Week of late March, walking and fatbiking for Work

Wednesday 24th, took a Hilux and a few workmates up to the Ashburton Lakes and drove in the 4WD track past Lake Emily, onwards down to the Stour River, across this a few times upstream towards the Manuka Lake and just beyond to where we met fellow workmates already in there.  On into the Swin River area where we would work for the next few days.  Got a few rides on my Fatty in here.  Was rather good.  The views are spectacular.

From on the way up the hill... (toy truck below)

Popped up to the Double Hut.

View from hut...

Rode a bit from plot to plot, and around the place a bit.  We drove back out to Lake Clearwater each day (1.5 hours or so).  Second day on the job, checked out down this 4WD track to see if it was an easier way in for future.  Rode down but only mapped back up.  

3rd day, dropped fatty off, drove up, did this lots of walking ... then rode from there, back to the hut for the night..

This one was the last day, after the night at the hut, the boys took off in the truck and left me to bike from bird count to bird count, with a quick walk up hill to line 17, then down valley and walked out and back on line 14, and then 4WD'd down valley til I remembered to turn it off...

Saturday Batter-day, Vic Traverse Chunt Skool Vixxed

Yes. T'was a good'un.  Up from home through Vic, climbing well but still gasping for air.  Left up Worm then haul around the Traverse.  Let a fair few through.  

Chatted with a dude with a Vizler dog for ages at the top of Lavaflow.  Then I rode round and hit the Four Pause down, popping good jumps.  

Down the landingstrip section of trail and then peeled right and found my way into the Rocky Ridge route in.  Still havent quite found the entire thing, but got more this time.  Down, nearly hit the bigger jump up top, but didnt.  Then bypassed all the wooden features lower down, but ended up on the line into a big rock jump part way down.  Then finished on the final jump hit no problem, and left around up the new route we've found. 

A zig and a zag near the fence saw me still have to push the bike up the rocks i could have ridden round.  Up through the cattlestop and left across the paddock to the route we often take to the single track just below the rockyridge bit.  

Up around and over dropping down to Old Skool.  Down the steep rocky bluffy bits I came across a couple of girls looking at the big droppy descent.  I came in and baulked, it looks way more heinous than the past, big wheel eating hole n all.  The girl pointed out a side line, which I thought looked okay.  A joke or two made about how embarrassing it would be if I crashed it.  Rode it, with aplomb and they both cheered.  Onwards down I bombed swooping it down through the rocks and off camber switchies, then into the Old Skool proper, hearing the girls above as I dropped in.  Nice run through this, all the fun.  Bomb bomb, spotted someone way below, thinking I probably wouldn't catch them, bombed a bunch more around down and he pulled over for me in the lower switchbacks.  Out the finish and straight back into the climb up the valley.

Clamber clamber, dude on e bike motored past in the steepest bits.  Stopped for a change and rest and snack at Hospital Corner.  Then got riding up valley, through the gates, past the no bikes sign and the trail is tidy as, upgraded and easy.  Still steep but not struggly tech anymore.  Last bit is tho, then across the easy rolling front to the bottom of Brents (exit from Vic Park to Flow/Bridges etc).  In here, then up the skidder trail next to Brents.  Ugh, walked. Too steep.  Phonecall from dad then riding up the rest, past the 40, up up around to the skidder.  

Straight through, then down CAP this way hanging a right off that and out to 19th, down road, into funnest local, bomb swoop flow, then around, up, and fast down behind houses.  Home.  

Almost exactly 14 kms, with (surprise to me) 595 m climbed.  Not bad.

Wednesday Night Richmond Frog Pleasant Green Captain

Great ride tonight. Watched NZ win the America's Cup then jumped in the car and skedoodled around to Scumnervale to meet Nelson.  I had a plan that didn't involve going up Captain Thomas.

We headed down into Slumner-proper and around into Richmond Hill Road, riding up this grunter, and to punish us more, a headwind up the main ridge, me surprised at my ability to nearly keep up with him.  I didn't flag and we made it up to the top with no issues, stopping a couple of times to check out For Sale signs.  Dropped down the stormwater catchment reserve, and onto singletrack climbing into the valley and then upwards out of the valley towards Clifton Tce, then around and up the rooty trail no-longer under trees.  Quite exposed here, with the southerly ploughing across the Gethsemane Gardens.  Into the Frog Pond climb, both cleaning the entrance which I'm pretty sure we used to fail on (due to overhanging branches of the trees that aren't there anymore).  Good climb up the rest of it, up around and on up to the pine tree stile and then up the rest to the big pines.  Across into Sheep Shit Alley, climbing climbing, feeling good and strong the whole way.  

A break on the road at top of old Greenwood entrance, then off up the road and up Broadleaf Lane, into the gravel and still feeling good powering up this climb.  The hill work I did over the weekend, clambering for work on the Hawkdun Range, definitely benefitting me (since the pain of Tuesday had gone).

Wind singing in the tower guys, we hit the trail down.  Excellent blast, I was on Nelson's tail pretty much the entire way, following closely.  Surprised myself how well I held on, but once heading around towards Gloomy Gulch he lost me.  I just couldn't keep up, then I took a weird new high line before the boardwalk section, but stayed high too long and basically couldn't get down, having to dab down onto it.  Luckily he'd stopped around the corner and we had a break while watching a crew of 6 or so down the trail below.  Jumped on and got fanging, bombing the rocks, wafting the walls and dropped around into Dangerous Dave's squiggles, flying, and maintaining my tight-on-his tail position all the way down.  

Across the road and onto the Captain.  Another excellent blast down this.  Again, really holding on all the way down.  Wicked blast.

A moveable feast of 13.75 kms, with a veritable 561 m climbed.

Sunday with Oatie

A week off the riding, mainly due to weather and a field trip, which involved a couple of shortish walks in the Mackenzie country looking for critters...  

Sunday morning, finally O and me skudded out for a local spin. We headed up into Vic Park, wondering what event could be on given the number of cars parked all the way up the road.  Get to the gate and it's shut, road closed, "Gate stuck due to vandalism" sign on it.  Around and on up a nice quiet drive, up through past 19th, skidder and up the steep.  My breathing was big, tricky, troublesome, but I powered up and it was one of my best, least painful yet.  Up past Brake Free and up then across Worm and out of the trees onto the Traverse.

Good blast round here, only having to pull over a couple of times.  O was doing well all the way.  At the top of 4 Pause we pulled up and positioned ready for the descent. I dropped in, and bombed it.  Lots of fun, swoopy goodness, weaving and diving, jumping all the jumps, good flow.  O bypassed most jumps, just not quite confident on them yet.  Down the continuation next to the landing-strip then across through the cattlestop into the next section.  Stayed on the main singletrack down here, bypassed that first big jump, careened over the next one, through the next cattlegrate, weaving down under the pylons, skipping the wooden features, but jumping the rest.  At the bottom, I nearly launched the big finale, but hauled up at last second.  We had a good look and decided it wasn't so bad, so both went back up for another run at it.  O took it first, launched and no problems.  I followed, and I don't know what I've ever been worried about.  It really was nothing.  Will ride in future.

Back into the climb, chatting a bit with a South African (?) dude riding with his kid who'd watched us do the drop jump.  We left his kid behind so he turned back and O and me continued up the main drag.  Really didn't mind this climb either, except my lungs were feeling it.  Back onto the Traverse, and a great blast around this, all the way back and then decided to hit Upper Fenceline.  First steep after the fence/cattle grate got O, his brakes not quite up to the steep, but once back through the fence and on the trail proper he was all good.  Nice waft down through this and around into the trees and back across and then bypassed all the descending trails to ride back up out to the skidder.  

Climbed up over the 19th, down, around the road, and I dropped into the dog-park-car-park trail, railing and nailing it.  Awesomesauce.  Final climb back up and then the rapid descent behind the houses, launching the jump massively, and blazing down the final bits to the end.

The usual solid, 14 kms there and back, 485 m gained

Monday after working at home, I headed up about 4.45, walking with Jet, up through the dog park and on up through the skidder and up into the gums to finish off the log up there.  Wacked at it for a while and chipped my way through it, clearing the track.  Walked back down, a good pace with one or two bits of running, and back home by 5.45.  One hour, 4 kms, and a log finished.