Nice to finally swoop down effortlessly the road to Greenwood, which surprisingly still had an "open" sign showing. the beginning was pretty greasy, so i walked around the odd bit, and rode along side the track rather than sliding around in the mud. But once over the top to the ruins and beyond, the trail was in surprisingly good knick, with no puddles, no greasy bits and amazingly dry considering the rain we've had. The sun and wind were out in force, with any moments riding into the southwesterly nearly having me blown off, and the lovely quietness of the downwind sections. A lot of sheep around, and their small bombs requiring strategic steering, and the occasional excitement of them leading the way down the trail at topspeed.
Back where i'd just come from
Overlooking Evans
At Evans I swooped down through the deserted intersection and headed up onto Godley Track just as a ccc ranger was approaching. He obviously wasnt concerned for my Rockfall Potential wellbeing, so ground my way up the start and enjoyed every technical second of the rocky goodness. Rested for a bit, and took off my longsleeve layer whilst overlooking Sumner (at Warren and my previous turnaround point), marvelling at the toytown look of the container barriers below.
Got started again and had some wind battles but a good run all the way round and down to Livingston Col, relishing this trail i'd not been on since June last year. The wind was pumping over the Col, nearly knocking me sideways into the fence, then the cattlestop, then pushing me from behind as i hit up the next climb. The final descent to Breeze Col (which lived up to its name) a blast, with a fun wee roll over the PFMTBC rock feature followed by more blast to the road. Straight across, no mucking about, straight on over and into Anaconda, which is riding SWEEEEEET. Met a runner at the top, just after i'd stopped to muck around with my sounds cos they'd switched themselves off. Trail flowed excellently, pretty much expecting nastiness round every bend, only to find it in pristine condition, except the rutty bit in the middle of the swooply cornerers down in the lowers, which i had referred to as a 'slop channel' last time i rode it (in June).
Finally, around the start of the 'tail', i could see my family on the beach, them being basically the only people on it. I detoured down to the walking track before the gate overwhich i climbed and as i was getting started riding again, they waved and i waved back. then it was down to the rocky path that leads to the beach which i walked, then i rode across the beach, just above the wave wash, to them.
Brilliant ride, with fantastic soundtrack, good groove, nice isolation not seeing a soul from top of Greenwood to Breeze Col. Godley and Anaconda are obviously getting a bit of use. The whole way out Godley there was evidence that at least one rider had been through this morning before me. I think a lot of the rockfall hazard on these two trails is over-rated. As for 'wetness', really not an issue for a single rider, and the only bad bit was right at the start of Greenwood on the flatter sections, which were avoidable (ie, by walking or riding around).
Great day to be out. And my last chance for a couple weeks, as on Tuesday i'm off to Fiordland for 9 days.
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