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.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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
first ride with these...
commuters
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, January 21, 2008
friday night bottle lake spin
quick spin out at bottle lake with Nelson and a guy called Tony on Friday night. we hung a right, headed out towards the dump hill, hung a left and into that oldskool trail Steve showed us the other month, then got on the usual, spinning quick, singlespeeds... was gonna hit the hills with them last night but missed out cos was enjoying too much wine and food at Peg Bay winery...
Friday, January 18, 2008
Hanmer scorcher
found myself and the switchback in Hanmer for a few days, finally test driving the Thule strap-on rack that i got well over a year ago. worked a treat. just the frame on the rack, seat out, (wheels on top of luggage in the boot - pram, chilli bin, and all baggage for 2 adults a 3.5 year old and a 5 month old, squeezed into the Fiat).
Al came up for Wednesday, to ride and show me a couple of new trails.
So. rode up the start of Jacks Pass Rd, and peeled right onto a dirt track which bombed down for a bit then hung a tight right onto some single that bombed downwards for a bit too, some nice waterbar jumps on the way, crossed a stream and started climbing. few switchbacks, nice climb, spitting us out behind Conical Hill, overlooking the forestry operations which have wiped out Yankee Zephyr... then we headed around an unmade trail to connect to Mahuja or Mahuta or Majuba? majuta?? trail, nice fly down that, pumping and squirrelling, then across behind the 12hr race camp area, and up Timberlands trail to the Joliffe saddle skidder site. then up Joliffe Saddle track, steeper and longer than i remembered, hot sun pounding down on us, and fun descent down to Dog Stream switchbacky rocky fun.
cross the bridge, up the road to Bigfoot. crazy crazy trail, climbing, zigging and zagging, the zigzag switchbacks getting more and more frequent, shorter and shorter between, in tight narrow douglas fir, eventually after i dont know how many switchies you peak and the forest opens up into nice old open country and the descent bombs down, little ups just before corners, beautiful flow, down down down, jumps on roots etc, awesome.
then we poached the nature trail, hung a new left onto the Detox... climbed up there, and bombed down that, reminding me of Hot X buns in vegas. then up the road to the bridge to cross over onto lower dogstream, hoofed it down that, then up Joliffe Rd to the skidder site again, and out Red Rocks, one of my favourites, bombed that, then skirted back across the bottom of the 12 hr paddock, and back into town... nice
Al came up for Wednesday, to ride and show me a couple of new trails.
So. rode up the start of Jacks Pass Rd, and peeled right onto a dirt track which bombed down for a bit then hung a tight right onto some single that bombed downwards for a bit too, some nice waterbar jumps on the way, crossed a stream and started climbing. few switchbacks, nice climb, spitting us out behind Conical Hill, overlooking the forestry operations which have wiped out Yankee Zephyr... then we headed around an unmade trail to connect to Mahuja or Mahuta or Majuba? majuta?? trail, nice fly down that, pumping and squirrelling, then across behind the 12hr race camp area, and up Timberlands trail to the Joliffe saddle skidder site. then up Joliffe Saddle track, steeper and longer than i remembered, hot sun pounding down on us, and fun descent down to Dog Stream switchbacky rocky fun.
cross the bridge, up the road to Bigfoot. crazy crazy trail, climbing, zigging and zagging, the zigzag switchbacks getting more and more frequent, shorter and shorter between, in tight narrow douglas fir, eventually after i dont know how many switchies you peak and the forest opens up into nice old open country and the descent bombs down, little ups just before corners, beautiful flow, down down down, jumps on roots etc, awesome.
then we poached the nature trail, hung a new left onto the Detox... climbed up there, and bombed down that, reminding me of Hot X buns in vegas. then up the road to the bridge to cross over onto lower dogstream, hoofed it down that, then up Joliffe Rd to the skidder site again, and out Red Rocks, one of my favourites, bombed that, then skirted back across the bottom of the 12 hr paddock, and back into town... nice
Monday, January 14, 2008
Fried eh night...
up to my folks for dinner friday night. got home, messed about a bit then headed out, left home about 5.20pm. quite strong easterly. bombed across to rapaki, hauled up there, hung a right, round summit trail, then down through gum and on out and down to their place. got there at bout 6.20. not too bad going.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
a ride of two halves...
popped home at lunchtime, changed and grabbed bike. straight from work headed for Nelson's, he had to take the singlespeed, but we headed up Worlsey's anyway. unbelievably, he cleaned the entire road and trail to within about 20 metres from the top of the Body Bag... i however, flagged, and was munted the whole way up, like i had no power or strength of leg... twas hot too. so, made the top, nice cool breeze to greet us up there. then up marley's/flying nun then down down down, easy careful cos the grass is so overgrown you can hardly see the track ahead. hit the road to the second Thomson's, headed to top of Vic. then into the trees, down through gums and on down out to vic park rd and down to my family picnic. 4 generations from my Nainy, all present from a few corners of the world. nelson headed off. then the boys, Steve, Tony, Andrew and Wayne turned up, chatted a bit and headed off up to skidder site...
then after the picnic (3 grolsche later), i headed up there myself. and bumped into Roly and (name unknown). roly sporting brandnew Fox Float 36s. and (name unknown) riding a brand new Yeti... v'ry nice. we headed off down Dazza's then sideways onto the new trail. mint. on down all of the nat's track, down and out to tracey otis and hugo waiting for me at road end... nice.
then after the picnic (3 grolsche later), i headed up there myself. and bumped into Roly and (name unknown). roly sporting brandnew Fox Float 36s. and (name unknown) riding a brand new Yeti... v'ry nice. we headed off down Dazza's then sideways onto the new trail. mint. on down all of the nat's track, down and out to tracey otis and hugo waiting for me at road end... nice.
Monday, January 07, 2008
sunday morning. rapaktraversthomsobodybagsecret
Matt's Specialized has a cracked suspension pivoty thing, so he borrowed the Singlespeed. picked me up and over to Steve's we went. Pete, steve, tony, wayne and us two. i piloted the single up rapaki, cos i didnt wanna inflict too much pain on the poor guy... tho, he rode it to the first gate. so huffed and chuffed all the way up, walked about 5 metres on that last corner.
above the road, turned right along single. matt struggled up round the first two hairpins and lost it just above the wee water dam, started walking for a bit. i continued on. matt failed to appear for a while, but then eventually we saw him coming. once below the road again, he flew. was right on my tail all the way round to just before sugarloaf, then he took the lead and i was pushin' to keep up. nice one. sorry bout that matt...
then Thomson's to kiwi. flew through there. then up road to top of Worsley's. down body bag, up paddock to 'secret' singletrack. and a nice bomb down it. its getting more and more rideable, smoother and faster, i guess cos we're getting to know it better. cleaned the rocky ass piece below the pylons, and then continued all the way down down down where Nelson and me explored a while back. rode a lot more of that too. then back up 4wd track, and down rest of single, then down road to westmorland zigzags, and home round the river... all good. nice sunny day, but with a good cooling sou'wester blowing a little bit.
above the road, turned right along single. matt struggled up round the first two hairpins and lost it just above the wee water dam, started walking for a bit. i continued on. matt failed to appear for a while, but then eventually we saw him coming. once below the road again, he flew. was right on my tail all the way round to just before sugarloaf, then he took the lead and i was pushin' to keep up. nice one. sorry bout that matt...
then Thomson's to kiwi. flew through there. then up road to top of Worsley's. down body bag, up paddock to 'secret' singletrack. and a nice bomb down it. its getting more and more rideable, smoother and faster, i guess cos we're getting to know it better. cleaned the rocky ass piece below the pylons, and then continued all the way down down down where Nelson and me explored a while back. rode a lot more of that too. then back up 4wd track, and down rest of single, then down road to westmorland zigzags, and home round the river... all good. nice sunny day, but with a good cooling sou'wester blowing a little bit.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
happy new craigie-burnin'
after minimal festivities seeing out the end of 2007 (party at Pete's which we took the kids to and left about 10), new year's day 2008 - nelson picked me up in the van (Nissubishi or Mitsubissan) and we headed for the mountains. (last times march07 and may06).
parked up at the Broken River Day shelter carpark (800m) (observing all the hung over travellers waking up and getting into the beers again!), and headed out onto the road for Craigieburn access road at 9.47am. slogged up the access road, gear troubles for me limiting me to big or second cog down on the back, middle or granny up front for the climbing. not to worry, that road pretty much just needs to be tackled in granny most of the way anyway, so's to conserve your energy for later in the ride. made the skifield (1300m), looked about a bit then headed down 'the edge' or 'the wall' depending on which skool (old or nu) you come from. beautiful and dangerous. nearly all down hill, flowing beech forest singletrack sections interspersed with evil drop corners and awe inspiring screeslope crossings...
here's me hangin' it out on one... its steeper than it looks, obviously, or i wouldnt be dabbed out.
didnt take long to get down to the right hander(1040m) up to Lyndon Saddle. grunted up there (1140m) and had a feed. then headed down the Luge. flow flow flow, yumpy yump, hello to a total of 4 walkers, all had been warned of our approach by the whooping and the clattering of chains on stays. onto road (860m).
then headed up the road to top (950m) of Dracophyllum Flat track. flat tack down that seemingly endless descent, ending finally at the river(790m). then tackled the climb out up to the actual 'Flat(850m). cruise down across the Flat then through (830m) bush and the weird clearings with nothing much growing in them(850m-810m)), then bush climb to the cheeseman icerinks(940m). we were still feeling pretty good so we headed up the Cheeseman Access road and did the (1000m) lowest bit of the 'taboggan' track, then headed back for broken river. now, this trail is much better in this direction. loads of beautiful down hill sections, easy climb back up dracophyll-flat, then fun steep techy descent to river, and then the climb. i got cramp in the back of my thigh on the first climb, making me walk for a bit, then rode some, walked some rode some back up to the road.
headed along the road (970m) cos Steve etc had said there was a neat little nature trail starting from the Environmental Education Centre carpark. missed that and got onto the "Hut Creek Track" instead, cos it was heading down. well. it didnt head down for long (940m), and pretty soon we were climbing again, heat of the early afternoon sun sapping our already blown strength. climbing climbing til (1000m) eventually we were looking back and down at where we'd started with a road connecting us to there. so. what the heck, turned round and bombed back down this track. all through spruce and fir and pine, one or two beech bits. it was in here i missed seeing a fallen tree (due to folliage) across the track and took a helluva whallop to my head. >smack!!!<, nearly knocking me off, and jarring my brain somewhat... dazed, continued down and when we got to what would have been the climb back to the Environmental Education Centre, (940m) there's this hardly-used track heading down, so, took it instead. it flowed through gums and weird sloped meadows to some huts and then out to the road (860m). nice... in future we'll just ride up the road to the top of this trail... for one final downhill... then the last descent back to the van cooling us off nicely. altitude grand total of 1280m climbed and descended, back to town by 4pm... not bad for a day's play.
parked up at the Broken River Day shelter carpark (800m) (observing all the hung over travellers waking up and getting into the beers again!), and headed out onto the road for Craigieburn access road at 9.47am. slogged up the access road, gear troubles for me limiting me to big or second cog down on the back, middle or granny up front for the climbing. not to worry, that road pretty much just needs to be tackled in granny most of the way anyway, so's to conserve your energy for later in the ride. made the skifield (1300m), looked about a bit then headed down 'the edge' or 'the wall' depending on which skool (old or nu) you come from. beautiful and dangerous. nearly all down hill, flowing beech forest singletrack sections interspersed with evil drop corners and awe inspiring screeslope crossings...
here's me hangin' it out on one... its steeper than it looks, obviously, or i wouldnt be dabbed out.didnt take long to get down to the right hander(1040m) up to Lyndon Saddle. grunted up there (1140m) and had a feed. then headed down the Luge. flow flow flow, yumpy yump, hello to a total of 4 walkers, all had been warned of our approach by the whooping and the clattering of chains on stays. onto road (860m).
then headed up the road to top (950m) of Dracophyllum Flat track. flat tack down that seemingly endless descent, ending finally at the river(790m). then tackled the climb out up to the actual 'Flat(850m). cruise down across the Flat then through (830m) bush and the weird clearings with nothing much growing in them(850m-810m)), then bush climb to the cheeseman icerinks(940m). we were still feeling pretty good so we headed up the Cheeseman Access road and did the (1000m) lowest bit of the 'taboggan' track, then headed back for broken river. now, this trail is much better in this direction. loads of beautiful down hill sections, easy climb back up dracophyll-flat, then fun steep techy descent to river, and then the climb. i got cramp in the back of my thigh on the first climb, making me walk for a bit, then rode some, walked some rode some back up to the road.
headed along the road (970m) cos Steve etc had said there was a neat little nature trail starting from the Environmental Education Centre carpark. missed that and got onto the "Hut Creek Track" instead, cos it was heading down. well. it didnt head down for long (940m), and pretty soon we were climbing again, heat of the early afternoon sun sapping our already blown strength. climbing climbing til (1000m) eventually we were looking back and down at where we'd started with a road connecting us to there. so. what the heck, turned round and bombed back down this track. all through spruce and fir and pine, one or two beech bits. it was in here i missed seeing a fallen tree (due to folliage) across the track and took a helluva whallop to my head. >smack!!!<, nearly knocking me off, and jarring my brain somewhat... dazed, continued down and when we got to what would have been the climb back to the Environmental Education Centre, (940m) there's this hardly-used track heading down, so, took it instead. it flowed through gums and weird sloped meadows to some huts and then out to the road (860m). nice... in future we'll just ride up the road to the top of this trail... for one final downhill... then the last descent back to the van cooling us off nicely. altitude grand total of 1280m climbed and descended, back to town by 4pm... not bad for a day's play.
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