Heated Weakend Hanmer hammering

Picked up by Wayne Warren and Steve(abba), drove to Hanmer meeting Steve and Pete, then Mark and Marie. Headed up Argelins Rd, sun beating down, she was gonna be a scorcher... hung a left round to Chatterton's valley, and then the up began. single track to start with was nice, couple little grunty rocky bits, then turning right, the not-often-used (by the looks of it) trail was overgrown with black berry vines, leaving blood on some of our forearms. trail condition improved a bit further up, then crossing the 4wd track and heading for the pylon, i knuckled down and managed to clean the entire climb. we regrouped in the shade and then headed off down into the darkness, nice cruise through down a bit, up a bit, down again, then clambering out, right into the middle of a bunch of very active beehives. nice and slow through them and then it was out to the road at the Tank.

Launched into the Tank Track, lovely descent, fun occasional rocks, lotsa nice roots, and cool twisty stuff at the bottom. regrouped, and headed into Majuba. (noticed from here, looking across to where Yankee Zephyr used to be, there's some new trail been built over there, will get to that next time i'm up). clambered up the high way, me bustin' it wrong-geared and making it the only climb i faffed. steve and pete (and others?) cleaned it. great descent from the top of it, blazing down and through and across, then gentle ride across to Timberlands, and another clamber up ensued.

Jolliffe's saddle, and up the track to Upper Dogstream. cleaned the tricky corner, and another regroup at the bench. then the descent, yippee, twisty switchbacky, steep gnarly, i dont know how Mark got his massively wide bars through some of the gaps. bollocksed the last corner i always do, just above the first bridge, then a lovely flight down to the next bridge, over this, and up Detox.

the climb longer than i'd remembered, but a good one, and into the down. awesome rail roosting trail, the xxx a bit exagerated, the ruts near the bottom not as bad as last time. yet another regroup, everyone with big grins, except abba, who was out of water and feeling it.

down the road and into Mach 1. from this direction, heaps more fun, mostly down, and i had an awesome rip down there. then it was down the road from the end, and up a 4wd track round and up to a downhill track that ends up behind Forest Camp. big rest in the shade and water and food taken on board most bods, then off through singletrack out to road, and up towards the Threshold...

helluva climb, in heat, up up up to turnoff, then the real climbing began. steep as hell, and a few of us cleaned it entirely.

into the down, i led off, some awesome corners, some lovely sections, interesting, flowy, a little too much climbing, but so much down too. excellent ride, cleaned everything too, including the bit i baulked on last time.

spent, we cruised back down the road and into town via the edge of the flatland forest. beer at the montieths pub, and back to the house for showers and lots more beer and a delicious meal cooked by Marie.

Sunday Morning we headed up Jack's Pass Rd, catching up to Alister and Nico on the way, blasting the Tank track again, then lower majuba, up timberlands, and into Red Rocks. lovely trail that, hanging a right at the bottom and into the forest things have changed a little in there, then back to the bakery for yummy lunch before heading home.

Monday Night, Worsley Nun Kennedys Croc.

last night turned out to be the only opportunity i'd have to ride during the week, so Chris came over and we drove out to Halswell. Parked up by the Quarry entrance, and cycled round Cashmere Rd, and into Happy Home Rd, exploring. found a park at the end with a blast of a down path, into a cul-de-sac, hung a left and dived onto the Cashmere Stream Esplanade Reserve, along, crossing Penruddock, and back into it, staying on the true-right, twisting and squirrelling through the tightly knit trees, finally out into the newly landscaped flood easements alongside the brandspanking slob-burbs that've sprung up in the last couple years. crawled our way up to the 'dam' and then into a new (to me) singletrack that grunted (and made me walk) up to the singletrack in that worsley valley park. grunted and chuffed up that then up the zig zags failing some, and cleaning a couple, and finally onto Worsley's Rd. legs tired from yesterdays blast i was a bit slow on all the ups.

once on Worsley's dirt, about 100m below the overhead wires i noticed my back wheel getting squishy... stopped to patch it (as i'd given Pete my only tube sunday), and drizzle started, lightly... got riding again, and felt a bit better, cleaning everything, including, surprisingly, the body bag. Chris had no trouble either.

Chuffed up to top of Marley's and seats down a bit and Chris put on his knee/shin pads and off we blasted. Chris immediately put a gap on me, and i struggled to keep control on some sections, just slightly off form due to low(ish) light and lack of ooomph in my legs. now and then i'd hear his noisy hub bzzzzing below me, and i felt like i was being left for dead. yumped a few yumps and railed the odd corner, but also faltered and baulked bits i never usually do. still, blasted out the bottom half and Chris said i was only like 20 seconds behind him (which isnt that bad i guess).

seats back up, and up the road. stayed in big ring and 3rd down all the way up, my new favourite cruising-climbing-slightly-too-tall gear, then towards Kennedys, via a nice poach..., then over the fence and rode along the freshly mown grass (and gorse that will dry for punctures) sapping our power up to the stile, over and down.

light drizzle messed with Chris's glasses, so i blasted off down ahead, juddering down to the first gate. over the gate and down between the pines (which SHOULD have sweet sidling switchbacky singletrack laced through them) and grabbing the 'highline' over and then down the final blast, absolutely flying down the single ribbon of hard packed clay, 60kph at least, bringing back memories of the old days. whooping at the gate, over and onto 'siberia'. climbing up and over and hitting what-ever-its-called down towards the top of the Croc. nice cruise down here, not pushing it too hard but not letting up either, then a final hard out blast down Crocodile. again, i was still not quite on form, but still enjoyed. struggled up, but cleaned, the uppy bit, then it was juuust getting a bit dim in the trees to really let rip. once out of the trees, we followed the bike trail all the way down through all the new rocks and terribly cambered teddington to the carpark, then round the road to the car. done by 9.

Sunday a.m. chuntsbury to sumner and all in between

met at Steve's. andrew tony wayne warren steve me then pete. toodled up huntsbury meeting marie at the top. my climbing seemed nearly effortless, in a taller gear than i've been shunting of late, so that was cool. Marie had Mark on the phone, so had a wee chat to him.

crossed road and hit vernon singletrack. sweet ride down to rapaki, blazingly good in fact. pete had a wee off, but other than that i think all were in tact. then witch hill wasnt too bad and up road to Castlerock.

great descent to bridle, i felt totally on form. pinning the whole way. then round the road, cruising, onto john britten where my balance got wonky but wasnt too bad a jaunt.

next, to Greenwood. more fun to ensue. bit of a regroup part way in and off we flew. kept my gap on Pete, flowed and grooved round into gloomy gulch and pulled up just before next descent, looked back and was like, huh, where is everyone..? waited, waited, waited and then the silhouettes appeared on the ridge. turned out Tony'd had a wee off. started again, fanging it, roosting and ploughing through, cleaning it all.

regroup, it was 11.35 so decided against doing godley and missing coffee, so sidled off down Capt Thomas. kept it pretty real coming down here, but got to my one nemesis and i stalled, allowing pet to get past me, so i chased him from here the rest of the way down, him pushing it nice and hard. we put a massive lead on the others, fair ripping down the hill. was great. the group re-formed slowly and then we Dot Commed it. then 12.40 hit the road, me peeling at ferrymead and then totally bonking on linwood ave. struggled the last couple kms home utterly wiped, coldsweating nearly. ugh.

Hamner here we come this weekend.

Sunday into the fog, worsle nun-chucks victory.

excellent ride i've just gotten home from.
was supposed to be meeting LeonH off vorb, from oz, and his mates, round at Tony's but they werent ready in time. so hopefully they've found themselves a good ride anyway. and they'll probably hook up with Nelson for a Wharfdale adventure during the week. anywhoo - Rex, Wayne, Tony, Steve and myself all left Tony's and before the bottom of Worsley's Rex Tony and me waited for Tim and Mark, the Mountain Vikers. They provided a good pace up the hill and we caught Steve and Wayne at the top of the seal. hit the dirt, impressing these two from auckland with whats on our doorsteps. no views tho, fog was thick, drifting across, dripping trees, but otherwise dry. amazingly i managed to clean the bodybag, all the way, even on the too many whisky's last night.

blitzing into the nun, still no view, the fog made for slightly less speed, but i had an excellent descent, grabbing a fair few of the jumps, a few regroups, and we all made it out to the kiwi. the mountainvikers loving the trails. then blatted down Old Dyers, careening down the narrow rutty section, again, Tim whooping and hollering. views just starting to show up...

steve made contact with Marie before we climbed up into vic park, and she rode and met us at the skidder site, then we explored Dazza's, Brent's, Flow, Bridges (lovin' the highline again), cleaned up hidden valley, and blazed the old skool bowenvale descent to the end. all good. my bike felt good, riding was roosty and on form. good ride all round i think, and we impressed Tim and Mark with our lovely lovely trails.

sharing our trails with out of towners made me appreciate them for what they are, which is some pretty damned cool trails.

2'sday night Thomas Godley and sons.

good bomb tonight. picked up pete at 6 and we met t'others at scumner. arriving first were Andrew and Warren, then Steve in the tfc van with Tony, (abba)Steve and Marie on board. we set off up Captain Thomas. was a good ride up, cleaning lots, blowing out on the usual few bits. feelin' good.

hit godley, still feelin' good, tho one or two weird balancey issues, but mostly pretty good. excelent blaze through some stuff. explored the new section that peels off on way down to Livingston Col. doesnt amount to much so we tootled back off it and on down the usual way. nice climb up over to Breeze with the grass not quite narrowing the trail as much as last week. from breeze we rode the 'sweet' track out to the end. my steering started getting a bit stiff, and some crunchiness ensued... need a bit of grease in the headset, not good. luckily i've got a spare one sitting on the shelf. then back round to breeze on the trail below the road, i had a fantastic spin round there (putting massive gap behind me), then along came Steve and Tony... hmmm, "where's Pete or Andy?" Andy had a flat. then pete showed up with a leak on his knee.

then off down the snake. i put some speed in and kept a nice lead with a bit of creep and a bit of gain on pete's following me. he offed right at the bottom. then a great wee flow down the 'tail and then the slog over the hill back. good blast for all of us. home round 9. not too bad going.