Sunday Morning Hilltop Meander

T was out doing the stupidmarket shopping and so I couldn't leave home til 9am, the same time as Steve and Wayno were leaving his.  I cruised at a good pace across town and followed them up Crapaki Track, getting a text about half way up but not reading it til I got up to the flat bit, less than 10 minutes later.  Sat on a seat and read the text which was saying they were doing the new 'Full Monty' ride out round Montgomery Spur.  I didn't want to chase them around that, so I sat and watched the punters ride- and jog- and walk-by below me for about 15 minutes til the two boys turned up.  We got rolling again on the singletrack above the main drag, and then continued up the newest section (just finished the day before as per link above), above the top section.  Got a little steep in here and Wayne bailed while Steve ran out of oomph exactly where I had.  We walked maybe 20 m and then got steep riding again, then across to the gate.  Quite good up there...  Suggested improvement is a zig and zag or two out for the steepest bit...

Onto Witch Hill, cleaning all the technicals and cruising around, along the road, into Castle Rock, me chasing down a woman on a Santa Cruz.  I had insane bursts of speed at times, weaving and gnarling down the trail, catching her just around the first hairpin, her pulling over to let me by, climbing nicely out and over and then awaiting the two boyz.  Dampness of previous days rain keeping the dust nice and low.

Around the road, and figured why not head over Mt Pleasant and get the top section down to Greenwood, so that's what we did.  Slightly damper riding up here than further back (cos its higher, I guess), but nice down the rocks, boogying through to the end.  Then my ride around the original Greenwood entrance was smooth and sweet.

Finally, up the road and into Britten.  Quite long grass down here, so trail narrowing a little.  Good fang down and around, then where the old stile and fence/gate were I noticed a new trail to the left, so followed.  I wove right across the Britten Reserve, one nice rock section, in the middle, then all the way over the far side, and around under some rocks and cool descending down to the top of Longridge Pl.  The boys had missed the turn and arrived above me down one of the original trails in there... 

Zoooom down the road to Craigieburn, and into the zigs and zags, nice roll down through McCormacks, enjoying it except for the carefulness on the spikey boardwalk bridges, then the final blast down the bottom reaching rocketship speeds.  Finally, around the bay, onto the main road and I split at the bridge and cruised the length of Linwood Ave home.

Good number of kms (30+), 750 m climbed.