Saturday Wharfdale afternoon

Out to Nelson's with Jet in the car yesterday, collecting some wood on the way to cut on Sunday, and chucked some garlic in his ground, then after some lunch we headed around to View Hill Rd in the Subie.

Got riding at 2.10.  Was quite wet in places, water running down the trail, and there was evidence of a few bikes having been through.  Heaps of cars at the car park, way more than people we saw...  Met three riders coming out, and then overtook a walking couple going in, and then at one of the river crossings we met two other guys on bikes heading in as well.  We left them behind, and it took us an hour to get to the saddle where we stopped for a wee break.  Headed on over for the hut, enjoying the recently worked up trail.  On the way down we spotted one of the other bikers on a section of trail behind, so we figured they mustn't have stopped at the saddle - didn't see them again til at the hut tho.

Trail was greasy in places, roots were sketchy, eyes were spleckedy. General softness of the trail made it a lot more work than usual, so I got pretty tired.  Also, the stream crossings, especially the river before the hut, made for wet feet and on the way back our feet were blocks of ice, absolutely frozen solid.  Also, with the sun shining sideways through the trees, the flickering was like a strobe.  Nelson said it was like looking at camo on camo with a strobe in your face.  He wasn't wrong.

Jetty was awesome, running ahead, running with, and dropping behind on the descents.  He was so good, and loved every minute of it, but man he got filthy.

Spent a little time down at the river below the hut (where there were a couple of bikes locked to a tree), cleaning our chains and re-lubing before the climb back out.  Chatted briefly with the other bikers at the hut, they were gonna head down river for a ways then come back and stay at the hut.  On the climb back out we met the walker couple again, on their way down the hill.  It was a long hard climb up that hill.  Making the saddle was a relief, and my feet were SO cold.  Got riding again and the downhill was much appreciated.  Stopped half way and wrung out our socks.  This helped the feet iceblocks for a little while, but once we were in the final descents the wind chill turned them back to ice.  40 minutes from Saddle back to car.  Took a while for the heater to warm up...

Total time riding was 2 and a half hours, over all time 3 hours 20, so we must have spent nearly an hour standing or sitting around...  We made it back to the car at around 5.30, and there was only just enough light to have finished in.

29ish kms, and only 883 m climbed.  Less climb than Thursday's ride... Felt like a lot more.