sunday

a whole week gone by, rain and resting my ankle up. Cotic frame arrived. waiting now on a seatpost, then i'll build it up...
rode over to steve's. chilly start. soon warmed up tho. Tony, Steve, Pete, Matt, and another guy steve on a rigid old avanti, ridden with us before. up Farmtrack, left down single, round witch, up road, down castle to bridle, then back up castle, down road, round witch, up single across and down Oldskool bowenvale. good spin, 12 oclock at bottom of bowenvale so we went for a coffee... the trails were just on the greasy side of dry. my ankle is definitely getting better.

Sunday a.m. Rapaki,Summit,Greenwood,Thomas

Rode across town, mild morning, to Steve's. Andrew, Tony, Pete, Matt, and Wayne. Steve not well. headed up rapaki, pushed good all the way up, hung a left, good flow round witch hill, then a good blast down Castlerock to bridle. good push round road, good flow round John Britten, then break for snacks at Greenwood. pretty good flow down there. some nice new bermed corners in the top section. the slats were slick as, i got skittery on it, and i thought to myself, someone's going down on these today. turned out it was Pete. headfirst into a rock, putting a nice dent in his helmet and giving him quite a shake. rolled on from there, good rest of the way down. then down Capt Thomas. bombed it pretty good, taking it a bit easy, baulked on the first of the techy rock bits i usually ride the left hand line down some sort of steps cut into a big rock section. cleaned the lower two nemesis's, tho, dabbed the bottom of the first one. quite a few walkers around corners so took it easy all the way down. then good road ride round to Whack, and then i rode through Charlesworth to linwood and home. contemplated cemetaries, Kerrs, river, home. maybe next time. (tho, just calc'd that adds a kilometre or more...)

Thurs night quarrypoach

Wednesday night, i hacksawed off the cracked seattube, filed off the burrs and set it back up, also, straightened the derailleur hanger. what i didnt do was double check the H and L screws...

so, the Last night. hooked a lift with Pete, we met Matt, Andrew, Tony, Wayne (no steve) over at Halswell Quarry. rode up round top of quarry, near the top, grunting up the final climb, middle ring front, big cog down back, hear the derailleur tickling the spokes just a little, didnt think much of it, then CRUNCH TWANG CHICKITTY SMUNCH... stopped very quick, bottom half of the cage is ripped open, jockey wheel out, derailleur well and truly embedded in the spokes... ugh. found the wheel, two washers, bush, and bolt, straightened up the cage, worked out how it all went back together and fixed it up. re-adjusted the L screw, and rode on... sweet. uneventful after that, other than the gears are out of whack again, skipping in 2nd and 3rd, but okay in 4th, so most climbs were in granny and 4th. over quarry, down to bottom of Crocodile, all the way up that, over to the gate, finding a good groove down the singletrack to the gate, then back up and down, good groove again. Pete had light issues, attachment and battery life, one of the ironing out aspects of first night rides... other than that, no hassles. back down crock, and back to cars...

sunday, solo worsley, nun, vic, cool runnings...

Steve and Pete were in Hanmer, and the rest of the boys wanted to do a Scumner ride, which i couldnt be bothered with, so headed out on my own. Due to not having had any diclofenac all Saturday, my ankle ached the whole ride, really munting my mojo... Anyway, headed up Worsley's, No Tresspassing signs all over the access points to the 'Hidden' track, more's the pity. i was feeling pretty tired, so ended up walking the last of the body bag. oh, and noticed also that my derailleur hanger is bent, probably from the crash that did my ankle in... plus, the seatpost was creaking a lot, i've GOT to get the hacksaw on that frame soon. just as well i'm getting the Soul, this switchback frame is tired for now... anyway, over Marley's, down flying nun. at the corner leading onto the little new sections before the 4wd section, i met the guy building the new line across. all good. bombed down to kiwi, then up road to Thomson's, down through pines, spotted the teetertotter, ran into it a few times but just didnt wanna screw up and have to bail on my bad ankle, so chickened out. then did the 'brakefree' track, a few good wee jumps there, but not quite my style. then down through gums, had a good run down there, then up to top of Cool Runnings, good run down there, major earthworks just before the Darkness, and then out 'Bridges' as its appears to be called, down the washout drop, and down Bowenvale. spotted the zig zag track is being opened up again by the look of it... just from the first fence/gate below K2. dead end at pres. cautiously went through the final gate, and treadled home. home by 11.20, nice and early.

Cotic Soul... coming my way soon

Today i've purchased a brand new Cotic Soul frame off of paul at http://www.essencebicycle.co.nz. should get it early next week. constructed of Reynolds 853 goodness, its been on my drool list for quite some time.

dirtrag review of it...

and a little of what 'What Mountain Bike had this to say about it a few years ago...
"What really sets the bike apart, though, is the way it integrates the tall Fox fork into it's geometry without even a hint of the strike capability it's packing. While the DMR flaunts its big fork and demands you ram it down the throat of any trail obstacle you encounter, the Cotic really does talk quietly whilst carrying a very big stick. In fact, the invisibility of the extra fork travel is almost it's undoing. We often thought the back end was kicking around more than the others before we realised that the forks wre thumping around at full travel.
"Hit technical stuff and the enhanced capability is obvious. Even with the less than aggressive cornering tread of the Conti Verticals, hitting corners with the bike as flat as possible, saddle tucked well down towards a dropped knee and rear wheel sliding became second nature. Saw the big bars back and forth as you stamp down the power through the exit and there's no trace of tuck from the front end and every watt you can muster goes straight into the trail rather than being scattered across roots and rocks.
"Weight balance is also superb. It's easy to pop the front end up over trouble or skip the whole bike sideways to a new line, but it's still totally planted on even the most vertical climbs. In the coimpany of the Cove and Inbred we soon became blase about cleaning crux moves that we were normally only accustomed to managing on race specials. In fact, the longer we spent with the bike and the harder we pushed it, the better it responded. Even on our most cack-handed days it lifted our riding to new levels.

and bikeradar gives it a 4 1/2 stars

once the current geared switchy is built into the soul, will i no longer be 'the swtchbckr'...? will i have to change my blog name??? considering i love to ride switchbacks, i think i can safely keep this name...

Mcleans Singles spin, first lights.

over a week since my ankle. on diclofenac for it, still a bit twingey, achey in the mornings...

Nelson picked me up, and we picked up Matt, in the Bongo, headed out Mcleans Is.
me nursing the ankle. first lights ride. most of first lap with light off, second half with on, but due to dusk they were a bit dim... good spin, but i was being very careful, remembering my thumb crash out there. adjustments needing to be made on the new seat on the single. weird getting the hang of it all again. second lap seemed to flow better, was getting hang of lights and reading the trail again. BAD PIG STINK out the northwestern end of the park.

Weather was performing amazingly. while we rode there was the odd lightning flash. we just finished the second lap, talking about doing a 3rd, when it absolutely HOSED down. we skeddaddled to the Van, fast as, and got under cover asap. driving home lightning was going off all around, the wind was howling, rain pouring. fantastic.

two crash bonanza Easter

Friday afternoon, spur of the moment ride, i was given 1 hour 15..., pedalled across town and up rapaki, round mt vernon, across and then down Oldskool bowenvale. excellent ride, except for the heat. was a scorcher going up rapaki, and hot as coming down, and not stopping much i think i pushed too hard. anyway, did the old trail, not the upper new bits, then hit the new lower bits, and onto the main track at the bottom, just filing through the gate, and WHAM, clipped the right side handlebar on the gate post, flipped over, i think sliding shoulder down fence, left shin along gravel, bike under right leg, pedal shaped bruise in calf, frame on the knee, and somehow bruised the hell out of my forearm. straight back on teh bike, and pedalled the pain off home...

Monday, we were gonna go Mt Grey, but Steve and Pete bailed, so met Andrew, Tony, Hubby, Wayne, Matt and english Mark at dotcom. up Richmond Hill Rd, steep near top, but still middle ringed it all the way up, hung a right across a track to Clifton, then up the rooty bit up onto to Greenwood Pines, up road, to Greenwood Park. there was a doctor guy with a broken wrist sitting at the start of greenwood. he'd toppled off onto the road, couple metre fall, onto his wrist, yowch.
Excellent run down Greenwood. Man its rocky these days. bombed it, cleaned it smoothly. tony had a flat, couldnt fix it so walked down to us at the macrocarpa, decided we'd carry on out godley and he was gonna try fixing it again and head down Capt Thom. so, we headed out godley. good run all the way til just before Livingston Col, i was bombing down the trail, started getting dodgy on the balance, was heading for some rocks so clipped out to dab for stability, but was travelling too fast, toe caught the ground, twisted my foot outwards, felt like a ping or crick, and total agony. i SO thought i'd broken it... pictured in my mind ambulance or helicopter etc... eventually tho, i put a bit of weight on it, hurt like hell but managed to ride down to col and we rang Tony to pick me up from Taylors, first attempt at up hill i was like "no way.", so got on the road and headed round to Breeze. Saw Derek out there. anyway, the boys all headed down, and i followed after talking to Derek. caught english mark up on the last section... even managed a few of the jumps on anaconda... much to the discomfort of my lower leg.

ended up going to the med centre. they decided it wasnt broken, just a bad sprain. so, rest, compression, diclofenac.

sunday late afternoon solo

grey oppressive sky...drove over parked vernon tce. rode round to Bowenvale, up Nu skool onto old skool, cleaning everything bar the steps and one blow out on the steep zigzags near the top. felt pretty good, middle ring all except the zigzags pylon to gate. thought about dropping to granny on the crappy round gravel shit thats on Huntsbury, but managed to plough on through. hit Vernon trail, round bombing down to Rapaki, excellent flow. then round witch hill, nice spin there, then over the fence and down onto the walktrack, excellent ride round that, cleaning all but the steppy bit. stinging nettle is bigger now, more likely to bite... then from tors, up road to Castle, excellent flowy run down there, bombing so quick, realising on the way down i's hardly touching the brakes. then at top of Bridle, i headed for a look down Whakaraupo track. looks fantastic. stopped just where some steep steppy bit started, cos knew if i went down it i'd either have to walk up it or ride up BridlePath, neither of which appealed, so i headed back up the castle rock track cleaning all, then down road to witchhill trail. then headed down Rapaki, but, i headed into the valley, and grabbed the sheeptrail singletrack, flowed down it all the way, past 2 no bikes signs (which of course i didnt see!) and all the way down the valley. then, just within sight of the shelter, i grabbed a sheep trail that sidled upwards, rode lots, pushed a little, and got onto the ridge of Farmtrack, and bombed down the lower nether-regions, back to car... wicked ride. good energy all the way, good form.

Thurs Night Low Altitude Ramble...

Thursday evening. met Jo, Matt, Andrew, Wayne at Steve's. Marie, her partner Mark, and another guy, all turned up too. headed down Heathcote river to singletrack from Radley. climbed fence and along true right side to Tunnel Rd, dead pukeko inclusive. crossed tunnel rd and headed through to ferrymead maori village. up road past coffee roasters, through school, up to gondola, up bridle, left onto Morg's Valley track, cleaned the climb, round behind the trees, then through gate into Commarc guy's property. if he'll let us, there's major scope for some singletracks in the Macrocarpas along the back, and the pines and gums on the north end too... over grown grass, we headed across the back, over a small slip, up to top of some pines, which had a cool little track down through them, walked up the side of the pines, across the top and down a few zigs and zags. then out, down through an empty section, and out onto the road. then, heading for home, we went to the true left side of Devil's Elbow behind the Industrial zone upstream under tunnel rd bridge on up to single and i split off at Ferry Radley home via ferry, and P lab central: bordesley buccleugh england etc...

sunday worsley marley traverse old skool nu skool

Friday night, gave the bike a full drive train replacement, chain, cluster, cogs, derailleur cable shifter...

excellent sunday spin. snagged a lift with Pete, over to Tony's, to find Andrew, Steve, Wayne, Hubby, Tony and Matt in attendance. headed up Worley's where we caught up with Maria. hot day. good cruise up worsles, on up the dirt, rest in the shade at that corner half way up, then on up to the Hidden track. Bombed down that. cleaning every rock pile. pete crashed on the rock garden below the pylon, i had to bail. then wicked run down the lower section, love that bit. then tootled back up the main track. 4 of us cleaned the entire bodybag to the top, including Matt for the first time ever, me for the first time in ages, Steve for the first time in ages, and Andrew. then over marley's, pete on my tail going down, i could hear him back there, rattle rattle scuff scuff then on one hairpin this shhh shhhhh sound and then silence i looked back and he'd disappeared... stopped round the next corner and all the others were hauling up to a stop. pete had come off into a gorse bush! matt had rolled up to find his bike in the middle of the trail, pete no where to be seen. quite a laugh. on we rolled, nice new bit on the corner into the 4wd section. awesome blast down to the kiwi too.

then up the road to top of vic, onto the traverse. hummin round there, past the top of the Lavaflow DH racing(not alot happening), and down onto the Oldskool. excellent rock garden cleanage all the way down there, pete bailing yet again, then down round onto the single. phone rang, so pulled up and let the others all roll on by. finished phone call, and leaped back onto trail in front of wayne, then proceeded to catch up to and overtake Tony Andrew and Maria, then caught up with Hubby and Steve on the lower section tailing them out to the end. the southerly we'd seen from top of worsley's over Kaitorete had rolled in (no rain) and was blowing hard as we were descending that lower section. it was whipping up mega dust at the bottom of the valley. said "nice bike" to a fellow switchback rider, discussed singlespeed issues with him, then grabbed free saussies from Bike HQ stand at the bottom (lots of DH heads around). excellent tail wind home across town.

Quarry Crocs...

quick ride last night. picked up nelson and met with the boys out at Kennedy's/Halswell Quarry.steve, pete, wayne, tony, (english)mark, nelson and me. headed up over the top of the quarry, then down to bottom of crocodile. up the croc, on up the single all way to top of it, then over to next gate on kennedy's. then turned around and down it all. i lead the first section of main descent, pumping it okay, but nelson was on my tail. then i let him lead on the Crocodile proper and i stayed on his tail mostly. one cool corner, i saw in front of me his back wheel braking, off the ground, and i knew mine was gonna do the same, it was a tight wee moment on the zigs down into the valley. he bailed after the bridge and i clambered up the steep clay climb. then we were off again, racing through the trees and out the bottom, hung a left into the 'no bikes' trail across towards the quarry. we all climbed up the way we'd come down earlier and the boys turned right, while Nelson Mark and me headed up to Kennedy's Bush Rd to grab the croc once more. bit of rain, squally. good trip down again, then back out to the car.

bike playing up, only had access to big cog on back or 4th or 5th down, 2nd and 3rd were mystery shifting up and down, slipping if i put on any pressure, and i discovered my cable is frayed as a frayed thing. so on the way home i grabbed the new (old but not overly used) derailleur and shifter off Nelson.

Dun to 3rd to Peaking Ridge 28th Feb.

(part of family holiday roadtrip).
rode from flat in Nayland, Rail trail to Bishopdale, then down into town. popped into bikeshop for a Peak Fuel and yak about trails. headed up Brook again, this time, up Codgers to tantragee saddle then on up Dun Mountain track to 3rd House. relatively long ride up there, you really feel isolated til you catch up some walkers. also there was a woman at the 3rd House hut. anyway, from there, headed up towards the singletrack that comes off the back of Fringed Hill, walking about 20 mins, then at the intersection, heading towards Maitai Caves... downhill began. rooty. techy, tricky. following a ridge mainly, all in deep dark beech forest, would be treacherous in the wet. avoiding two turn offs to the Caves, a couple of small ups, little bit of walking, then the helmet visor nailed to the tree, Peaking Ridge trail begins, hang a hard right, and its instantly full on steepest you can handle without going over the bars, gnarley, rooty, steep down down down, then finally starts to mellow off, leaping roots galore, avoiding trees. it just never ended. feet, legs, wrists, hands, all getting worn out braking. was fantastic. near the bottom, there was more manuka, it opened up a bit, pretty hot and dry. amazingly long descent. i'd say from the turn top / crossroads at least 45 mins and about 400m alt. the peaking ridge trail itself felt like half an hour... then down a 4wd track to the river. there were workers working on the walking track you'd normally take down to a bridge, so they suggested i just ford the maitai there and head on down. ended up coming out below the dam, then on down the gravel then sealed road, then over the a bridge onto the maitai walking/bike track all the way into town. brilliant ride, all up about 3.5 to 4 hours.

Nelson Wed 27th Feb. Grampians

(part of family holiday roadtrip).
played about on The Grampians for my first ride. up the Blick Pl entrance off the Brook. climb climb climb, one little explore off down something just before the steepest bit, then on up til near the top of the Collingwood St exit there's Kanuka Track, so headed off down it, took me round the back, where there was this trail coming down, so i rode up it, granny steep, just near the bottom of it i spotted a track (too steep to ride up) coming down so i kept this in mind and continued grovelling up. it rounded a corner and was heading straight up towards the transmitter tower on the top of the hill. it got too steep to ride, lots of gorse around. made the top of that section and spotted the trail heading down. so, bombed down it, sooo steep, not ridden for ages, awesome. then back round Kanuka to main road, continue up. granny granny, to the top of the Fucsia trail... nice ride down that, then the Kahikatea trail. the way we went with the boys is shut to bikes now, but there's new bits round to the back and hooking up with the Kanuka trail again. bombed , nice long way back down all of that to Blick Pl start point.

kaiteriteri trails

(family holiday road trip, took the bike). Marahau. rode the Kaiteriteri trails, in the forest behind kaiteriteri. small business owned by a nice couple who are based in Marahau, (Marahau Abel Tasman Beach Camp Offices), charge $3 for concession and $3 for a map. not many trails in there, lots of 4wd/gravel road mainly, with firebreaks (steep washed out clay (interesting technically)). i noticed and explored a few wee trails that werent on their maps and talked to them about it later, they said lots of those end up down on private land. i reckon the scope of this area is huge, but then, just about everywhere i've driven in the last couple weeks has shown me untapped areas of potential. the best i reckon is taller pine or fir forest that has been thinned and had the lower limbs removed, leaving wide open spaces of pine needled forest floor with a few loggy bits around... that, or stuff thats been logged, and just planted. get in and dig your trails on that land amongst the seedlings, before all the gorse and broom takes off again, and then the trails are there to keep open while the forest grows around them. there's soooo much scope for example up the back of Anakiwa, just at the start of the linkwater-portage road, there's whole hillsides that are stripped bare and just newly planted. the opportunity for mtnbike based tourism (especially around there cos of the QC bikers) is rife.

anyway. rode from Marahau, along road towards Kaiteriteri, climbed, then hit the forest tracks. climbed a bit, explored a side track a little, then back up it, then climbed more and bombed down "Big Mama's Kitchen", lots of interesting jumps, rugged wash-out fire break style riding, fun descent but all too short. climbed the gravel road again and down "Mama's Kitchen" again... here's switchy next to one of the jumps on Mama's Kitchen...

then back up the road, exploring another potential singletrack a wee ways til it got too overgrown, then back up that. got divebombed by a Kingfisher, then back up the gravel road, past the "kitchen" and on up and up and up along the tops, much further than i'd thought, but not bad, and lotsa views down over kaiteri and out towards the Mot estuary.

then down the Rock Face... what a track. this thing starts out fire break, gets steeper and steeper and steeper til near vertical, washed out massive bike and person eating holes that were not navigable,

(pic looking down Rockface, out over Kaiteriteri...)

steps cut into the sides for walking down cos it was so steep, then eventually it gentled out enough to ride. down and down and down. one or two little ups, ducking overhanging gorse left right and centre, a few well marked choices/forks in the trail, and finally this beautiful tight twisty little singletrack that ducked into regen forest and burned it up down eventually to the Kaiteri-Riwaka road... one hill to climb and then fast road descent into Kaiteri. got there, into my togs, bike on beach, and swam the sweat and gorse inflicted blood away... T, O, H and Jo came met me and we swam and had a family day on the beach.

bottle ache

firstly, it pisshed down all week, it seemed. especially saturday, so we stayed off the hills sunday.
singlespeed, bottle lake. pete and matt, two laps, one out side mostly, one inside loop.

good spin. pushed hard.

off on holiday tomorrow.
intend on riding at Kaiteriteri, Nelson, and hopefully the Anakiwa end of the QC track... maybe even revisit Cullensville. will post upon my return.

lack, thereof.

took the bike over to Little Ak for weekend. Rode around the property a bit, finding some interesting droppy lines, trying to work out a good loop. the forest is getting messier, and the only way to get a trail in there now will be with a chainsaw.
rode up to Chorlton, and down to where you park for Raupo, the others had driven there, and we all wandered (me on the bike) out Long Lookout. coming back, i put Otis on the bar and walked him. then i rode from the carpark back up the road and bombed it down into the bay. thats about it really.
still waiting on my new slicks from torp7 for the new townie project...

sunday, capt thom, greenwood, capt thom...

grabbed a lift out with Pete. met the boys, plus marie. headed up capt thomas. cleaned more than ever before on the way up. feeling good, cruising. got to evans, headed up the road, more nice easy cruising, pete started pushing towards the top, made it a bit more of a thrash. hit the greenwood park. i led. bombed it. got my flow on on a lot of it, the occasional tweak out but mostly all go go go, charged all the way down.

then, regroup, onto capt thomas. pete lead. i followed, and hussed it on his tail all the way down. we cleaned everything. on the lower section, in the bushes, came round a corner and i think gave some runners a fright, they told us off (we WERE in control and didnt actually hit them, or scatter them that much). anyway, when we got to the bottom, steve showed up and one of the pricks had shoulder barged him off his bike. he'd even pulled over and slowed riiight down for them. anyway. more bikers arrived, and it turns out they've encountered the same guy and he's barged them off in the past too. they also barged Wayne off as well. and yet, sexist to the max, they stood aside and let Marie ride past! nutters. steve called the cops, cos thats assault, and would be especially dangerous if they did it to someone on the technical sections and they went over a cliff.

nu-oldskool up, vic, barbedwire rootkiss, dinner, vic...

heading for my Nainy's for dinner, parked up Bowenvale ave. rode up the nu old skool bowenvale track, cleaned all but the same two spots. even tried the first of the uncleanable twice and nearly fell both times... thats the gnarley wee rock bit just above the new section. then there's the steppy bit just up from the cattle stop half way up the single. then, the zig zag... huff chuff huff chuff... cleaned it all, no dabs. couple rest tho, there were some guys possibly filming, but riding over and over again the jumps section of Pono's track below the pylon. so i was watching them across the valley a bit. rode on up the huntsbury to the start of the traverse. cleat issues, didnt clip out properly and twisted on the sole of my sandal. tightening it has reamed out the phillips head of one of the bolts, so i gotta get some allen ones...

hit the traverse. round below sugarloaf has been turned into a road.

down through vic, said gudday to a guy on an oldschool steel rocky, shoulda stopped and chatted...
down through gums, i'm not convinced by the new bit... all the way out, down to the dog walking area, sidled round the lower half of that, and hit my forestry, rooty, barbedwire kisses, below the houses out onto longhurst, then down the alley and up to my Nainy's for tea... mum and otis there. rode up to mum's, helped her put O to bed, then headed back up into vic park, tummy FULL of yummy chicken, salad, mash, veges, and icecream, ugh. took dazza's, Pono's, hung a right just after hitting forest below the 23 footer, and then down the washout and out. all up, goooooooood riding.

Worsle's Playpen...

picked up Nelson, found him with a brand new bike, Genius Apache, drove to top of worsley's road, parked up and met Steve Andrew Wayne Tony Matt and a young guy Lance (who was on Pete's Giant). we headed up worsely's, getting to bottom of body bag and heading into the 'secret' trail. first run, hummed it, cleaning all the cool rock mound/jumpy things, bombing the fun bits, cleaning most of the garden below the pylon, then flying down the lower section. then nelson lance and me continued down to the water tank and back up, while the others piked at the gate, up for round two. caught up and over took the others. then round two. bombed it even better, cleaning more of the rocky moundyjumpy things, and hummin the corners, bollocksing the deceptive rock below the cliff-face, and clearing more of the pylon garden. doing the jumps down below better. back up exit track, and the others all headed off, and nelson and me grannied up the forest 4wd track to top of cliff and down for round 3... niiiice.

first ride with these...
commuters

Rapaki Vic Park

Rode from Nelson's. interesting route across town, including a new park and and old park to waltham rd then the sweet wee singletrack along the heathcote from Wilson's to Ensors, then round to Rapaki. me on the geared, nelson on his single. for the first time ever, i led all the way up, and nelson was struggling. now he knows how steve etc and i feel when we ride with him... he had some lurgy bug thing that'd had kept him low for a day or three, so was only running on one lung and low energy. anyway, good spin up rapaki, hit the singletrack, had a good run at that, and then bombed it round to vic park. headed down through gums, only to be totally unimpressed with what's going on in there. sure, it'll be fun to ride eventually, but unless they put some drainage in its gonna turn to crap really quick. and i'm gonna miss the tight sweetness that it used to have before they chopped down those several trees, making the trail a fucking highway.

so, we headed west (left) and got out of the gums, rode down some of the really steep shit off there, walked back up another bit to ride it super steep again. steep enough to nearly not be able to walk up, but no worries down, and then into the trees again, eventually getting out on the track just by that wee jump, then bombed the rest of it down then up to the skidder site.
then headed up trail to top of Cool Runnings, rode all of the new bits, sidelines obviously, not the jumps, nearly couldnt see anything in 'the darkness' wearing shades, then out the gulley, round the side, stayed high in the pines all the way to the end, and pieced it down the last steep into the washout drop. then quick bomb down the valley and back across town to nelson's. with a quick detour to ride the Countdown steps... ha.