Took O to the park, we parked about 11, and Nelson wasn't far away so we did some drops in the skills area. I 'e.t.a'd him and he was in the parking lot but had no pass, so headed home and we headed up the lift.
Into the main entrance of Lord of the Possums, we bombed down, yumpity yump the way down. Then into Jandal Handle, and more jumpy mumpy. Fun times. Out the bottom and there was Nelson, so off up the lift again.
This time, into Summit Connector. I nearly lost it over the bars from a jump over some rocks that kicked my back end up too far, then not far further (on the grassy slope across to the Nun) Nelson flatted, front first, then we noticed the rear too. So, I fixed his back holes in situ, and he did the front. Got rolling again, taking the Gnarly Nun entrance across the nun down the droppy rocks, and then in the second whoopdedoo he flatted again, front wheel, nearly losing it off the side no less. We needed to get going, so left him with my glue and left him to it. Rocked on down the rest of the way, bombing Old Dyers. I showed O the entrance to 3rd base, and we headed on round to Captain Cook and into Shredz. He followed me down the first section then dropped onto Loess, while I continued down the rest of Shredz. Good fang.
15kms, with 2 uplifts...
Monday, January 21, 2019
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Thursday Night Eastern Meander
Met at Nelson's, changed into my biking gear and then had to patch my front tire - found a couple of poke-through gorse or thistle needles. Then we convoyed to McCormack's bay via a reasonably traffic free, but quite convoluted route. Parked and hit the hill.
Up the valley, hot, and long grass. Gobbled a few blackberries along the way. Cleaned up to the 2nd hairpin, as usual. Then after the bridge, a steep section before a little bridge stopped me, and I missed one hairpin in the top set. Up the road and up through the wee reserve to Upper Major, and up very long grass, past a dead sheep and onto the usual Britten climb. Sheep shit everywhere and I had to stop a couple of times to stretch my lower back. It was really sore.
Around the top and bailed over the stile and up Broadleaf, climbing all the while, and my back killing me. Big relief to be at the top. Some nice views up here, with a bit of fog around
Then it was off and down, following Nelson and watching his back wheel getting knocked all over the place. Good blast down the rocks, but tussocks and grass below these were overgrown and sheep were running ahead. Popped on down to the ruins where Nelson stopped to clean up some stinky shit from all over his face. Bleugh.
Up the valley, hot, and long grass. Gobbled a few blackberries along the way. Cleaned up to the 2nd hairpin, as usual. Then after the bridge, a steep section before a little bridge stopped me, and I missed one hairpin in the top set. Up the road and up through the wee reserve to Upper Major, and up very long grass, past a dead sheep and onto the usual Britten climb. Sheep shit everywhere and I had to stop a couple of times to stretch my lower back. It was really sore.
Around the top and bailed over the stile and up Broadleaf, climbing all the while, and my back killing me. Big relief to be at the top. Some nice views up here, with a bit of fog around
Then it was off and down, following Nelson and watching his back wheel getting knocked all over the place. Good blast down the rocks, but tussocks and grass below these were overgrown and sheep were running ahead. Popped on down to the ruins where Nelson stopped to clean up some stinky shit from all over his face. Bleugh.
Fog was rolling up the hills, but cleared not long after. Rest of the way down Greenwood was rocky as hell, bumpy and rough. I did the drop jump properly for a change. And chased hard on Nelson all the way down.
Next it was out the road and climbed, me struggling more with the ups and my back, up onto Godley for the fun, but fucking overgrown, blast back to Evans. Held pretty tight on Nelson's tail down this. Plenty fun.
Across Evans and bit of a pause at Captain - Nelson checking messages, then I led off. Slowish start, through the overgrown top section, but once into the rocks my speed crept up, cleaning everything pretty smoothly, jumping, popping and grooving all the while. Neeeaaarrrly made it up the climby bit, but just stalled. Then it was cruising again, slowly increasing speed around the flatter section before fun times down the switchies into the cabbage tree detour and bombing out the bottom. As we mounted the stile at the bottom the phone blinged a few times, and then riding down Sumnervale Ave we discovered why. Wazza, Andy and Robin were just finished loading their bikes on cars, having just completed a loop 10 minutes ahead of us!
21 kms with a tough 718 m climbed.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Sunday, Heated Hunts with a couple Park Laps
Met Steve, Wazza and Nelson (on his xc whippet) at the bottom of Ramahana. Steve wasn't feeling up to the climb so he headed on around to the Park, whereas us three remainders headed up the hill. Was hot and we were all in our black pfmtbc tees - good choice. Made the top, and blatted around the Traverse, chatting with various peeps at various points. Blat through the Thompsons, and across onto Old Dyers for a charging scream down this. Noted that 3rd Base was Closed... Decided on Loess Rider for a change, and had a great run down this, finding Steve at the bottom (having expected us about 15 minutes earlier (the time we'd spent yakking)). Nelson headed home to collect his DH bike (not wanting to ride anything interesting on his noodly whippet), and so the other three of us headed up the lift.
Into Yeah Gnar, good bomb down here, then Possum, pop pop pop. And into Handle the Jandal for a good floaty waft down all the jumps. At the bottom Nelson was still a wee ways away, so we headed in for coffee (tea etc) and when we'd done he'd arrived. The other two boys decided they were done, and headed home. Nelson and me took the lift. Into Summit Connector, lower GnarlyNun and it's fun rocks, then lower Nun, followed by Choirb, stopping at the now open 3rd Base. I checked out the squirrel catcher. Followed Nelson in and cleared it no problem, then the fun began Awesome trail, exactly my kind (tho I skipped on the harder features). Some pretty sketchy greasy spots in the steeps under darkness and wetness of the firs and eventually we made it out the bottom intact. Fun times.
Decided I was done, and needed to get home, so rode back to Nelson's car, and I continued on down the road and around the streets and riverbanks to my car on Buxton.
Quite a big ride, leaving me pretty toasted. total of 33.5 kms, with 1369 altitudinal descent. (minus the 2 uplifts giving me total 30kms ridden, and a naturally aspirated gain of 590m).
Into Yeah Gnar, good bomb down here, then Possum, pop pop pop. And into Handle the Jandal for a good floaty waft down all the jumps. At the bottom Nelson was still a wee ways away, so we headed in for coffee (tea etc) and when we'd done he'd arrived. The other two boys decided they were done, and headed home. Nelson and me took the lift. Into Summit Connector, lower GnarlyNun and it's fun rocks, then lower Nun, followed by Choirb, stopping at the now open 3rd Base. I checked out the squirrel catcher. Followed Nelson in and cleared it no problem, then the fun began Awesome trail, exactly my kind (tho I skipped on the harder features). Some pretty sketchy greasy spots in the steeps under darkness and wetness of the firs and eventually we made it out the bottom intact. Fun times.
Decided I was done, and needed to get home, so rode back to Nelson's car, and I continued on down the road and around the streets and riverbanks to my car on Buxton.
Quite a big ride, leaving me pretty toasted. total of 33.5 kms, with 1369 altitudinal descent. (minus the 2 uplifts giving me total 30kms ridden, and a naturally aspirated gain of 590m).
Friday, January 11, 2019
Three days, Three Rides, St James and Amuri
Spent 3 nights off the grid (hence no Map-my-...) at the St James Homestead. First was a short there and back with Jet, up to Peters Pass and back, at his pace, on the Homestead Run.
Second was a loop and a bit. Up the road towards Lake Tennyson, left up the Edwards and down to Peters Pass (where I'd ridden the day before), then I dropped down a steep technical horses track to the Edwards Valley and along a km or two, then turned around and headed back up the 4wd grunt climb, and back down to Peters and speed back to base. This ride was about 20 kms all told, with maybe 300 metres climbed?
Third was up and back on the Amuri/Hanmer Springs Ski Area road. Steep fucker. 1 hour 15 up, 13 minutes down. Wind was so strong I had to walk a few times to stay on the road. Descent was well fast. Around 7 kms each way, and around 660m climbed.
Monday, January 07, 2019
Monday Ride of 2 Halves Hanmer.
First off, out with Jet and O, up Conical Hill zig and zag. One grump said "you know it's not a riding track?" to which I replied, "yeah, but it's a good climb, and we're not abusing anyone".
Then into Eagle's Nest. Nice steep wee trail, with a few interesting features. Spotted a super tech line off to the left, which I'll look at next time. Across the walktrack into C-Line, which was even more tech. Steep tech corners, and on down onto Swoop for a blast out to the end. Next, up Timberline, steep bugger climb, but not too long, and up Red Rocks.
O was having enough of the climbing, so from the bottom we headed back around to the house and dropped him and Jet off.
Paul was back from his family ride, so joined me out for more. We headed across to and up Timberline, then up Jolliffe's, where the top difficult corner has a new line out further and back. Then, into the fun tight descent, good blat down this, across the bridge and up Big Foot. As usual, a good hefty climb, and a lot of heat, so we had a good rest at the top before hitting the DH, fun blast all the way down and back around into the forest and around and out the bottom. Next up, climb into Detox. Near the top we heard and saw a guy with fresh legs chasing us up. We kept our lead across the top and dropped him on the downhill. Then we headed straight into Mach 1 for the blast out to the end. More climbs, but less height in them, than my memory usually serves...
Finally, back across Camp Track into Western Link and back to the house. After this it was soaking time with the kids at the pool.
O was having enough of the climbing, so from the bottom we headed back around to the house and dropped him and Jet off.
Paul was back from his family ride, so joined me out for more. We headed across to and up Timberline, then up Jolliffe's, where the top difficult corner has a new line out further and back. Then, into the fun tight descent, good blat down this, across the bridge and up Big Foot. As usual, a good hefty climb, and a lot of heat, so we had a good rest at the top before hitting the DH, fun blast all the way down and back around into the forest and around and out the bottom. Next up, climb into Detox. Near the top we heard and saw a guy with fresh legs chasing us up. We kept our lead across the top and dropped him on the downhill. Then we headed straight into Mach 1 for the blast out to the end. More climbs, but less height in them, than my memory usually serves...
Finally, back across Camp Track into Western Link and back to the house. After this it was soaking time with the kids at the pool.
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Saturday Well Cooked Park Play
Met at Nelson's and we headed round to and up Merlewood Ave (the wrong way), across to Dyers, and on up. We intended to drop into the Sneaky 35 but discovered it's been stopped, finding a "Park privileges revoked" sign, so we bailed around to Shredzilla and bombed down that, me nearly losing it on the rocky section (cos Nelson was right in front of me and I couldn't see for the dust). Rest of the way down was sweet, bombing into the bottom as usual.
Up to the lift for uplift 1, and headed into Swinger's Party. Lots of fun, with me in the lead, cleaning it all up and enjoying it profusely. Then into Jandal, lovely floaty air all the way down.
Uplift number 2 and we headed across Summit into lower Gnarly dropping the rocks and the rest of Nun into ChoirOldDyers, with the intention of doing 3rd Base. For some reason it was closed, even tho we'd seen people coming out of it earlier on. Damnit. So, we decided on a Vic Park blat. Across the road and up the old way in to the 19th Memorial, then skidder, and into Spazza's, dropping down Sneaky Ridge - taking a couple of lines I'd not taken before. Dropped into Nu Bridges, then clambered up Hidden Valley, just about dying on the last reaches of climb, and out Old Skool for the finish. I was getting so exhausted by the bottom sections, Nelson was miles ahead.
Uplift number 2 and we headed across Summit into lower Gnarly dropping the rocks and the rest of Nun into ChoirOldDyers, with the intention of doing 3rd Base. For some reason it was closed, even tho we'd seen people coming out of it earlier on. Damnit. So, we decided on a Vic Park blat. Across the road and up the old way in to the 19th Memorial, then skidder, and into Spazza's, dropping down Sneaky Ridge - taking a couple of lines I'd not taken before. Dropped into Nu Bridges, then clambered up Hidden Valley, just about dying on the last reaches of climb, and out Old Skool for the finish. I was getting so exhausted by the bottom sections, Nelson was miles ahead.
25kms, 1200 climbed, of which 780 was assisted
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