Saturday Arvo Vic Park Meander

Nelson came over in the afternoon and we headed up into the Park. 

Up the road, seeing Sophie's parents and little bro walking up Vic, quick chat, then onwards up the road.  My route around the top of the 19th and over to the skidder, then up the grunter guts climb, to the top of Vic. 

 Across to the edge of the trees and dropped down to the top of the black and double black lines, looking down Cowabungaitis and wondering...  Decided tho on original plan, upper fenceline.  I was untrusting of the slick but Nelson bombed off down ahead.  Around and across, looked into Roam (which got very mucky below the massive log drop), and Flow Rider, but dropped into Cool Runnings, wafting down with a brief sessioning of one step-up feature.  Then down all the way into the gulley.  Climb out, this time through Cool Runnings towards Rad^Sick, which is steep but maybe not as steep as the other way I went last time I ground out of there.  

At the 40fter we headed across into Ponos, which was very sloppy in places, especially where there was water and muck on redrock, sliiiccckk as.  Out to the 23fter, back up the 4wd climb.  Zig and Zag around and up to Skidder, then up the grunter guts following a mum & daughter(?) who were walking faster than me, but the same speed as Nelson.  

Then it was around a 'new' access to Sesame St, dropping down this, pop pop pop, and out through skidsville down Vic and into the 235, ducking under the tree and not too greasy til the wet spot in the oaks.  Clamber back up to the road and upwards, lo and behold, there's Sophies folks and bro again walking down.  Lolz all round.  Into the descent behind the houses, a little sloppy in one section but the rest good.  Back home.

A pretty steep sub-8 km, with only 336 m climbed.

Tues Day Ride of All the Singletrack

One last day of TOIL to use up so stayed home of a Tuesday and got out for a nice long ride.  City had been under fog all morning, but by the time I left it'd burned off and a nor-west 'squal' was approaching across the sky.  That spat on me most of the way across the top til I was about below the Tors.

Up through Vic, grinding away up the guts and out Worm to Traverse across.  Catching a woman and passing her just before I got to the turn off for the 4pause/HuntsDH.  Popped off for a short blast down this, a pretty greasy section of track, but the jumps were good.  Took it down across and left down to the gate on Old Skool descent then ground my way back up to the top of Huntsbury.  

Into Vernon, occasional moments of weavy flow and a pretty relaxed attitude to the whole thing.  Bounced across Rapaki-top and straight into the Witch.  One dab but rolling-on, no stops.  Okay climb, not bad descent, nothing special.  Across the road and straight up onto the walking track single.  Techy this direction, slow and techy.  Stuffed up a few spots, fear of falling to the road below getting the better of my balance.  All done and onto the road to under-pass the Tors, treadling up to Castletop.  A roady was stopping and checking out his bike here, and it turned out to be an old colleague (now retired).  We had a good catch up, moseying a little down the road from where he pointed out his house to me.

Parted ways and I rode back up to the trail entrance, dropping into downhill mode and slowly increasing speed as I rolled, until I was travelling quite quickly, grooving and weaving, pumping and jiving, haring down the rocks and through the weave, tight around the hairpin, gaining speed again, back wheel flicking on slick rocks, next hairpin, roll roll, pop pop and..., climb.  Pushed it hard, stayed on top of the whole situation, negotiating rocks and roll.  Over, down again and round out to the road.  Peered into Lyttelton for a sec, then hit the climb back up to Castletop.

Walked up onto the climb to the Tor track, then rested with a snack in the sun before skiving off down the trail.  Rocks slick, tech-trickery, blitzy blitz, dab or three, and down across the road onto the singletrack walker, enjoying it this direction a bit better.  Lots of cleaned then into the Witch, better this way, and nearly rode up the road after Rapaki, then decided to do ALL the singletrack, and climb Vernon.  Pretty not bad.  

Back into the Traverse, all the way into Vic, picked up a bit of speed and into the jumps, over the seesaw, around the track closed, "why's the track closed, it's perfectly surfaced and dry,...  oh, right, oh well, all good after that, but out, down to rockgarden entry of Gums, and across and down my usual roots and routes.  All the way down, out 19th, down the road and into the 235 for a nice greasy spin.  The broken dead old tree that fell over the other week is still there so I broke a couple branches off it, thereby making it slightly easier to get under...  should take the hatchet up, I guess.  I was surprised no one else had broken any more off (one or two on the other side had been done).  Nice condition, grip-wise, lower down too.  Then leafy climb and up the road briefly again before the bomb behind the houses, which was stymied by a woman and two dogs, then fear of grease-city.

Well worth it, 21.4 kms, with 847 m climbed

Saturday Kai- Kowhai Kaiterau -koura

Up to Kaikoura for the weekend to Dave's 50th, so, got T to drop me at the Kowhai River Bridge.  

Hit the trail on the true left bank for the long cruisy uphill.  Singletrack, grade nothing, flowing ever forward, with enough little dips to be able to use a little body english on for a pumply addition of power.  Surface was a good gravelly chip, with additional leaf matter humous which could be greasy at times, tho never really lost anything.  If anything, I'd like some of the corners to be bermed a little more so you could carry speed through them more safely.  I had no idea how many kilometres were ahead of me, other than that it didn't look that many on the map.  Turned out (looking on MMR) that it was just under 7 kms to Postmans Rd, from where it was another 3, plus change, on gravel roads to the Mt Fyffe Carpark, with a bit of  a climb up in the last one.  

Then it was into the Kaiterau climbing trail...  Switchback City.  Nicely graded, relatively steep but lots of level(ish) bits, and plenty of wee boosty down-dips before the sweep-grind switchbacks.  Stopped a couple times, once to layer off, was getting hot, even tho it was quite cool.  I was expecting at least an hour, given it was 7 kms over 480m climbed, but pace was kept quite good on the climb and the total time elapsed climbing was only about 40 minutes.  Stopped to take in the wickedly cool view of Kaikoura Peninsula at the top of the track.  

Dropped into the 2.7 km descent, instantly getting plenty of speed for the flowy, occasionally quite jumpy, trail down.  This thing is gonna be amazing in 10 years time when the seedlings and ferns have re-invaded the sides and it's a beautifully formed ribbon of singletrack squirrelling down the hill.  A lot of fun, and all perfectly rideable.  The lower I got the greasier some sections were.  All too quickly it was over and I looked at my watch and only about 13 minutes had gone by.  What a blast.  

Then it was down the original Mt Fyffe track, which was not how I'd ever imagined it, and then through the (very full) carpark, and back down the road, some very good speed down here.  One wee climb then down down down, gravel roads for a little over 3 kms, 3 and a half on singletrack back down the river forest, MUCH faster and cruisier than on the way up, then about 6 kms on tar-seal to Daves place.  Much muckeriness to clean off the bike...  gave it a good hose down, then took myself to the motel and got cleaned up for the party.

A long slowly climbing then slowly descending ride, with a good peak in the middle, over a smidge under 30 kms, and 580 m climbed 

Saturday Sylvanian Mucking Fess

Left Chch at 5.45 am, and were in Nelson about 10.15am, unpacked at FlameDaisy and I drove around to Richmond and parked up the bottom of Sylvan Forest, a cloudy, misty day, not yet raining, but certainly headed that way.  Also, noted that it's 2 years since I'd last ridden up in Nelson!

Rode in and started on Alpha Tahi, climbing, proceeding up Tahi, Rua, Toru, Wha, good ziggy zaggy ascent in forest, mostly dry, some damp spots but still quite a few dry spots.  Once or twice heard people somewhere nearby but pretty much on my own.  Passed one woman walking with her small kid on his bike, down on Tahi or Rua...  Out of the forest into the cleared zone, now planted in manuka/kanuka by the looks of it, even with pines/firs poisoned, and finished off up all the way up top of Rima, completely entrenched in mist up here.  

At the top there was the option of Jericho (black, dh) or People's Choice, which I chose.  Upper section, some tech, some tech because it was wet, but nothing major.  A bit of exposure, you wouldn't wanna fall off the edge cos it's pretty steep up here, but the trail was fun, back and forth, crossed a couple of access road/tracks.  Considered detouring to Ezra Mamaku, but consulted the Trailforks website (app useless) and stayed on People's all the way down to Jacob's Ladder which took me across back to a corner on Alpha.  Crossed into the lower half of Ari Mahoe, nice fang down here, nearly losing it on one front-wheel-wash just keeping it together and buttoning back on my gnar after that, finishingdown at a 'hub' zone.  

Headed back up Alpha, through the trees, then out, climbing to the top of Ezra Mamaku where I dropped down fun blitzy and peeled briefly onto the upper bit of  Ari Mahoe, then back onto Ezra all the way down to Heaven Up Here, across a little then dropping into Kircam Alley out to the 'hub' of before, rain actually falling now, making the bottom pump section fo Kircam a fucking mess, gumming up the tires with clay.  Dropped over the edge into Hare Down, nice waft and faff down this, where I hung a bit of a right and across into Omega which had wet gouged slippery clay corners and speed was carefully positioned to survive the final strokes.  Rolled out to the car, messy as hell, bike pretty dirty, and rain fall increasing...  

Mucking fessy 10.5 kms, with 573 m climbed. 

Thursday Night Ride of Two Bikes. *post number 1200

Having rebuilt the Cotic BFe last weekend, into a singlespeed based on the wheels and drivetrain of the Switchback that had been at the bach, I decided to give it a whirl. A specacular bruiser cruiser of a bike, with the Surly Sunrise bars and sweet sweet Reynolds 853.

I ground my way up the hill, using all three gears (sitting, standing and walking) to the top of Vic.  The road from home wasn't too bad, once I got my rhythm gasping for air timed with the the standing and cranking of the bars and pedals, and even got my breath back and got to sit down once up on the flatter sections.  Good rolling over into the skidder site, and I tried, I really tried to get going up the grunter but it is just too damned steep.  Got off and walked for a bit, rode once up then walked up the steep next to BrakeFree, and rode a bit and walked a bit to the top of  Thompson's number 1.  First chance at descending, let a bit of air out of the tires, then hit the down.  Nice mellow cruise, then grunt round the corner and walked the 2nd hairpin.  Up the road, dropped over into the top and down around towards the jump, but sidled past and down past the seesaw down the rabbit paddock and into the rockgarden.  This was sweet, picked a nice smooth line between the rocks and across past my hatchet job, dropping around and into my gummie's favourite, then all the way down and out to the 19th.  Down the road from here and into the 2-35.  Sconed my head battery on the leaning dead-tree in here, then had a sweet run, lots of traction, down til the oaks, where it was soggy as.  Across, pushed up to road, down home where I swapped bikes and checked in with Nelson who was Hour of Paining with Craig.  They'd just finished and he was rinsed, therefore bailing.

Second round, on the Fatty.  Up the track, up the road, repeat of the previous except for a detour up around top of 19th and over, then actually riding the grunter up from skidder.  Thompsons again, back up road, same way around down to Rockgarden entrance to Gums, out the bottom of this to the Skidder, and down the road, dropping below onto the trail below 19th, taking this down around to Tawhairanui walk track then into 235, meeting a Graveller who confirmed it was a no good climb in the wet.  Walked under the tree, then got rolling, taking a better line through the oaks, and dropping down to H.Ell track and tucking into the one that links back up to the road.  Down the dirt again, and down to Takahe to meet T, and roll back up home with her and Jet. 

All up, and down, 11.5 kms, with 400m climbed.