick except for puddle avoidance along the face before Gloomy.  Short break after this and then rapid descending from there, me stalling in the creek crossing rocks, before the final blast down the final face.  Bumpy as hell the last steep finish.. 

Stopped on the road and watched lights up on the top (as well as a couple riding up Captain).  Then headed down to a trail we'd never ridden before, the Scarborough Bluffs track... I figured it would be dryer than the Captain, and it probably was. Has some serious exposure, good tech, fun stuff, and tight switchbacks.  Down to cross the road, and a few more switchbacks with pushy bushes on the sides, down to the bottom of the Captain.

From here it was down Sumnervale and out around through Scumner and around back to the cars, completing an 18.3 km loop, and gaining 570 m total.  Nice night ride.

Sunday Trees For Charlesworth

No rides this week cos from Tuesday to Thursday was in Wellington (Tues), then Hamilton. 

Trees planting at Charlesworth Reserve, so took the Troll across town.  Rode, Windemere, Railtrail, Rossall, across the Park, Armagh, Colombo, Gloucester, Linwood there.  Took me 31 minutes, 12.4 kms.

Got there, did the planting, lots of people, good vibe.  Ate a couple sossies and off again home, this time same route back through town but the nor'west was getting up so thought I'd stay in the park and do the railtrail the whole way, but next to the golf club figured, "haven't been up Garden Rd for ages", and peeled off across towards Helmores Lane bridge, and then Holmwood, Garden up across Wairarapa, and then through to Rossall again, and home via the school and Condell.

24.7 kms all up, no Map My Ride cos it's stoopid.

Saturday Kennedy's Across and Down

Sunday expected to be wet so planned my ride for Saturday afternoon.  Morning dawned wet, but that soon cleared, to no detriment to the trails.  Drove to Monsieur deSpa's after 1 and we headed for Kennedy's, around the roadways (getting funny looks for not turning into Worsley's Rd).  Cashmere Rd and then into the Quarry Park, heading up to C2.  Download, and up.  Good climb, though I was feeling really unfit.  Gasping for air a lot, and generally feeling wrong.  Put it down to lack of good sleep and nutrition.  Made pace overtaking a couple of older guys, and another solo guy, and in Siberia caught up to a fellow plus-sized tire guy, and the 6 of us all headed up the steeperer Kennedy's track together, with Paul and me kinda gapping them but not.  By the time we got to the really steeperer bit my cock had gone completely numb, so I had to stop to get blood back into it, so the others all caught and overtook me, with Paul leading out the top.  I knuckled in behind the solo guy (behind the two older guys) and meandered on up, feeling slow when such slow people could beat me.

Onto the road and plussizedtire guy rode with us around to Worsley's, where we peeled up into the Nun.  Excellent blast down this keeping good flow all the way to the bottom.

Then up the road to Vic Park, avoiding the Thomsons, spotting some gloves on the road, which Paul picked up.  There was a couple at the top "these your gloves?" "nup", "alrighty".  And off we went around the Traverse.  Nice bomb around except for the climby bits, and then we bumped into a workmate (Jenny) halfway around.  While talking to her the couple from the top turned up saying that a guy had come up asking about the gloves, so they'd chased us (above on the road, then back along the singletrack towards us) cos they'd said they'd put them somewhere for him.  Here I realised it was 4 o'clock and I was supposed to be home at 4, so now I was in trouble, so off we headed.  Good run the rest of the way round and then excellent descent down the ridge singletrack, nice pops on the jumps, and then out the landing strip to the new track Nelson had found on Tuesday night.

Into this and down, all the steeper bits are so nice, and cool rock features, and then after the gate it gets better, with one really steep drop (with good roll out), then around and across, avoiding all the old 4wd zigzags...  NICE.  Then into the recent entry to Old Skool, and with the muscle memory fresh from 4 times on Tuesday, I absolutely honked down the faster flowier bits, while cruising mellow on the slower bits...

Out the bottom and a haul across town back to Paul's, into the car, and was home by 4.45 - straight into the dough making for pizza night, not tooo much trouble to be had.  (phew).

Big loop, 32 kms, with 754 m climbed.

Tuesday Night Loopy Loops

Trees meeting tonight, so limited time.  I parked up the end of Bowenvale Ave and got riding about 5.17pm. Nelson had a meeting til 6 so I started out on my own with the intention of him catching up later. Got going up the valley at a reasonable pace, no lights needed yet, and feeling the warm blasts of nor'west air, mixing with the cooler valley-flow air pockets.  Up left into Hidden Valley connector trail, failing just after the creek crossing, but then cleaning all 4 of the switchbacks nicely.  Under the pylon and straight into the descent, with a young guy on a Yeti, no baggage, bombing in ahead of me from above.  Adjustments to suspension and onwards, sheep-shit avoidance systems all go.  Taking it easy on the slower bits and getting into the groove of it on the flowy-er bits.  Bombed down and straight into the climb, txting Nelson to let him know lap number 2.  20 minute lap.

Up again, this time nearly needing lights - turning them on as I got into Hidden Valley Link trail.  Bollocksed the creek again, and the cleaned all the switchbacks, better climb this time.  Into descent number 2, nicer flow, better groove.  Bombed the last and straight back into the climb.

Txted Nelson again to say lap number 3, then a bit further up received the 'Just leaving work now' txt, it being 6pm.  I txtd back saying that'd work perfectly wait for me at the bottom of Old Skool if ya get there first.  I continued on up the steep and into the Hidden, again cleaning all the switchbacks and bombing, faster again, down, and really hucking the jump on the Old Skool descent part.  Got to the bottom and rolled on down to the bottom, over the stile and down to find Nelson getting ready at the cars.

625 or so, we headed up valley again, this time at a faster pace (me struggling, already tired, to keep up), by-passing Hidden Valley track and continuing all the way up the valley, past the exit of Lavaflow and on up the tech. A little bit of walking and riding til eventually we were up on the sidling track back towards Bridges.  Time was pushing so straight into Bridges and down Nu Bridges and bombing down, then into Hidden and climbing, this time me bollocksing both the lower switchbacks on account of tiredness.  Cleaned the top two, and into the descent, me leading the way and flowing nicely through the faster bits - losing Nelson a few times, but him catching me when I's taking it easy on the flatter bits.  At the bottom we said our good byes and he trundled off back up the valley while I headed to the car and off to my meeting, driving at 7.10 or so and making it just on time but with no food.

Ended up getting 16.5 kms and 646 m of altitude under my belt.  Not bad for a limited spree.

Nelson went back up the valley, up K2, and up through Vic, then around the summit trail and down New Skool Old Skool, discovering new the singletrack descending trail bypassing the old crawler track zig zags.

We met at Twisted Hop after the meeting and did the 2 for 1 dinner deal again.

Sunday Styx and Stones

Boys were coming from their respective parts of town so after popping into Mitre10 I trundled back down the railtrail and met them just after they'd crossed Wairakei/Rossall St.  We headed north, at a reasonable clip, stopping into Cosy Cafe for a leisurely coffee, then onwards to the planting. 

Good turn out, with 1800 plants in the ground in about an hour, then sossies, and back on the trail south again.  Losing Wahayno at Northcote Rd and then me at St James Park, the boys continued on and split off accordingly til all that was left was Wazza, heading home on his own.

For me, a 13 km round up and back trip.  a whopping 23m of altitude gain.  Not really a 'ride' as such, just 'going somewhere on my bike'.

Wednesday Night Ashley Forest Exploration

Met Nelson in Rangoon and we met the locals at 6.30, making a posse of 7 all told - mostly older guys, one on an electric.  We managed (with very little wheedling) to convince them to ride in the hills - as opposed to the river tracks.

Headed north over the Ashley Bridge, then a right onto the (eastern) Loburn road along here (Carrs Rd), right into Mowatts Rd, then left onto Boundary, mostly climbing all the way. Up this to a gate we jumped onto Forestry Rd (Purple Heights?) which took us up to Mt Grey Rd at the "2km" mark.  From here it was over to a cool wee section of singletrack, with a few nice whoopdedoos, finishing down on another cross road, then short ways back to Mt Grey Rd (lower down than the 2km mark), and along a little way to where singletrack-city started.  Started off into a section that had trees across the trail (thinning), so turned back and dropped into a fun section that meandered for a ways, sense of direction completely blown.  This section finished and we were off down into another section, with roots galore, nicely made trails all in forest.  finally down this long blasty section and we were at the corner of Thomson, Barron and Laurence where a locked gate sits.  Electro man was supposed to be here, so we rode back up Thomsons and met him coming down.  We continued up and took a side track that had several singletrack diversions until it met the last trail we'd just come down, down this again, shorter and faster than first time round.

Now it was onto Barron, down this, crossing Forestry onto Gories, to Boundary, down to Downs (with a bike bridge across a creek) across to Marshmans, spinning like crazy down this to Ashley Township.  Down High St to the river and along the river singletracks back to the main Loburn Rd bridge, and zoomed back into town.  Lots of fast (me absolutely maxed out in my low top gear) spinning, spinny puffy puff puff spin spin pufffffed.

All over, 25 kms with 276m altitude, maybe 15% singletrack, and roads 45 % sealed, 40% gravel.

ANZAC Porterhouse Cheese and CoalSpit Pur.

Minty bunch of rides today, it being ANZAC Day, and my family out of town, Nelson and me met just before 11 at Sheffield and convoyed both cars out to Porters ski field road. 

Drove up the 5km gravel road to check out the Porter Lodge (as featured in recent Spoke mag).  Had a coffee then on with the helmets, no bags needed, and headed up their Flow Trail. Twas fun.   A little greasy (melted frost-heave) in places, but drying out.  Climbed about 9 minutes, with two opportunities to cut the loops short passed by, brief look at the view up Crystal Valley, then into the descent:  flowy, a few nice wee jumps, and bermed corners.  One really nice jump down the bottom, and a couple of kinda hip jumps lower down too (the last one followed by a super greasy off camber corner (nearly lost it!)).  Then a wee grunt back up to the carpark. - 2kms, 115m climbed, 13.31 minute spin.  My tires were caked, so I hosed them off and then we had some lunch.  They've only got a couple things on the menu, but they're bloody good - BLT or a Buffalo Mozzarella sandwich.  We had a half of each each.  Then, about to leave, decided to blat round the lower loop to do the three main jumps again.

Back into the cars and around to Cheeseman Rd, driving up the gravel, past Texas Flat, and leaving my car at the ice rinks turnoff.  Headed up in Nelson's to park at one of the entrances to Smegma (aka Cuckoo Creek).  From here we rode up the road past the top entrance to Cuckoo, and further on up to K Line.  Here we met a guy and gal and 3 more young blokes rolled up behind us too.  Followed the couple into this fun rooty steep awesome trail.  Got past them after a couple of stops, then Nelson and me were blitzing out ahead.  It spits you onto Dracophyllum Track just as hit the Flat, so across this and through the usual, but climbing out to the Ice Rinks (rather than all the way to Texas Flat).

Next, we rode back up the road to Smeg, riding past Nelson's car to the top entrance, a steep one, and bombed down this.  It was way more hard work than K-line, just lots of kinda big lumpy whoomps, and heaps of tricksy little roots that'd send your rear wheel sideways, but all fun rideable.  My glutes and quads were getting a hammering.  Finally it finished, on the Draco Flat Track but much closer to the zig zaggy climb towards the Ice Rinks.  So, up this, much harder this time, and out to the Hyundai.  Checked out a wee track across the road, which took us up to Cocaine Alley (a wordplay on Cockayne, I've since realised - Cockayne was an eminent NZ botanist whose name is associated with lots of native plants).  Up and back on this connector track just to check it out then stashed the bikes in the bushes and drove my car back up to his.  Back down to the bikes, chucking both in his car.

This here's the route, cept we accidentally left MMR running til we were most of the way up the hill (so, ignore that bit). About 11.4 kms, and maybe 500 m climbed but more than twice that descended.

Back in the cars and off around the highway, this time to the far end of Coalpit Spur track (past Flock Hill).  Parked my car there, then back up to the start in Nelson's.  Awesome bomb down hill this track, into the valley below, some rocketship rush speed sections, and a whole heap of cool switchbacks that are great to practice the nose-wheelie turning technique (even if not actually necessary), and then a creek crossing.  We both tried different methods  - Nelson riding half-pedals; he stalled and got a wet foot, and I tried to just rock hop, but they were slippery, and not many were out of the water, so I got a wet foot (and damp 2nd foot) too.  On down the valley from here, and then it started climbing.  Didn't expect it to be much of a climb, but it turned out to be, and quite steep too.  Ugh.  Over the top, and then down again, a few more switchies and then down a 4wd(ish) gravel 2-track which eventually forded another stream (dry feet this time) and we were back to my car.

This one was apparently less than 20 minutes (felt like longer, cos of tiredness), and 4.5 kms with about 100 m climbed (again, quite a bit more than that descended)

Tally for the day, more than 700 climbed, and probably double that descended...

Tuesday Night Tour De Pleasant.

Parked on Stoneyridge, cold beasterly blowing thru and got riding just as the sun set... Up through Britten, around the front, up Mt Pleasant, all without lights needed.  At the top, it was time for lights.  Awesome, tight on Nelson's tail, descent, following him and flowing down through to Greenwood, where we headed down the 'new' trail, with a detour down into Jollies Bush.  A zig and a zag down and up in here, then back up onto the 'new' trail, out to the Richmond Hill pines, and on up to the old Greenwood entrance.  Sheep Shit Everywhere, tires well coated.  Off down the entrance of Greenwood, around and up, then up the way we'd come, Mt Pleasant to the top again, and over and down back to Britten, around the top (below the road) and then bombed on down, excellent fast run, down to the car.

A twisty turny ramble around the tops, 13.5 kms, 410 m climbed.  Not bad for a 'warm up' for the next day.

Sunday Morning with O

9am ish start with O.  We parked at top of Huntsbury and the Beasterly was blasting across the ridge.  Some chain troubles with him (as usual), and so I put in 5 or more links, seemingly fixing the problem (for now).  He did well climbing, but hated the wind.  We hopped up onto the singletrack and then up the landing strip, then up the grovel to the top, where we found the pfmtboys, Stevo, Andy, Wazza and Bobbin, got to check out Steve and Andy's new steeds for the first time.  Niceypie.

Said our good byes and they headed towards Vic, while O and me headed up and around Vernon with the wind blasting us as we rounded the spur, then good zoom down to Rapaki-top and into Witch.  O struggled in here due to the rockiness, and the wind around the corner was hellish.  We sheltered briefly in the lee of a cutting once on the road and snacked, then off up the road to Castle Rock.  He was done with climbing and couldn't face the climb back up from Bridle so he found shelter from the wind and I headed off down for a good blast down the trail.  Wind was pushy, but manageable, and I had a nice run down through the bends and climbing.  Then back on the road and back up the hill to O.

We blasted down the road, and across the ridge below the Tors the wind nearly pushed me off.  I got up onto the singletrack (O stayed on road), and enjoyed the challenge of this wee trail.  Met O at Witch, and I took the singletrack and he rode the road below.  Then, up the road (skipping Vernon), and across the Traverse to the fun descent down the ridge, which was being blasted by the gale, knocking O off on the jump.  Otherwise fine, and then down the landing strip and over the fence, and battled our way around the windy ridge and down to the jumpy section.  Over the gate and as we took off O caught a foot on a tussock, which made him crash (good bruise on thigh from pedal, poor guy).  Rest of the run down was fun for me, and marginal for him.

Effectively the same 15 or so kms (and 600 odd m) as this ride, but MapMyRide bollocksed it all up, as usual...

Sunday 2x CAP laps + Zipline

Had swapped out the new Spoon for the black one that was on the Fatbike, and put the black on the Rocky. 

Booked for the 1pm Zipline, so O and me dropped H at friends and we parked at the Park about 11.  Up the lift and we headed down the Summit Connector, down to the road.  Spoon seat on Rocky waaaay more comfy, thankyou.  Hung a right on the Summit Rd, and headed up the road to top of Flying Nun.  Into this, O's first time from the top, and we cruised down all the way.  He liked it, but some of the rocks were a bit dry-dust-slippery.  At the Kiwi, we headed up the Summit Rd and into the top of Vic Park.  Taking the trails across and back in the trees, then down through the rabbit paddock and rock garden into the gummies, cruising my favourite in here down, then all the way through to the 19th Memorial.  From here, down the shady forest trail to Dyers Pass Rd, crossing carefully to Loess Rider.  A very enjoyable roll down here, though, on second thoughts, I should have tried Shredzilla..

Close to 12pm at the bottom and I was meeting Dad and my bro at 12.30 for the zipline, so figured we'd have time for one more fast lap.  Uplift again, to 12.15 at the top, we bombed down Possum (noticing that Yeah Yeah Gnar had just reopened - wish I'd taken it). Flat tack, then across into Handle the Jandal, which has a bit more to it now that wasn't there the first time we'd done it.  Then down the valley and dead on 12.30 to meet for the zip.

Locked my bike to one of the stands and O went off and did some laps while my bro and Dad did the zipline.  On our lift up as we were passing over the Jandal there was O, he stopped and said hi.  Zipline tour was cool.  The rides are super fun, but in the nearly 2.5 hours of the tour, you're really actually only flying for about 3 or so minutes...  But, the high one is super cool view, and quite fast, and the long one is awesome fast.

(O completed 3 more laps, once more Possum and Jandal (where he saw us from), second one tried out Duncan's but found it boring as so he took DOHC to compensate, then his 3rd, Connector, Nun, Choirb, Loess again.  Nice one son!  How responsible and independent for a 13 year old.

17 kms of riding (and one uplift), and 588 m of altitude (minus one uplift (420m?)...

Wednesday Night, Lights On in Lyttelt-On

Washington Way post-work pick-up and a quick stop at RoundAgain to get me a new Spoon to replace the torture implement that is the saddle that came on the Rocky... One last ride for it then, we headed through the tunnel and negotiated the steep maze that is eastern Lyttelton, parking-up on Foster Tce. Rode up and down a bunch of times on a bunch of trails all very steep and nicely technical, that's what you do in there.  A couple of young fit guys without shirts were pushing their bikes up behind us and were jealous of our lights.  Up the usual, down the ridge, I walked the steep cliffy bit, good blast down, then back up the climber (Sloanstar?) and around and back up to the top again, and down Zombie Lurch, steeeeeeep and cornery, a few of which caught me out because of the lighting.  back up the climber and around and back to the top again, and down the easier descent this time all the way down again, and then back up with a few explorations, connecting things in our head to previous times, we ended up pushing back up the top into Looper and around to the top again, and then down that way, ridge, then Zombie turn off and Stormer, detour to the cool droppy steeps, then around, small explore again, and then down back to the car.

4 ups, 4 downs tallying 550 m in 8 kms

Finished off the evening by stopping into the new Eruption Brewing premises on London St.  Their Fresh Hop Eruption IPA was mint, and the new digs is awesome - decor, brew tanks, etc...

Good Friday Head Clearer

Up in Kaiks for Jana's 40th.  I took my opportunity for a quick spin around a bit of The Kaikoura Trail on the fatty. Mostly road but some quite fun singletrack.  Headed out, without water or tools, no backpack, along Hawthorne Rd (which is bike/pedestrian bridge since quakes), to the end, then up Mt Fyffe Rd for a while.  Right onto Topline and across this to Waimangarara River, where a short section of twisty singletrack through dark exotic deciduous forest takes you through to the Koura 'Resort'.  There was an offshoot of singletrack near the end that I wished I'd explored, but didn't - save that for another day.

Back onto the roads again, through the golf 'resort' and then left onto Bay Paddock Rd, up to Grange which takes you across to the Hapuku River.  Down into a storage area of large rocks (so many rocks!) and the Hapuku is running very grey and milky (ever since the quake, apparently - draining all those slips and dams).  Bit messy here with big ponds semi-flooding the track, but once into the woods, it was cool.  Fun twisty, reasonably low speed singletrack ducking and weaving through mostly indigenous scrub.  Bands of manuka, followed by podocarp and all sorts.  Went on for much longer than I'd have expected too, tho all up only a couple of kms and I was out onto the SH1.  Crossed this and ducked into Lovers Lane expecting to just ride it, but nope, the singletrack continues, albeit not as well formed and rather bumpy, for about another km then back onto the road to take down to Hapuku village around and onto Old Beach Rd for the tailwind cruise back to town.

27 or so kms, with not much altitude - couple hundy metres.

Saturday to Monday on the Old Ghost Road

So...  Nelson and me drove up to Reefton on Friday night, staying in a cabin at the campground.  Headed off Saturday morning and rolled into Westport around 9 where we got breakfast at the PortSide (which was really good), and waited for Ken and Ross to turn up.  They were driving from Murchison and had gotten in there from the ferry really late, so had a late start.  They arrived quarter to eleven or so and ate, so we were off to a pretty late start.  Up to Seddonville to drop off Ken's truck, all piled into the Stagea and scraped the muffler along the gravel exit back to the sealed road.  Eventually got round to Lyell, and it was raining.

Doesn't look that wet, but here's the likely lads, clean before departure.

Hit the trail just after 3 and Nelson set a bloody stupid pace, which had us all huffing and chuffing, so I complained and got in front, and proceeded to set a pretty similar pace, concerned that I was holding them all up...  so, Ken got in front and slowed us riiiiight down, to granny + 1 kinda speed, and it was good.  Breathing eased, and we made slow but steady progress, with scope for more in the future.  Pretty wet, but not so bad, trail was firmer (more gravel applied) than I remembered from the previous time climbing this bit... The slips (about 10kms) were where we'd gotten to last time, and were a lot more rideable than they'd looked then.  Met a couple of guys riding down, not too much gear, who asked where we were staying, and when we told them, said, cryptically, "you're in for a treat."  My thoughts were, hut full of hot grrrls or hut full of drunken d!cks...  Kept the smooth pace from here up til about the 14km mark when it sort of leveled out and Ken picked up the pace til we were rocking along and those km markers just flew by.  All of a sudden, there's the sign for the hut!  Pushed up the little grunt to this and got settled in for the evening, rain steadily coming and going, not very much view to be had.  2 hours 40 mins from starting.

Our sleepout (the deep dark back one (Zala) was good, but noisy with the big drips slamming down from the trees above.  There were a young couple camping next to us, 2 older riders in the Gibbs hut, and the aforementioned 'treat'?  11 older (60's/70's) women walkers in the main hut, plus Rob the guy building steps for the toilets (sleeping in one of the dunnies cos there were no free beds!).

Next morning took our time cos it looked like it was clearing, but then it kept raining, getting away about 10.15, or was that 11.15?  Anyway, the couple on bikes had left about 40 minutes before us and we caught them after about 15, so they must have been going pretty slow.  They were struggling with the 'technicality' of the terrain, and they weren't used to riding full suss bikes (on rentals).  Anyway, we trundled on and overtook the odd one or two of the walking old ladies too.  Met 4 other riders coming the other way around when we hit the open country.  And the going got more interesting, and more downwards through the top section.  Lots of exposure, lots of wetness, cloud and howling wind.  I recall some rapid sections, ragged edge corners, and a LOT of water pouring out of moss or in creekbeds.  Overtook 3 of the walking ladies in here, with very little view to be had. On the descent through the bush before the hut we passed one of the Ghost Road Gurus, 'Stacky', walking the other way.  On down to the hut and we found a couple of touring bikes parked here.  Made some lunch, got warm, even saw some sunshine, before rain returned and backed off a bit too. The frenchies with the touring bikes set off ahead of us and we watched them walk them up the steep bit after the lake.

Re-donned wet clothes and got riding again.  Technical terrain starts immediately after the funky boardwalk through the little bit of forest before the lake, then steep climb briefly and over to the steep corners descents.  Good blast down these, me dabbing an inside foot on most of them, not quite game to let my weighted bike get the better of me.  This is us on the way down, somewhere, below Old Ghost Hut.

Somehow I got out in front, the boys were faffing with Ken's bag on his rack, and had the twisty techy rooty rocky descent through the scrobbleforest to myself.  This was the most techy and fun part of the whole trail so far.  I waited for the others on the chopperpad (the Anvil) and they rolled in.  It was here we spotted the cliff below the corners.  wow!  Then Ken led the way down to the start of the climb for Skyline.  I dropped back a bit and tail-end-Charlie'd it on the climb, getting a bit knackered, and struggling, but nearly cleaned it all.  Nelson fell on his elbow ahead of me, and was in a lot of pain from there on down.  We caught the others and blazed on down the Skyline Ridge to the top of the steps, loving the twists and turns and the view was starting to improve too, with bits of sunshine gaining traction on the hills beyond. Various techniques down the steps - i did a little on it's back wheel, some carrying, but mostly just walking it beside me, it held back quite well on the brakes.  Sore arms by the time we got to the bottom, where we found the frenchies on the touring bikes.

Best flow section award goes to this next section.  From the bottom of the steps to Stern hut was fantastic.  So much fun, swooping back and forth, amazing landscapes, from slips to big scarpy crazy lifted sedimentary mixed rock to mossy goblin forest to tall beech and roaring creekside flow.  Wonderful.  Arrived at the hut and the sun came out so we hung stuff out to dry.  It rained again, but it was no bother, we then started using the hut heat for drying.  Another totally full hut, with older walkers again, and the frenchies (young guy who'd ridden overland to NZ from France... and his mate).  From Lyell, to Lyell Saddle Hut, then on to Stern Hut, 39.7 kms, 1972 m of climbing, and somewhere just over 4 hours 30 mins riding (it failed to autopause, which is why I stupidly paused it at Stern, assuming it would restart the next day.  But then  neglected to 'Resume' it the next morning, thinking it would just pick it up our moving... which i think is what it did, but not the gps bit...  the 7 hours total on it must be the whole shabang).

Next day, woke up after terrible sleep, and it was fine weather, tho low cloud that proceeded to burn off a bit as we rode.  8.30 start, cos the two Wellington boys had to make the ferry that night.  So, off out, steady but easy pace, passing the walkers, and climbing up the Boneyard I was gasping (from the lack of sleep), but once above this was good going.  We met a goat.  Young black billy, he was cute, but weren't really sure what his intentions were and he wouldn't let us pass.  Then the other 3 got past and he bailed me for a minute, putting them out of reach.  I chased but barely ever saw Ross's red arms.  We hauled arse all the way.  Stopped for sugar when we made the Mokihinui.  A chopper was flying over with a bundle of timber underneath when we crossed the big swingbridge, and we heard it several more times later.  Long section down the river, a few ups and downs, and then the Forks Hut, and into the gorge, spectacular country all around.  Specimen Hut we stopped for snacks and helmets off, then I set off ahead on my own, Ross not far behind, and we proceeded to clean up many kms down the gorge.  Met a couple of workers on motorbikes coming up the gorge, tight passing them, flowy descents and grunty climbs.  Finally, maybe 6 kms from the end we stopped for a rest the top of a rise with a nice view and within a few minutes the other two boys turned up.  Not far now, we blasted on me getting more lagged and slow, til the out the gate and along the 4wd section, I could barely climb that last climb before the turn onto the last km of singletrack...  But, in here I caught Ken up, he was starting to lag too.  Ross Strava'd this day's ride - it was 42.1kms, over 720m climbing and we did it in 3 hrs 45 mins (3.03 hours riding time).

And we rolled out to the car and celebrated with a cold swim in the river.  Great for the legs. Then, into the car, googling to see how much time they had to make the ferry, allowing us to have lunch in Westport, then up to Lyell to split the gear and go our separate ways.  Nelson and me made it back to Amberly about 6.15pm, where I had the Fiat waiting, and was home around 7.  perfect.


My tallies then.  2700m of climb, 83 or so kms, all done in around 7 and a half hours total of riding.

Tuesday Night Short Loner

Steve had called a PFMTBC meeting at 7 and it being my last chance before the weekend's Ghostings, I grabbed the time to ride. Nelson was had already organised to DH, but also said he was crook, so from work I trafficked to Mt Pleasant and parked up on Stoneyridge at 5.30.  Messed about with MMR (which wasn't playing ball for a bit), and headed up into Britten Reserve under the pylons.  Steep bastard grunt, walked the steepest bit, then MMR got rolling as I headed across the easy stuff at a good pace.   Back and forth, then up to the top and around the front and around to the cutting.  Across the road and over the fence and up onto the Mt Pleasant track climbing well to the top, right up to the trig (where the MMR photo was took), for a bit of a snack.

Time for the descent.  Hopped over the fence and got rolling, seat down, flying down the rocks and around to the stile.  Nice flowy run down through the tech then swoopy swoopy down through the tussocklands, down to the 4wd, then into what was the new extension below this (above the ruins) around and back across towards the start of Greenwood.  Hardly ridden recently, so lots of sheep poo as they scattered in front of me.  I stopped here and it was only 6.10, so figured I had time to hit Greenwood.  Bombed down this, flowing through the flowy bits, and not stalling up too much on any of the techy boney rocks.  Very brief rest after Gloomy, then into the gnar again, plummeting well.  Totally bollocksed the rocky ups but flew down to the end after for 6.19. 

Then, onto the road, climbing fast up to Jollies Bush, where I headed in and tried out the tracks we didn't go last time, out and back further to the right, and more rideable, back up and climbed over the stile, pushing the few metres up to the singletrack above. Onto this and swooped down towards the Richmond Hill pines, then around and up the singletrack to the original Greenwood Entrance.  Last bit of road, and into Britten for a bombing, having to sidestep several times into the grass and over tussocks (at speed) to avoid some rookie climbers.  Arrived at the car dead on 6.50 - perfect timing.

13.6kms with at least 430 m climbed (more like 460 m on account of MMR starting late)

Wednesday Night Hunting Victorian Dusty Gringo Vales

Rode with Paul for a change tonight. Nelson was out, having crooked his neck over night and also had the wrong bike (his DH in the car from previous night in the park). Rode from Paul's place, with him on my old Turner, which he's purchasing from me...

Meandered across town and headed up Huntsbury.  As we came over Kenmure Drive we found from here on up a million people all parking and walking up with us to the start of the gravel where Torpedo7 was holding Rogaine.  Navigated through them and continued on up the gravel, me grovelling a bit but keeping a good pace.  Up onto the single track and the wind was ferocious pushing us off a couple of times.  Finally up the top grovel and easy to the start of the Traverse.

Nice tail-wind around the Summit, both of us getting pretty puffed even on the downhill stretches, but going well.  Then into top of Vic and down past the seesaw, past people working on Brake Free and down into the Gums.  The Rocky just ploughed on through the rock garden, fantastic.  Then down into my favourite twisty lefty and through to the skidder site.  Next, into Spazza's, so many options in there now, and across down to Sneaky Ridge, flying down the first rocky section.  Paul baulked, but knew he could do it, so went back and did it.  Then down the rest and back and forth in the oaks and wheee over the jump onto Bridges,  and back and forth down to the bottom of the valley.

Through the creek and up the zigs and zags of Hidden Valley Link, climbing nicely and cleaning all the corners, then up, really puffing into Old Skool.  Awesome blast down this, catching up some old codgers and picking them off one by one, til in the lower zigs and zags Paul got a flat (what is it about that bike and pinch flats!?).  We stopped just above the valley floor and swapped out my (no-longer-needed) 26 inch tube. 

7.20 us as we rolled down Bowenvale Ave, and we proceeded back the way we'd come and stopped into Moon Under Water for a nice point of, aptly, Dusty Gringo.  Justy biked down to join us, and it was well and truly dusk, 8pm-ish, when we rode back up to their place.

20kms with 500 metres of climbing.  

Scargill

No real riding this weekend, but we camped with family at Scargill Domain.  Took all the bikes, me with my fatty.  So, rode the 2 kms into Greta Valley twice, once with all of us and once with just O - a climb there, and reasonably rapid return.  And there's a couple of loops 'walk' around the domain, and across a creek and up through an oak plantation, some switchbacks and steep climb, nice views down to Mt Grey, and around.  Nearly 4 kms in all.  Fun descent.  Fun wee loop, without the gates to open and shut, would be a great race track or time trial exercise.  Took almost half an hour with all of us together and quite a few stops thrown in.

Saturday McBritten CavenTors Duncan

Nelson worked til 3, and I had some errands, dropping O off at a party and his wheel off to Josh.  Also stopped into Josh's shop to get some MarshGuardness and have a yarn.  Met Nelson at Ferrymead Park, and we treadled around to McCormack's bay, heading up the valley in the heat.  Thought I was gonna suffer the dreaded heat stroke again at that rate.  But, managed to stay on top of it, drinking heaps of water throughout the climb.  Walked a couple of the stretches in the upper switchbacks, heat just taking it all out of me.  Up the road, and up the walking track in the gully, spitting us out up to climb over the fence by the bath water trough.  Up onto the main Britten track and climbing, into fog.  Rushing fog.  This cooled a bit, but also because it was so damned humid it kinda didn't too...

Finally I made it to the top, and we headed around the front, all the way in the fog.  Then around to the end of the original and across the road over the fence into Mt Pleasant reserve, breaking out into the sun, climbing then dropping down to Cavendish Saddle, for to climb up the sketchy switchbacks up the back of the Gondola.  These are obviously not seeing a lot of tires over them.  Nice long rest taking in the views at the top, with quite a few people around from the Gondola.  Then, back on the bikes and down the steps towards the Bridle Path.  Bomb bomb bomb and for the first time I found a good line into one of the bits near the fence we've always struggled with getting into.  Across the ridge and finally to the Bridle.

Into the climbing walking track up the ridge from here, me cleaning more than I've ever cleaned before.  Pushing a bit up through the broom then riding heaps, and around the top and fun descent down to the saddle, then the push up and then ride around towards the Castle Rock ridge for a quick rest before the best descent down below the Tors.  Love that descent, especially the super tech towards the bottom. 

Onto the singletrack above the road, cruising through this around to the end, then a new way, over the fence and up the farm track to the top, quite steep, and over the fence and finding out line through the tussocks to the rocky top, then into the descent.  Fun trail, descendy and descendier, steeper and steeperer, techy and techier, all the way down to the pylon, then around into the forest and dropping down through the massive jumps then out past the horsies and onto the road, heading around under the motorway and up Heathcote Valley around and down towards Ferrymead and across the park back to the cars.

On to Twisted hop for some chips and a well earned beer.  Yum

Similar size and distance to other recent rides...  18.5kms, with 716m climbed.

Wednesday Tommy God Snake Return

Went and watched O compete in time trials at Crocodile / C2 area after school, where he'll be competing each week for the next few.  Came home and was picked up by Nelson. 

We headed for Scuzznor and parked up in Slumnervale.  Headed up El Capitano, and it was coolish, but muggy as hell.  My asthma always kicks in on that climb, and tonight was no exception - I wondered if it was a high fungal spore count.  Nelson seemed to just rocket off ahead, while I wheezed and struggled to breathe behind.  Once above the switchbacks I got on with it, rolling up to find him trying several times to clean the wee climb immediately after that little descent.  We pushed up the two unrideables and allowed a couple runners through, then continued our merry way up.  Pinchies were pinchy and then the last stretch to the top, some imbecile dropped in when we had about 20 m to go and pretty much expected us to move over.  Stuff you, I just kept on and he stopped, but I had to ride off the track to get past.

Into Godley, and puffing hard up the first climb, I had a break before attempting the top upper section, cleaning it nicely.  Nelson was miles ahead by this time.  I plodded onwards, muppetting lots, but cleaning stuff too.  Eventually I found him at the top and we were practically in the fog.  What followed was an excellent blast down to Livingston Col.  Both of us on top form, weaving our ways down.  My new bike was gripping and holding on so perfectly, and soaking up the trail awesomely.  Through the col and into the climb, nice and short, then around and down to Breeze.

Into the Anaconda.  Nice easy cruise around til the speed picked up and the corners were all railed hard.  Fantastic descent to the start of the tail, where we got down onto the walking track and headed away from Taylors, eventually up the new climbing track, which climbs really good.  Back up to the upper 'conda, we debated doing another lap, but then realised it was getting late, and darkness not far away.

So, back up to Breeze, and back up the way we'd come, climbing out around Pfmtbc Rock, which makes that climb much nicer, and on up through the rocky tech which is more fun in this direction, then dropping down to Livingston and into the full climb back up Godley from there.  I'd been thinking the road would be better, easier, but as I rode I decided not.  If you think about it, it's all the same altitude, but from the road there's that horrible 4wd climb back up to the trail, whereas, climbing the trail, the last stretch to that top is nice and gentle.  Light getting really low, not helped by the super low cloud cover, we blasted the return to Evans.  I took lines over rocks I've never considered before.  Big volume tires soaking it all up.

Finally, into the Captain, blasting as fast as the light allowed.  The odd wet spot put dirt and grease on tires, and so on the last rocky tech I 2nd guessed myself and stopped, making me have to walk it.  Then there were two Enduro-heads practicing for the upcoming (this weekend) Enduro Race and the sun got below the clouds a bit and the light grew for our final descent down to the switchbacks and around a very greasy cabbage tree couple corners, and out the bottom, back to the car.

A pretty good 18 kms, with surprisingly 730 m climbed.

Sunday Grey

8am at Rangoon, then transferred to Nelson's car and headed up thru North Loburn to Paringa Rd.  Couldn't drive the ford so parked on the corner and rode through it, getting wet feet.  Over the gate and the climb began, still nice and cool at this point, but as we rode along Banks Rd the occasional gust was full of warmth.  We diverted from our path a couple of times, looking for possible ways across the valley to the next ridge to avoid climbing all the way up to the high point of Banks/Paringa before the big descent back down to the river, but to no avail.  However, we did find lots of yummy blackberry goodness which we gorged on multiple times.

Bomb down Okuku Rd past the beehives and over the gate and down a short ways before ducking right, up onto the Mt Grey Nature Walk.  This proved fun, and nicely graded, with a few interesting features of tight corners and short steps.  Stopped and moved a big log off one place too.  Cool descent down to the camp ground.  Through this and across the ford, and up the long and winding road.  Stopped for a rest at "Lake" Janet, then got into the steep clamber.  Once into the zigs and zags it isnt so bad, cleaning most tech features if not the tight corners.  Gaining altitude quickly we made the tower in good time, then headed up the singletrack from here - broom getting a bit unruly in some sections, but a nice climb to the summit anyway.  Sat in the lee of the hill (out of the strong NorWest) and had a snack, before heading off down the trail.

Fun descent began.  Met the odd walker or runner, couples too, and stopped and moved rocks into a boggy bit while still above the treeline.  Cornering seems easier on the Pipeline than the 5-Spot, and I was really getting into the lefthand switchbacks, nose wheelying, swinging the back wheel around then proceeding onwards.  Righthand switchies, not so much.  Most of them I reverted to my fatbike technique of planting the inside foot and doing the nose-wheely then.  Still quicker than any other method of cornering those tightspots.  We stopped and cleared a couple of big logs across the trail too.  Excellent blast down through the forest, into the pine section, then back into the bush.  Was a fun blast.  Landed back at the ford splecked in muck and smiling.

Now the brutal climb began, just after 12pm, sun beating down, luckily some shade in patches.  Stopped part way up to eat blackberries, then more further up.  Finally peaked Okuku and up Paringa for the last climb, before bombing the gravel back to the car.

None of the chasing of the daylight like last time.

Just under 30kms again, with 1105 m climbed... fairly hefty.

Thursday Night Quick Vic Traverse Old Skool Loop

Nelson picked me up from mine and we dropped the Turner off to Derek for him to test ride it. Then we went and Parked in Bowenvale Ave to ride up the valley.

Nelson put a good turn of speed in on his whippetmobileXCOracerboymachine.  Up K2 around under the 23 footer and on up under the pylon, then taking the zig out and back from the 40footer to the skidder site, then up the grunt to Brake Free.  Sun was lowering but figured we had enough light to head for the Nun, so down Thompson and Thomsons and through the Kiwi up the road to the top, ignobly ignoring like ignoramouses the Too Wet, Track Closed signs (it wasn't, it pretty much needn't've been).

And so, I led the way because I was on the burlmachine vs Nelson on his XC-treadlightly.  Pipeline performed very satisfactorily.  I'm still taking it easy, getting used to the new position/geometry/wheels/length/tires....  but man, those tires grip, and float.  Nice cruise down, me, for once, leaving Nelsie behind.  His tires were not grippy, picking up a bit of damp dirt then making rocks slippery.  And he was being ultra-aware of pinchflat potentialities.  Second half is getting pretty blown from all the Park traffic, but my Pipeline just wafted on down it.  It really likes popping air, lifting off effortlessly, however the final jump (that I crashed my shoulder on) I bypassed.

Next up, up Summit Rd to top of Vic, and onto the Traverse.  Good run around here, tho the climbs were starting to tax me, and Nelson's whippetmachine was whipping him along at a helluva clip (and he was holding back so's not to blow up!).  Around above Lavaflow and down the upper Huntsbury trail, big tires gripping the soft soil and potentially slick (but not to me!) rocks, launching the jumps nicely.  Then bombing down the smooth(ed out) 4wd to the first gate.  We'd spotted some extra lines in this zig zag section so looked for them, tried them out (some exposure(!) on one of them) and then continued on down the bits we already knew.  The off camber new corners down towards the pylons were crazy sketchy for Nelson, but my big tires just stuck down awesomely.

Rest of Old Skool was cool runnings, smooth and flowy, more and more getting the hang of the new machine, but still just relaxedly cruising it, picking up speed on some bits, and easing through others.

My MMR has crapped out, seemingly refusing to see any satellites - so I had to copy Nelson's... (my top speeds would have been higher :) ). 17.5kms, and 617 m climbed.

Wednesday Night Park with O

O's broken arm is fully healed so he was keen to try out the Park again. Up into the clouds at the top.

First lap, headed into Possum, all the way down to the mid point.  O had a massive smile on his face all the way, and was getting sore hands by the bottom.  Then, instead of dohc, we headed into the new Handle the Jandal, unfinished as yet, but not bad.  A couple of corners don't flow that well, but man you can carry some speed in some sections.  As yet unfinished, and so you're directed down a steep offcamber corner then a rough and gravelly 4wd road out the bottom of the valley.

Second lap, and last uplift getting there just before 7, we headed into Summit Connector, then into the Nun which was techy for him.  Then onto Old Dyers, aka Choir Boy, bombing down this, O really enjoying it, except for the climb at the end.  And finally, Loess Rider, which he loved.

Unfortunately MMR wouldnt kick in when we were on the lift, so I gave up on it.  Based on previous similar rides, we probably did 18 to 20 kms, including the lift, and virtually no climbing.

Tuesday Night Pre Trees Meeting Spin

After dropping H home after hockey I made my way across town to Trees For Canterbury where I parked and rode down Charlesworth to meet Nelson on Ferry Rd.  We headed up Mt Pleasant and parked in the usual Rockview Place. 

Headed up Britten, me managing to climb more of the steep above the pylon than I have for a long time, then doing okay staying on Nelson's tail for longer than usual too.  But, by the time he was at the top I was still a wee ways back.  Decided to hit the road and head into Greenwood old entrance, stopping to help a guy with a flat tubeless first.  Into the old, new tires bowling over the rocks at the start.  I was slower than Nelson, but that's nothing new.  Break before the ruins then into it.  I was feeling like the new bike suspension wasn't as good as the Turner, but was still good, and man those tires roll.  Some good speed in places, but bogged down in a few others.  Nelson stopped on the face above Sumner to top up the air (leaky tubeless), then proceeded to drop me speeding around to Gloomy.  Fun down the rocks and through the swoops, over the drop and then on down around through the backs and forths.  Big tires gripping and rolling so well.  Finally into the last gully and flying down the final drag to the rocky-ups, both stalling here - wrong geared.  And on to the bottom.

Turned around and back up.  Bike felt like it climbed badly, but mostly due to my timing and also I had my rebound settings set wrong (which I didn't fix til the top).  Took a while, but not that long and we were way up the hill.  In fact, there were a couple riding up the road below us down the bottom, and they rolled up to us when we were at the top, so not much slower at all on the trail. 

At the ruins, we headed down the new trail towards the Richmond Hill pines, bombing through this then climbing up back to the Greenwood Entrance.  Then into Britten, and bombsville.  Motored down the trail, big tires gripping well and bike feeling really good.  Huge posse of riders on either side of the trail to let us through, with more below, then around and back around, I had to stop to put my sunnies on (cos they were falling out of my bag strap).  Fun last blast, to the bottom.

13kms with 480m gained...

Monday Night Piped In

First ride on my brand new Rocky Mountain Pipeline 770 MSL.

Washington Way pick up after work and we headed to park at the end of Bowenvale Ave.

Got riding, up the gravel valley, on up past Hospital Corner, up past the bottom of the Lavaflow, and up the gully from there.  Then it was back across the slope around to the bottom of Brent's and up into forest up the steep 4wd track towards Cool Runnings, crossing this then on up past Rad^Sick and up to the Skidder Site. From here, up the steep pig, through Brake Free, and then Wormed up to the Traverse.

Nice haul around this to top of Lavaflow and along a bit, then down the 'new' fun wee Huntsbury descent, jumping the jumps and then across the landing strip onto the singletrack over the knoll and down the jumpy ways to the bottom. Turned around here and climbed back up the gravel road all the way up to the start of Traverse, crossed the road onto the start of Vernon and had a rest here at the highest spot.

Then it was back down onto the Traverse, round to the 'new' jumpy Huntsbury, bomb down this and into the zigzag Old Skool, all graded and fresh - ready for a rain event to wash it all away again, cleaning the new (over old) rocky line, newly dug bits and then into the Old Skool proper. Awesome blast down this, not letting Nelson get far ahead til much lower down. And, back to the car

14.5kms, with 625m climbed

Tuesday Night, Hot then Cooler

30 odd degrees when I left work, headed for Washington Way to meet Nelson.  Headed up and parked at the top of Huntsbury Ave.

Onto the bikes and off up, taking it pretty easy in the warmth.  Not quite as hot as down on the flat, and a bit of breeze around, tho, hot drying nor'wester.  Up onto the singletrack and up the landing-strip, then up the grovel to the top.  Onto Vernon, serious headwind along the first bit, and tail wind descent to a completely empty Rapaki top.  I was feeling sketchy, not trusting my rear tire at all, while Nelson flew on ahead.  Clamber up Witch hill trail wasn't too bad, but I was suffering from the heat a bit.  Descent was welcomed, then onto the singletrack above the road, fun trail around keeping the eye in on the tech.  Tail wind across the finish of this and for a first time we gave the Tors track a go uphill.  Hmm, bit of a walk to start, but was a good ride from the top of the steep onwards, altho the nor'west was blowing us off course a bit, into the hillside.  Into Castle at what Nelson said would be a sedate pace.  Ha!  He ripped.  I was doing okay, but favouring my recently frequently flat prone rear, keeping it light, but still fast.  Awesome run down, around, then into the climb, and I noticed the burned smell of the fire over in Cass/Corsair Bays from earlier in the day.  By the time we got to the top of Bridle Path, the southerly change had hit.

A lot cooler, refreshing, and nice.  But boy, what a gale.  Thought rain might be following soon, so we rode up the road, but then at the low ridge headed up onto the Tors track and climbed up this around above the road, then head into the descent the wind was ferocious, trying to blow us off the hill, downhill this time.  Nelson got an annoying leaky hole in his tire so we stopped for a while before finally heading down onto the road.  Across the saddle bit (before the walking track above the road) the wind was howling across, blowing us sideways, hard to stay on.  Too strong to risk the singletrack.  Around the road, and back into Witch, good climb, more air in Nelson's tire, then good descent, through Rapaki top, a few more people around this time, and the up Vernon - Nelson taking off ahead, and me just steadily plodding.  I found him above the road near the end, pumping up his tire again.

Across onto the Traverse, and into the descent, bombing down the new track, jumping all the jumps, and then across the landing strip and into the singletrack descent.  One more tire pump and down, over the gate, over the jumps and finished...

15.5 Kms, 619m climbed

Tuesday Couple CAP Laps with a Bonus

PFMTBC Inc meeting to view the Annual Trip Video at Steve's booked for 7.30, so Nelson picked me up in Washington Way and we got to bottom of CAP, parking out on the road to save having to drive over the speed humps...

Rode in, straight for the lift.  Hot day, again, and I's still recovering from Saturday's burn-out.  Low energy and quick to break a sweat.  Uplift, and into recently re-opened Lord of the Possums.  Nice, bowls and yumpies, bloody dusty tho.  We had it to ourselves for a while til it joined Duncan's Donuts, where there was a guy and a couple of girls we overtook, then near the bottom of this caught up to a group of guys.  Proceeded through to newly re-opened DOHC, now a black track.  It's pretty rough, and super dusty and in places they've cut out zig-outs and back so is steeper there, but still rather manageable.  Good to be on that side of the park and not pedalling away down the greenline.  Nelson put in good speed and a good gap on me, but this suited me cos right on his tail was too dusty anyway.  I was being reasonably cautious cos my back tire is bald as and was squirrelling around noticeably.

Straight into the lift again and up.  This time taking the Summit Connector across to the lower Nun.  I really didn't wanna do much climbing, so we didn't go up the road to the top, just took the lower down to the Kiwi.  I was super careful not to rimstrike, riding light to keep the pinchflats away.  Up the road to top of Vic nearly killed me.  But we dropped into the right and back across to the see-saw (I baulked, again!), and a little bit of Brake Free then across to the rockgarden and gummies.  Rockgarden saw my rim strike and flat.  Damn!  Walked down to the corner above my 'favourite lefthander' and replaced, then we got going down, me sending Nelson off down the new left off my left that I rode last time.  I took the old line. 

Then it was below the skidder site and out to the 19th Memorial, across the road and down the blast of a run down to Dyers Pass Rd, across and into KamaSutra and LoessRider.  I wasnt game on Kama, but Nelsie wanted to check it out on his trailbike, so we parted here and I had a flowy cruise, catching and passing a few people, and grabbing double-air wherever I was able.  Nice.  Meanwhile, Nelson plummetted down Kama Sutra, and was waiting a few minutes for me at the bottom.

Down the road to the car, him completing 17.6 kms and me 19 kms.  And accounting for 2 x lift rides, we'd probably only had to climb about 100 m ourselves.

Saturday Living Springs in the Heat Exhaustion Foment

Oh boy.  The ride that nearly killed me.  Heat exhaustion being the name of the game...

Nelson came to mine after work, and we set to getting the creak out of my rear suspension, which we managed to do, all the whilst I was sweating like a pig.

We headed over the hill and parked at Allandale, figuring there'd be plenty of shade on the trails.  Rode in, climbed and climbed.  It was very hot.  Into the Pines and up, I was getting slower and slower and found Nelson resting in the kanuka in Rhymes With Orange.  From here, up through some cows into the steeep climb in the bush.  I walked heaps of what I've always ridden in the past.  Eventually to the fence, over the new ladder (nice job, whoever built it), and on up out into the open, to the cabbage tree, and then up, walking up the steepness, before riding again in the regen-bush zone.  Up ever up to the first of the switchback corners where we rested.  372m.

Time for the down, I led to start with, nice blast down around and through in no time what had just taken us ages to climb.  Down the steep nearly losing it in the grass off camber corner, then around by the cabbage tree and across into the bush again.  Over the stepladder, and down down down, zig and zag, narrow gaps between trees, tight riding.  Nelson took over the lead at the cow paddock, and we blasted down here to the gate, then into Mississippi and then around into Zanes.  I stopped to check text and saw him ahead in a few corners, but never gained on him again.  Finally out the bottom and met him again, and we cruised around, did the wee 'drop' detour and the on into Totara Valley and then down back to the car.  Good ride but for the heat.

9.45 kms, with 430 m climbed.

Got home, ate 3 slices of pizza, loaded the cars and we took stuff to the new house, unloaded, then came home and when I showered it hit me.  Full blown heat exhaustion.  Throbbing headache, weakness, aching body and joints, nausea.  Tried to cool off and rehydrate for teh whole night - fever dreams, and spent all of Sunday in bed.  Sick as.

Thursday Night Fog and Heat and Sun and Cool

After work pick up from mine, we headed for top of Mt Pleasant (the suburb), parking on Parkridge Pl. Headed up the steep under-the-pylon into Britten.  I cleaned more of the rocky section this time, but still had to walk the steep bit to the corner.  Across the face, and around into cloud building up on the eastern flanks, making for a muggy climb to the top.  Brief breather here then around top front, and back across to the cattlestop at the climbing rocks - grass all nice and short again , making the trail easier to find than the last couple of times (in October!), and in full sun on this side of the hill.

Over the road, over the fence, and into long grass climbing up, back and forth to the top of Mt Pleasant well above the sea of cloud rolling in over the city.  A well earned breather in the shade of the building, then around the back of it to take in the view of the harbour.  Finally, descent time, a nice breeze blowing down the rocky entry, muppetting before the stile, then I led the way down the ridge, big fat wooly lambs all over the place getting in the way (and littering the track with their tasty treats).  Down to Greenwood, and we debated which way to go, choosing to head back round to the old start of Greenwood, and down the skinny singletrack to the trees on Richmond, entering the fog down here.  Low visibility, nice cool moistness all around, we cruised across and then back up to the Greenwood (above the ruins).

Into the descent again, bombing into Greenwood, lambs in the way for ages, around into the rockier bits. There was some weird chunky clattering I wondered about at the time, but bike kept riding okay, so continued on.  Nelson had good speed, I was okay until we were on the sidling section before Gloomy Gulch, where I slowed down a fair bit, but then got my mojo back on the rocky descent into the swoopy bit before that drop jump, where Nelson was waiting.  On down, holding on to him until the entry to the creek gully, where he managed to carry more speed and hoof away.  I bollocksed the rocky up, and got going again, arriving puffed as at the bottom.  It was here I noticed that I'd lost the blue 'switch' for my Climb-Trail-Descend feature on my rear shock.

Up road at a cracking pace mostly in the fog.  My knee started to hurt a bit.  When we got to Jollies Bush we figured - never been in there before, lets explore.  Huh!  We kept left, carrying up steps, riding a bit, avoiding ever-overhanging onga-onga, zigged and zagged upwards, eventually finding our way up to a stile on the top edge, and up onto the track just above that.  Still in the fog, kinda, rode up this, meeting a couple of women riding down (one was new to riding), and at the top decided to just drop down the top section of Greenwood to see if we might find that CTD switch where I'd heard the weird clatterings.  Off we went, Nelson in the lead, slowing down where I thought, and Nelson was juuust about to call off the search when "here it is!".  Turned around, and rode back up the techy rocks, past the ruins, thru the old entrance, then up road, and a fun fast bomb down Britten back to the car.

18.3 kms and (only) 610 m climbed

Tuesday Night Eastern Wheezin' Noose

Nelson had a meeting til 6 which worked for me feeding the dog, so I sorted out my flat tire and then rode to Linwood Ave just past the K-Fry. He picked me up shortly thereafter and we proceeded to Sumner...

Sorted out MMR (Location on in my Settings was out of whack - and it still didnt kick in til up the valley (USELESS!)), then got chuffing up the Captain.  My wheezing was killing me, really making it difficult to climb.  Nelson powered off, rocketing ahead on his super fast lightweight bigger wheeled climbingly optimized machine.  I chugged and puffed and set the scene for the rest of the evening.  He was waiting for me at the seat at top of switchbacks and I rode his bike briefly, (rear tire needed air), and the on we climbed.  Nice work done where that slip was, and they've also cut into the rock on the upper of the old drops.  Finally made the top, me very slowly.

Across Evans Pass and up onto Godley - immediately I started muppeting on the rocks, just too weak to keep any momentum.  Eventually got rolling, but was gasping for air the whole time.  Nelson vanished off into the distances, I think surprising even himself as to the turn of speed his new steed gives him.  He was waiting for me at the top where I managed to gulp in some air before we trundled on.  Much better form on the sidle and descending, barely letting any gap form between us as we headed down.  In fact, I even reeled him in a little in the lower curvy bits towards the bottom of the hill.  Across Livingston Col and decided to hang a right, out the 360 walkway section.  Nice interesting, mildly techy sidle climb to a steep section up and over, then fun descent, a few sections of steps, and views all the different from the usual otherside slog.  Eventually to Breeze Col and back over the fence.

From here, we headed along above the road, on the skinny as skinny trail.  Overgrown, again, but perhaps not quite as overgrown as last time.  Played a little on the concrete bunker thing up top there, then bombed down to the carpark, and through onto the return below-the-road track.  Nelson dropped me again on the climb, and was all but vanished by the time I rounded over the top. Otherwise I had a reasonable run around back to Breeze Col where he was waiting. The final short and practically flat climb half killed me tho.

Into the Anaconda - shitty gravel to start, but further on it was as per the past.  Good blast down, tho my lower corners were a little untidy, then into the tail, starting well, but the rocks muppetted me a bit.  Big surf and lots of surfers in Taylors.  We trundled up the road and into the walking track, up which much I walked.  Stile to upper gate wasn't so bad.

Then onto the road and around for the final climb up the hard work track to The Godley.  Got rolling on this, back towards Evans.  Good run for me, mostly.  Not quite as quick as Nelson, but then down near the end I bloody pinch flatted, new tube, damnit!  Nelson was already on the road, and rode back up to me by the time I was nearly done.  Replaced it with my leaking tube from weeks previous, and off we were again.  

Through the Pass, and up onto the top of the Captain.  Pretty good roll down here.  By the time I'd gotten through the techy drops and through that climb for the sidling easy, my rear tire was feeling soft, so stopped at the seat (top of switchbacks) to pump up.  Good bomb from here, to the bottom (except for the stupid weed-eatings all over the track near the end).  Over the stile, and down the steps and along the horse paddock, my tire getting low again, to the point of being too low to ride normally, I limped to the car leaning forward on the handlebars, put my bike down, and the Pthsshhhhhhhhhhhhh - all the air out.  Perfect timing.

Pretty much a 20km loop, with 743m climbed.  Not bad for a Tuesday night.

Sunday Hot Stuff

Drove over to Steve's with the Fat on the back for 9am finding him and Wazz, Wahayno, Robin and Andy all ready to roll. Pete would be chasing...

Up the most busy Rapaki we've ever seen, Steve and me stopped for a good chat with Ranger Singletrack who was on his way down in a Ute.  The others treadled onwards up and took in the Monty Loop.  Meanwhile, STeve and me struggled our ways up to the top and waited for them, wondering how they could be so long.  Pete showed up, and then we spotted the boys coming up behind.  Bit of more of a rest for us, and then off up Vernon, hot grind, but Fatty handling everything pretty good.

Lost count of the comments "ooh, they're big tires"... "what's that for?"...

I had to bail early, so was keen on keeping it short, and Steve was keen on that too, so we headed around the beginning of the Traverse then took the new track down to the top of the Old Skool zig zags.  Pete rode on ahead a bit and got his drone out, and we bombed off down past him under it's buzz.  Here's where I said my good bye to most, and bombed off ahead, but on a new section of trail being built Pete got the jump on me and took the lead through sketched out cleared grass down the slope avoiding the worst bits of 4wd to the pylons.

Onto the Old Skool proper and fat bike was riding really well.  The dropper post works a treat.  I took off ahead from the stile, and left the boys to it.  Nice blaze down the rest of it, surprised at how well the fatty soaked it all up.  Tire pressures must have been about perfect.  Through the bottom and then down the road and around the river back to Steve's.  Then home and off Sailing for the afternoon.

My MMR crapped out so I had to copy Steve's,  - my finishing route back to his place was different - where I took Eastern Tce, over the bridge and through to St Martins Shops, alley way, bridge, Ford Rd., but other than that, the same(ish) (top speeds probably different).  16kms and a gain of 460m.

Tuesday Sweaty View Hill Road.

Holiday here in Little Akaloa drawing to an end, last chance for a ride, so headed out and up to Chorlton.  From here, up View Hill Rd, steep bastard that it is, it was so muggy and warm I was sweating like a pig.  Stopped for a few rests, but cleaned everything. Climbed to the gate then turned and bombed back down, high speed enjoyment and cooling breeze on the down. Detoured over Luke's Rd and through the neighbours back to our driveway.

14.7 kms with 612 m climbed, most of which was steep.

Muggy Menzies Thursday a.m.

From the bach, only remembering to turn on the MMR once I was a little way up Decanter Bay Road. Mail Van passed me on the way up, and I caught it up on the way down into Decanter Bay.  Passed it at the bottom and headed on up towards Menzies.  Nice steady climbing, into low cloud/fog as I got higher, eventually all the way around to then descend on down to Menzies Bay. Said gudday to the people in the first house (seemed to be packing up their holiday times) then turned around and rode back up again.  Up to Rehutai homestead and then the descending cruise began.  As I rounded towards Decanter I met some horses(7?) and 3 women.  I got off my bike and walked through and they were very thankful and pleased.  They liked the fat bike too.  After them came the fun descent, speeding gravel road, into Decanter and finally the last climb, sun having burned off all the cloud, so it was hot and bothersome.  Final descent into Little Ak on the seal, speeding down into the bay, ready for a swim off the wharf.

It was hot and muggy. Surprisingly 905 m climbed, over 22kms

Saturday's Sinclair Fitzgerald Tops

At the bach for 3 weeks.  Had a the fatbike with me.  Drove out of the bay and around the Summit Rd, parking on Pettigrews Rd and rode, up up up into scudding easterly clouds. Nice climb then over stile after stile, up Mt Sinclair, stopping to breathe, rather than walking.  Up to where I rode last time, and onwards down the other side, around the side of the cool bush up there, easterly clouds juuust above my head, roaring over the tops.  Across the saddle between the peaks, then into the climb up Fitzgerald.  Stopped to check out the walking track section, just to see how rough it was.  Looked rideable, so walked back to bike and headed on.  Here's where I met the first 'other people', a group of 4 older guys who looked familiar (from all my years of riding the Port Hills).  Then a tiny bit of walking and up to the ridge, then up the ridge to the top.  Meandered across the grasslands towards a nice bluffy peak, and parked myself out of the wind for a snack, cloud ploughing over top of me.

Back on the bike, back across to the trail, and decided to check out the walking track section.  Steep, and technical, with a couple of unrideables, and lots of scooting technique required, but plenty rideable, and on a normal bike probably a bit more.  Not long and I was back down to the main track, riding on, under the speeding clouds, and on up the back of Sinclair again.  Nice and sheltered downwind of the bush up this climb, and across the back and down again, around the last steep corner and there's three picnickers on the track.  One hastily leapt out of the way, while I said "don't worry, I won't hit you".  Back across the ridge and speeeeeed down the track to the car.

There and back again... 14.5 kms with 627m climbed

Tuesday CAP Lap.

Final Pfmtbc get together for the year, at Poms for 7.30, so Nelson picked me up from Washington Way and we went through heinous traffic to CAP.  Initially we were gonna park next to Cracroft Reserve, but then decided to just drive in.  Maybe not next time, the speed bumps are a total pain in the arse for 'normal' cars.  Headed up the steep Uphill track, both of us cleaning all the twisty zig zags, then it was into the howling sou'wester up the gravelly grovelly ridge, and around.  Where it used to spit you onto Worsley's, it now heads up the old guts track, sort of following it's old line past where Fight Club used to be, and sort of along where Tommy's used to be.  Man the landscape has changed from the past, torn to bits, desolate and wasted.  I walked a couple of times up the top of the guts and up another bit, it was just too steep for my lungs and legs to continue.  Nelsie cleaned it all I think.  Finally up the last climb to the top of the lift and Nelson checked out the map.

Into the Summit Connector, fun wee trail, tho Nelson put a hole in his rear tire and the goo came out a bit.  Stopped to pump up, then on downwards.  Met the Nun and he needed more air.  Then we got going, and half way down the lower Nun I pinch flatted on the rocks, so we stopped to patch (my spare tube was still holed from Sunday).  Time was ticking with them supposedly closing the Park at 7 and it was pushing on after this, so it was a quick patch and pump and off we rolled again, me being quite light in the rear end.

Fast down Old Dyers (now called Choir Boy, for some reason?), catching a guy and he let us pass and then blasted around and pedalled the climb towards the end, catching up with the last guy's mates who were wondering where he was.

Dropped into - new to us - Loess Rider, which proved to be a super fun, twisty, jumpy, corner after corner after corner downhill.  Good pace down this and it just went on forever.  Caught up to a girlrider, who let us pass, and then we were gaining on her mates ahead, pretty much catching them by the bottom.

A nice 12 km loop, with only 475 m climbed.  They were a steep climb in parts tho.

Then it was a cruisey drive through town to catch up with the crew who'd done a townie lap via Tone's and Andy'n'Jenna's.  Enjoyed a nice single pint of Hopwired (been a while).

Stifling Sunday Hilltop Loop

Hot morning, all to meet at Steve's at 8.30.  I had an appointment at 12, so I left home at about 8 and drove to Ferrymead Bridge, parking there, then riding around the towpath, up the Heathcote, through Radley Park, Chichester St, and around to Steve's, arriving in good time with Andy and Jenna, Tony and Robin all in attendance.  Soon after, Pete, Nelsie (with a new toy) and Wayno arrived, and out came Steve. We trundled around the various whole and half Ford Roads, through to the Ramahana and Aotea climbing, heat already pushing us down.   Up we strove, Nelson, me, and Wayne taking the singletrack diversion to the landing strip.  Up here I seemed to lose all power in my legs, suffering I was.  Managed to finally peak out and we all cowered in the shade provided by the roadside.

Onto Vernon, and through... Pete and me getting a lead on the others (due to a muck up with Nelson and another dude on the zig zags up top), through Witch Hill, heat a killer but I kept a good pace ahead of Pete through there.  Then I flatted, front wheel on a rock, so Nelson and me did the speed change, and we caught up with the others up top of Castle.

Into this, and excellent clip on Nelson's tail the whole way down round the hairpin and he heard a shout and Robin had crashed above.  Waited, he got moving, we got moving, and met Jenna in the shade of the stone building.  Cool down.

Up road onto Britten, around, grass heaps shorter now, then into Greenwood, and down the skinny singletrack, then across through the pines and down Richmond.  more crashes with people.  a close call for me before Frog Pond, and on down Panorama, Mulgans, and back round to the car.  good spin.

more details later, maybe.

A 28 km loop, with 800m climbed.

Thursday Night Easy Loop in the Park with the Boy

Quick blat up the lift and down the easy trails, first ride in the park since reopening week before last.  H and me parked and rode.  Trail is a bit boring. 420m of descent.  The place is a desolate wasteland.  Charred logs everywhere, stumps, dust, and easterly wind howling through everything, making us have to pedal into it downhill at one stage.  Views from the lift are improved because there're no trees in the way, but man, it's heartbreaking.  All the old forest we used to ride in over the other side of Worsley's, gone, or just bare black sticks in places - ie where the jumpy trail used to be.  And looking up the gully that Alices/Tommy2s/etc were in?  Mess and bare.

Sunday Evening Lyttel-Urumau-ton of heat

Needed to collect O from Lyttelton, and Paul was keen to ride, so figured a couple of birds with one stone. Drove thru and parked on St David's St. Headed up Stevenson's Steep and up to Fosters Tce, and up into the reserve...New switchbacks, then across with a rideable but steep path across to the climbing track, left on this and I was gasping in the heat and with my rumbling infected lungs.  Climb climb climb, which seems to be the norm in here.  Then up Stormer to the very top.  To get a feel for the place, we took Stormer (blue) down the ridge, this was swoopy and fun, eventually down and around onto Grommies.  I stopped a couple of times and Paul was having some challenge, which is good for him.  Grommies was a fun yumpy roll (bypassing the log drop).  At the bottom there's a Do Not Go Beyond This Point sign due to blasting etc.  So, up Sloanstar we treadled, steep switchback corners getting the better of Paul most times.  Around the sunny side, bit of descent and climb back to the hub.

Climbing again, this time, into Looper and following it down.  I'd thought it was going to be something new but it was one I'd ridden before - fun swoopy and easy back and forth back to the hub.  Another climb back up and Looper entrance cutting up to Stormer and I took the black ridge droppy track.  Paul took the blue Stormer down next to me, but I found myself heading to the right around the ridge on I think a trail I'd not been down before.  Found myself at the top of a massive rocky cliffy drop, which was very difficult to clamber down, then made it down to the main track where I found Paul.  We headed on down Grommies again, swoop swoop, bomb bomb, and then climbed back up Sloanstar and around the Sunnyside for the descent back down, steep through the grasslands to the entrance track and then across, bypassing the Fosters Tce exit and down lots of new steps to Reserve Tce.  Then bombed down this and Stevensons back to the car.

414 m climbed in just over 7 kms.  That's more than a 10%er...

Monday Night Big Hot and Grey

Met Nelson at Rangoon after work and we headed up thru Loburn, checking out Journey's End first, but finding lots of No Entry; Private Property; Tresspassers Prosecuted signs, so back down to Feathers and up Mt Grey Rd to park at the bottom of Paringa.  Had a brief chat with a local and his pitbulls then around 6.15, headed up the road, over the locked gate and up a bit to hit up Banks Rd.  Two wheel tracks, slightly overgrown in places, nice surface, easy rolling, up.  It was pretty hot, but mostly in the shade climbing up here, so not bad.  Then a nice rolling descent down to the Okuku Rd intersection, which then led steeper down past beehives, more beehives, another gate, and down to the campground and ford/bridge at the bottom of our singletrack.  The next and longest climb began...  Up up up to Lake Janet, about one hour in, then, instead of up the singletrack, (somewhat misguidedly) we chose the road to climb (thinking the switchbacks would be in full sun and HOT).  This road seemed to go on for ever nearly killing me, but at least it was shady.  For once I actually used my 'lock-outs' front and rear.  They worked pretty good, tho the rear had weird clunkiness when I stood and cranked.  Had a rest at the turn off to the fire lookout, and then headed up to the singletrack.  This was steep but eminently cleanable til much higher up, in the shade, good to concentrate on, and we made the top of the hill at 8.10 pm.  50 minutes left til sunset.

Into the descent.  I got super skittery on the gravel as we hung a left onto the main track, nearly losing it, but dropped a bit of air out of my front wheel and chased onwards, Nelson long gone.  Was a little careful down here, feeling super sketchy, but after the worst (of only 2) boggy bits, caught up to Nelson and we continued on down.  He was trying out his new gangnam switchback stylez the whole way, getting better (and quicker) all the way down.  I had variable luck with mine.  Nose wheelies with a flick to re-align.  Definitely the way to go...  Down through the spectacular forest singletrack, delightfully rocky and gnarly and the usual cornflakes scatterings.  Near the bottom of the pine section Nelson popped a jump and landed sideways giving massive blowout of goo and air.  From here on down, the lower we got, the more bugs Nelson was stirring in my path and the more I was having to contend.  By the last km to the bottom it was getting really bad, and I was having to ride mouth shut and blinking like crazy.  Made the camp site at 8.50, 10 minutes of sun left...

Stopped and chatted with some campers who'd asked for directions while we were climbing and then got climbing.  Long slog, but nothing on what we'd already done earlier.  Finally made the Paringa turn-off, then followed this all the way up (higher than Banks), and then bombed down.  Gravel road flying, well over 60kph and finally arrived back at the car at about 9.15 - 3 hours, of which 2 1/2 hours was riding time.  Not much mucking around...

A whopping 1115 m climbed, over 28 kms

Roasting Saturday Morning Cashmere Vic Blowenvaled

Had a little time to ride - had to be home by 10am. Parked on Eastern opposite Bowenvale and headed around to Lansdowne thru to Hollis and up. Steep grind up the seal, but with a bit of welcome shade part way up.  Into the walking track, stairs, ride, stairs, push, stairs. Across Longhurst into next section of walking track cruising up under the houses, up the zig zag, under more houses, and eventually into the barbed-wire roots next to the pines track up to the dog park. Up through this and then up to skidder site.  From here I followed a couple of other riders up K2, one walking, one riding and me stopping for a gasping breather before continuing.  Through Brake Free and I stopped for a rest in the shade on the rabbit paddock. It. Was. So. Hot.

Back on and down through rock garden, gums, and hung my usual left, but then further left into a new left off my favourite left.  Bombed down this, some nice wee bermies and a couple of pop-over jumps, then scrabbled into the lower sections of the usual, and then out to the skidder site.  Lots of people walking in here with tools, so I headed up the middle road over to Cool Runnings, that's been newly rebuilt. Passed more of the people heading in to work, apparently, on Tilted Sally. Cool Runnings was really dusty,but fun, - big table top jumpy flow. Then into Bridges where a guy came into the trail ahead of me off Sneaky Ridge jump and was a couple of corners ahead of me but I rounded one and he was gone, cloud of dust. Then I saw him on his back on the trail below! Stopped to see if he was ok. He'd pulled over to let me pass and had toppled over the bank!!  He said he was alright and started hobbling, said he was gonna take it easy from now.

I continued onwards down nu bridges then down valley and into the Hidden Valley Bonus climb.  Ooosh hot too, and up onto Old Skool for a good blast, finally cruising down the road to car. HOT ride.

11kms and 400 m altitude.