One of my locals with Nelson tonight, from the Cashmere Canon.
Up the usual 19th Skidder grunter combo, through the Brakefreedom, Worm and onto the Traverse. Not bad around here, tho was struggling to start with on the first climby bits. Around we went, and just after the pond Nelson's pedal hit a rock, it skipped his bike very slightly sideways and then the gear he was in started to 'tick' on each revolution. It only did it in the one gear, so he wasn't too worried about it for the meantime. At the Lavaflow-top we stopped and he got to seeking it out. Took ages to find, but eventually found that somehow, one tooth had bent slightly outwards. So, strategically applied rock, hit with a bigger rock, and all fixed.
Into HuntsburyDH, both of us struggling with seeing what was coming and I felt like my bike was locked out. It was so rough and the jumps have all got weird-arse tops now, making them unpredictable, not to mention the ruts on the landings... Ugh. Over the bottom gap and into the landingstripzone, weave weave, getting more flow here, then bony as down into AliExpress. Dropping out into the newer section, sheepshit galore, then down down down, bony and rough. The lower off-camber switchbacks are getting rutted as fuck. Straight into the Old Skool, still feeling rough, and struggling with seeing - just not used to night riding yet. A few shadier spots were looking greasy. Across the back and forth pumpy section was starting to get pretty fatigued, and into the last shady rocky section towards the big hairpin closest to the houses care was taken in the greasy rocks. We stopped for a hand-rest just round this corner. Into the final, down, across, back and forth and out the bottom, into the climb back up the valley. Grind grind grind.
Up K2 to the 23footer and I said, "lets go up this fenceline." Push push push, ugh, steep as fuck. Part way up I said, "you ever seen that rock wall feature?" "Nope." So, parked the bikes against trees and proceeded up and across to check out the steep feature I'd found another time. It looked dodgy as hell, not as steep as I remembered, but damp red brick volcanic with moss and pineneedles. Decided it would be possible on a DH bike for a start, but maybe rideable on a normal bike, in good conditions. Wandered back to our bikes of which we could see Nelson's wee front light guiding us back. Big push onward upward, up up up to the track and gate. From here a steep(er than remembered) climb up eventually to the skidder site (ridden not that long ago by me). From here took the singletrack down to the road, then below and sneakily through Tawhairanui Track to the dogparkcarpark and I let Nelson lead into 235 where I crashed last week. Nice bomb through here, not crashing this time, and pop pop over the two jumps, then scuffing through the oaklands to the exit down the lower way. Onto the dirt track down to home.
Some weird and not necessarily wonderful ways, 11.23 kms with 491 m clambered
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