Thursday Eastern Night Time Ramble

Nelson and me got out to Taylors last night.  Had to turn on the power and the spa at the bach there for the weekend, and also figured the trails out that way would be the best bet after all this weather we've been getting.  Also, my first night testing out the new lights.  First up, the 'Tail, everything working smoothly so no broken chains or grinding.  Before we started we could see a fellow night rider above us on the trail, and we slowly caught him as we progressed to Boulder Bay.  But on the first swtchbck above Boulder Bay we stopped to de-layer, cos it was really quite mild, altho later i regretted this as the wind was getting around all the non-windproof bits of my top and freezing my kidneys and generally making be cold...  Anyway, he got a fair way ahead of us then and we didnt see him again until we were climbing for the Barracks and he was way up on the hill between us and Breeze Col. 

At top of Godley we decided not to take the Breeze Col trail, figuring it would be slick as pigshit, so we took the 4wd trail up and got onto the wee northside tight (newish) singletrack, followed by a nice descent down to Breeze Col.  It was on this singletrack and descent i had my 3led light on helmet and 2led light on handlebars, both on full beam and fuck it was bright, like daylight...  the 3led light has a broader spread, and later when i swapped them over to trial the 2led on head, i found that the 3led light is best on the head, more of that later. 

At Breeze Col we headed up the Godley singletrack, taking it past the pfmtbc rock rather than up the shortcut, and onto the new benched gravel section (which is bedding in nicely now) and over to Livingston.  Then straight up the guts rather than the usual bike track, where i walked a bit and then carried on up (on newly filled in U channels (no longer U's)) and on up to the top where we stopped.  Here, i swapped over the lights and as soon as i got going again, back down towards Livingston, i realised that the other way round was better...  the 2led light is just too tight a beam and focuses your eye a bit too much, similarly to my last 'new' light (which Andrew has for repair at the moment).  Excellent descent to Livingston, with the newly gravelled stuff REALLY fast.  Over to Breeze was good too, the climb not bad and the new gravel very fast again. 

Then into the snake, Nelson in the lead and a good run all the way down, tho half way down my back started getting really sore which took away from the enjoyment a bit.  Once out, it was back up the road to the truck parked at the top of the steps above the bach.