Monday Night, Worsley Nun Kennedys Croc.

last night turned out to be the only opportunity i'd have to ride during the week, so Chris came over and we drove out to Halswell. Parked up by the Quarry entrance, and cycled round Cashmere Rd, and into Happy Home Rd, exploring. found a park at the end with a blast of a down path, into a cul-de-sac, hung a left and dived onto the Cashmere Stream Esplanade Reserve, along, crossing Penruddock, and back into it, staying on the true-right, twisting and squirrelling through the tightly knit trees, finally out into the newly landscaped flood easements alongside the brandspanking slob-burbs that've sprung up in the last couple years. crawled our way up to the 'dam' and then into a new (to me) singletrack that grunted (and made me walk) up to the singletrack in that worsley valley park. grunted and chuffed up that then up the zig zags failing some, and cleaning a couple, and finally onto Worsley's Rd. legs tired from yesterdays blast i was a bit slow on all the ups.

once on Worsley's dirt, about 100m below the overhead wires i noticed my back wheel getting squishy... stopped to patch it (as i'd given Pete my only tube sunday), and drizzle started, lightly... got riding again, and felt a bit better, cleaning everything, including, surprisingly, the body bag. Chris had no trouble either.

Chuffed up to top of Marley's and seats down a bit and Chris put on his knee/shin pads and off we blasted. Chris immediately put a gap on me, and i struggled to keep control on some sections, just slightly off form due to low(ish) light and lack of ooomph in my legs. now and then i'd hear his noisy hub bzzzzing below me, and i felt like i was being left for dead. yumped a few yumps and railed the odd corner, but also faltered and baulked bits i never usually do. still, blasted out the bottom half and Chris said i was only like 20 seconds behind him (which isnt that bad i guess).

seats back up, and up the road. stayed in big ring and 3rd down all the way up, my new favourite cruising-climbing-slightly-too-tall gear, then towards Kennedys, via a nice poach..., then over the fence and rode along the freshly mown grass (and gorse that will dry for punctures) sapping our power up to the stile, over and down.

light drizzle messed with Chris's glasses, so i blasted off down ahead, juddering down to the first gate. over the gate and down between the pines (which SHOULD have sweet sidling switchbacky singletrack laced through them) and grabbing the 'highline' over and then down the final blast, absolutely flying down the single ribbon of hard packed clay, 60kph at least, bringing back memories of the old days. whooping at the gate, over and onto 'siberia'. climbing up and over and hitting what-ever-its-called down towards the top of the Croc. nice cruise down here, not pushing it too hard but not letting up either, then a final hard out blast down Crocodile. again, i was still not quite on form, but still enjoyed. struggled up, but cleaned, the uppy bit, then it was juuust getting a bit dim in the trees to really let rip. once out of the trees, we followed the bike trail all the way down through all the new rocks and terribly cambered teddington to the carpark, then round the road to the car. done by 9.

Sunday a.m. chuntsbury to sumner and all in between

met at Steve's. andrew tony wayne warren steve me then pete. toodled up huntsbury meeting marie at the top. my climbing seemed nearly effortless, in a taller gear than i've been shunting of late, so that was cool. Marie had Mark on the phone, so had a wee chat to him.

crossed road and hit vernon singletrack. sweet ride down to rapaki, blazingly good in fact. pete had a wee off, but other than that i think all were in tact. then witch hill wasnt too bad and up road to Castlerock.

great descent to bridle, i felt totally on form. pinning the whole way. then round the road, cruising, onto john britten where my balance got wonky but wasnt too bad a jaunt.

next, to Greenwood. more fun to ensue. bit of a regroup part way in and off we flew. kept my gap on Pete, flowed and grooved round into gloomy gulch and pulled up just before next descent, looked back and was like, huh, where is everyone..? waited, waited, waited and then the silhouettes appeared on the ridge. turned out Tony'd had a wee off. started again, fanging it, roosting and ploughing through, cleaning it all.

regroup, it was 11.35 so decided against doing godley and missing coffee, so sidled off down Capt Thomas. kept it pretty real coming down here, but got to my one nemesis and i stalled, allowing pet to get past me, so i chased him from here the rest of the way down, him pushing it nice and hard. we put a massive lead on the others, fair ripping down the hill. was great. the group re-formed slowly and then we Dot Commed it. then 12.40 hit the road, me peeling at ferrymead and then totally bonking on linwood ave. struggled the last couple kms home utterly wiped, coldsweating nearly. ugh.

Hamner here we come this weekend.

Sunday into the fog, worsle nun-chucks victory.

excellent ride i've just gotten home from.
was supposed to be meeting LeonH off vorb, from oz, and his mates, round at Tony's but they werent ready in time. so hopefully they've found themselves a good ride anyway. and they'll probably hook up with Nelson for a Wharfdale adventure during the week. anywhoo - Rex, Wayne, Tony, Steve and myself all left Tony's and before the bottom of Worsley's Rex Tony and me waited for Tim and Mark, the Mountain Vikers. They provided a good pace up the hill and we caught Steve and Wayne at the top of the seal. hit the dirt, impressing these two from auckland with whats on our doorsteps. no views tho, fog was thick, drifting across, dripping trees, but otherwise dry. amazingly i managed to clean the bodybag, all the way, even on the too many whisky's last night.

blitzing into the nun, still no view, the fog made for slightly less speed, but i had an excellent descent, grabbing a fair few of the jumps, a few regroups, and we all made it out to the kiwi. the mountainvikers loving the trails. then blatted down Old Dyers, careening down the narrow rutty section, again, Tim whooping and hollering. views just starting to show up...

steve made contact with Marie before we climbed up into vic park, and she rode and met us at the skidder site, then we explored Dazza's, Brent's, Flow, Bridges (lovin' the highline again), cleaned up hidden valley, and blazed the old skool bowenvale descent to the end. all good. my bike felt good, riding was roosty and on form. good ride all round i think, and we impressed Tim and Mark with our lovely lovely trails.

sharing our trails with out of towners made me appreciate them for what they are, which is some pretty damned cool trails.

2'sday night Thomas Godley and sons.

good bomb tonight. picked up pete at 6 and we met t'others at scumner. arriving first were Andrew and Warren, then Steve in the tfc van with Tony, (abba)Steve and Marie on board. we set off up Captain Thomas. was a good ride up, cleaning lots, blowing out on the usual few bits. feelin' good.

hit godley, still feelin' good, tho one or two weird balancey issues, but mostly pretty good. excelent blaze through some stuff. explored the new section that peels off on way down to Livingston Col. doesnt amount to much so we tootled back off it and on down the usual way. nice climb up over to Breeze with the grass not quite narrowing the trail as much as last week. from breeze we rode the 'sweet' track out to the end. my steering started getting a bit stiff, and some crunchiness ensued... need a bit of grease in the headset, not good. luckily i've got a spare one sitting on the shelf. then back round to breeze on the trail below the road, i had a fantastic spin round there (putting massive gap behind me), then along came Steve and Tony... hmmm, "where's Pete or Andy?" Andy had a flat. then pete showed up with a leak on his knee.

then off down the snake. i put some speed in and kept a nice lead with a bit of creep and a bit of gain on pete's following me. he offed right at the bottom. then a great wee flow down the 'tail and then the slog over the hill back. good blast for all of us. home round 9. not too bad going.

and another two! Wednesday Richmond Greenwood Godley Conda. + bottle ache tagalong fri

phew! four(?) rides in one week!!!
Nelson and Chris assembled themselves at mine and we Bongo'd out to Slumner, parking on Richmond Hill Rd. rode fast up there, its a steep little bastard, then hung a right down to the singletrack that wends its way into the valley and up to Clifton Hill Rd, staying on singletrack up under the trees, the other two had a good time but i flaked out several times on the wet roots. then up through the tussocky paddocks to the big trees, then up road to Greenwood.

Headed into the trail and not far along i went ping on a rock and crack! then tunk tunk tunk... broken spoke. rode the rest of the way round to the road crossing meeting up with the boys, where we played with it. i unscrewed one end, but the other was down in the depths behind the cassette. ended up electrical taping it to stop it messing with the gears. also tighened up a few neighbouring spokes truing it up as best i could.

fanged it from here, me sitting on Chris's tail at the start then they just left me for dead. tired i was two nights riding in a row. pounded down the rest of the trail, regrouping at the bottom. i did manage to gain a little on them tho, so thats something.

tightened my headset at Evans, then off up Godley, up the first bit, Chris getting a fair way up, and nelson basically cleaning it then dabbing right at the top, AFTER the tricky bit. again, they left me for dead, me barely keeping them in sight, regrouping at the airstrip, then bombing the descent to Livingston, again, me making up some lost ground, but still not catching them. over to Breeze, the descent being very difficult with all the long grass.

And tha anaconda... chris and nelson jostling for the lead, chris grabbing it with nelson pushing him hard and me just tootling along behind tho having a good time. out the snake, and then the slog over to slumnah.


then Friday night, took O out to Bottle Ache with the singlespeed and tagalong and we spun round in good time. almost the most rides in one month evah!

Guerillas in the mist

we assembled at Steves, Steve(Abba), Pete, Tony, Warren, Marie, myself and Steve. tootled round to and up Chuntsbury, nice spin up there, into the mist. cloud, ripping across the hills, dampness beading on our clothes. not cold, just interesting and eery. groovy. hit the summit trail, nice tail wind, chasing a group of 5 others, caught them and stayed on them til the Sugarloaf signpost where they stopped, Pete and me continuing on having a great blast round to Vic Park. regrouped and headed down through the trees, hit up the old gummies, with the rockgarden at their start catching a couple of the players out, regrouping at the skidder site, Steve wandered off to make a 5lb deposit, and we lost Marie here. sweet wee bomb down Dazza's followed, then Brents, on round Flow etc, highline to drop and regroup for Hidden Valley. cleaned it all up to Old Skool, and fanged it on down and out. sweet spin, felt good, best form i've had in a while, with some sweet control.

L.Ak, Saturday View Hillage into the fog

6 glorious days at little akaloa. got a ride in, the usual, up to chorlton, up view hill rd, through the gate, on up to the weathertop, in the clouds from about 500m altitude, bit of a gale southerly blowing across the top. was with Daryl, a guy i know who happened to be camping in the Domain. he's fit as, had me chuffin' hard up the road talking between gasps, and then he was middle ringing it up the concreted steep bastard leaving me behind to nearly puke up my lunch, twice... once above that tho, i did a little better, and then due to him being on a rigid old kona and having a gammy wrist, i was lots quicker on the down, until the gravel, when he surpassed my sketchiness. a good bomb down.

Dreary Sunday cloudscaped hillage.

a good wee group of boys, wayne andy pete steve and me, assembled at Steve's for a jaunt. we hit up Huntsbury to climb into the clouds. first ride of the year as a group again. trail up hunts was damp but not soggy, but at the summit road we turned left, and stayed off vernon single, bombed down road to top of rapaki, and continued round below Witch hill, again off the singletrack, even tho it was probably reasonably rideable with little impact. the cloud was at about rapaki summit level, so we were in it right round to Castle Rock. wasnt your usual damp cloud, was kinda dry really. At Castle Rock, we had a look at the singletrack and decided it was dry enough to ride. rode it, had a blast. skittery skattery on the damp rocks, but the dirt was just damp, not sticky or soggy at all. there were about 3 wet spots / puddles on the whole track, in all the usual places (ie, at about 20 m in, then a puddle between the two switchbacks, then on the way up out after the wee wooden bridge after the 2nd switchback). sheltered out of the wind waiting for the others and then we hit Bridle Path. been a long time since i've descended it, and for good reason, its basically a waste of altitude. but, blasted down, pulsing the brakes in a futile attempt at keeping them cooler. several of us tarnishing our rear rotors. up onto the Morgan's Valley track, and rode under the Gondola, turning left at the [no bikes] sign, great wee blast down next to the pine trees, then instead of dropping down through sheep to the play-centre and gunclub, we stayed above the planted shelter (wattles and a few natives)ending up at the bottom corner of a paddock (nice light brown horse looking down the fenceline at us), with an empty section between us and Morgans Valley Rd. quick bale across it and down we rolled, then down to Ferrymead, round the Heathcote to Tunnel Rd Bridge, then back down Heathcote, tow path round behind all the industria, checking out Ground Effect's new premises then to WAC for a (very good) coffee and bickies/sausage rolls as appropriate. the others headed back to vehicles at Steve's, i split down Linwood Ave home.

Wednesday's Ache of that Bottle .

chris turned up at mine before 6 and we pedalled whatever singletrack respites in the urban fray we could find, river, Banks Ave, Kingsley, the edge of Horseshoe to suburbia followed roundabouts and more suburbia til we hit the Sandpit...
legs, severely lacking oomph after lastnight's ride, aching and burning and majorly lacking power on the ups.
bottle lake... a spin round our nth favourite municipal pine plantation (there are how many(?) better ones elsewhere...). felt like forever since i'd treadled my carcass round there, saving it in recent years for those winter singlespeed outings...
geared, and worn out, i'm really not so sure.
in so many respects, is it not boring, painful, and annoying? but then i guess perhaps there's a certain fondness for the poor deluded, denuded land. its bumps, its hollows, its gravel, its trees, its sections of sand. and the memories! how many years have i ridden those ribbons of trail? the where's, why's and wherefore's the trail has squirrelled over the years. we're lucky, aren't we, us punters of the ccc, to have that place. uh huh? hah, damned sight better than sitting in front of the tv i spose.
the thing thats lacking, though, at bottle lake, is the reward. you do all that pedalling but there's no real reward, no nice long flowing trail, winding its way down around the contours, allowing you to rest your climbing muscles and finally use your holding-on-steering, -leaning and -braking muscles. you put all that effort in and all you've managed is a few metres of altitude occasionally followed by a brief squirt of down. no true gain to extinguish with braking.
if christchurch.inc could get its shit together to have the equivalent of bottle lake's trail infrastructure (and SO MUCH more) applied to (say...) the McVicar Block, fuck it'd rock! a network of well built weather-proof hilled pine and fir plantation singletrack trail added to the great (but complaining) network that's already on the hills. take the pressure off the existing trails by having so many options. whakarewarewa of the south... if only, eh?

Tuesday, Muntsbury Slummit Nun Scummit Lavaflowage

sweet ride tonight.
cruised to Chris's, and we headed across town towards the hills. after all the rain last night and this morning, and with the singletrack statuses at Avoid, we figured we'd ride up and see what was up, ride the road and down Worsley's if trails were too wet. Chris had a chain issue, which we stopped to fix (splicing into a SRAM chain a link of Shimano chain) before the dirt, then we chuffed it to the summit road.

on the way up Huntsbury, it was evident that there wasnt gonna be much to worry about. earlier in the day i'd checked several weather stations (Westmorland 7mm, St Albans 10mm, Airport 9mm)) and it is amazing how ~10mm of rain can be run straight off dry hills as well as be evaporated by an afternoon of sunshine and strong winds. lots of other riders around, and you could see that the Traverse was dry as, so he hit it. trail was fine. there were one or two puddles, but no softness at all. good chase ensued with a group of other riders, and we continued on when they stopped at the sign below Sugarloaf. and we blasted the rest of the way round to Vic. bit wet under the trees, but Thomson's was fine and we blazed down its two sections to the Kiwi.

Figured we'd give Marley's a look, and if it didnt look good, head on down Worsley. on the way up we caught up with two guys who'd just ridden down it, and their bikes were cleaner than ours(!), and they said it was dry as. they carried on to head down Kennedy's and we hung a right up top of Marley's. For a change, i led off, hitting it as hard as i could, and i think i did okay. chris was on my tail the whole way tho. then i bailed at the carpark thinking we'd head down Worsles, but Chris talked me round, and we carried on down the 'Nun. good blast down there too.

then up road to top of Vic, and hit the summit trail back round, bumping into a couple of old mates, then on round and down Lava Flow... i had trepidations, but i cleaned a bunch of bits i didnt the first time and enjoyed others. one tumble bail, and down near the bottom i dropped a wheel into a stinky sloppy hole, impaling my thigh on my seatclamp lever... carried on, really getting the hang of this trail. then we blasted down the valley, not taking Hidden Valley up to Oldskool, on account that the dirt up there wouldnt have liked our attention...

Bottom of the trail Chris's chain issue occurred again, this time two links. then, round the river, he did a silly jump over a puddle pinch flatting on the gutter. so. without mechanicals, we'd have been half an hour quicker... no matter. good ride anyway, and i'm over my dumb fear of the Lava Flow...

Friday Night, Wharfdale in the wet

glorious ride last night. Chris and me drove out through downpouring rain along the Tram Rd to meet up with Nelson and the Rally Bongo, within which we plied the byways and fords and sideways drifting of the road to Wharfdale. parked up, couple of hunters just heading in, and another bike car parked up, low cloud, bit of drizzle in the air, and i'd left my helmet at home! luckily, Nelson's street one was in the van, and it fits me! yay..

trail was reasonably wet, with a small flow of water along it, but otherwise not too bad. we had a good spin in, enjoying the slippery roots and eye-splecking goodness of the dripping bush. played a bit of a game at the suggestion of Nelson, where, whoever was in the lead, if they baulked or screwed up, dabbed basically, they went to the back and the next guy got the lead til they fucked up too. sometimes you'd hold the lead for ages, sometimes you'd hold it for 10 metres. was good, and gave all of us a chance to lead. the other rule was, if the leader had baulked, the other two didnt have to clean the section either, tho sometimes we did. anyway, that kept it interesting, altho it was excellently interesting anyway. no one had any offs, and we made the saddle in damned good time.

hail started falling on the approach to the saddle. brrr... bit of a munch at the saddle and we layered up in the few extra bits we had (ie, not enough), and got moving asap. nice flow down for a while, each having their time in the spotlight. fingers slowly numbing. funny, i felt like i was cleaning stuff i'd never have cleaned in the past, and Nelson reckoned it was cos we just wanted to hold onto the lead...

eventually, ran into the hunters again, nelson in the lead and his brakes squawking letting them know he was coming. Chris had a clickity mystery shifting chain, so we caught up to Nelsie, pulled up and he repaired the culprit, a slightly botched job from his repair in the BrakeFree zone the other night. whilst standing there, the rain suddenly got heavier, downpouring and wind shaking more out of the canopies. then we heard voices and a couple of other mad bastard bikers showed up. then two more. (obviously the owners of the other bikecar at the trailhead), they'd been down to the hut and back. their tailender (a certain (ex?) local dmr distributor...) fell off when he got to us, and stayed clipped in as he stumbled over the bank. offered help and a laugh, but he righted himself okay and got going. i led off chasing him and his mate, and keeping them in sight for a long while, thinking i could have gone faster, but didnt need to as they were clipping a pretty good pace anyway. then i baulked on something, so chris took the lead, but cos he couldnt see for shit, nelson stealth passed him and dropped us. i followed the blind Chris til i made it past him somewhere around the bridges and then it was the last climb and then the drifty flat tack eyesplecking good time descent to the cars... wicked.

friendly other bikers musta felt sorry for us not having any dry gear as they all changed into theirs, so handed over a beer each, which was nearly warm compared to our frozen selves. rally bongoed ahead of them leaving the gates for them to shut. no stock anywhere, so no worries...

All up an awesome time. wet, rooty, cold, just as you can expect on the Wharfie. i reckon 70 % of the times i've ridden it its been at least drizzling if not wetter.

Tuesday evening, OldSkool, HiddenValley, K2, OldDyers, Marleys return.

Back to town.

Picked up Chris around 6 i guess, parked up in Bowenvale Ave. we rode up Old Skool, cleaning it all, gruntingly, of course. then took the Hidden Valley track down for the first time (since its reestablishment), fun little bomb with no big surprises. into Vic...

Grunted up K2, nasty nasty little steep bastard of a climb that it is. got the better of me, but Chris made it after an early dis- and re-mount. removing shirts due to heat. cleaned up the rest of the old Nats track up under the pylon then to bottom of Dazza's. decided against continuing up K2 and took the zig and zag out to the left (looking up) instead. arriving at the skidder site we took the wee singletrack down and round out to gate, across road and bombed down down down to Dyers, across and onto the Old Dyers. hoofed it up here, re-donning shirts half way up, and then on up to kiwi, huffing and chuffing. up road into a bit of scudding cloud, and much cooler climes, to top of Marleys.

Excellent blast down the 'nun, me on Chris's tail all the way til the rocky piss-me-off everytime corner half(ish) way down, then i slowly reeled him in in the lower reaches back to the kiwi. loving the new bash/tensioner setup with NO chain loss in any of the rough stuff, and hauling ass with good measure.

Chris re-watered, then up road to top of Vic. chatted for a long time with a couple guys up there, then dropped straight into descent, chris riding seesaw and me chickening out at the last second. brake-free'd yumpity yump then Chris's chain snapped. managed to find the two parts of his quicklink, removed the twist, reassembled and off down Sesame St we shot. i got majorly bailed up on a wee drop just after the wall-ride. gave me quite a fright, lost a foot out, but somehow held it together, and off down Dazza's we shot, then across Pono's, down Old Nats, 23footer section, off camber, doubledrop/washout, and back into Hidden Valley, up up up, and screamed down Old Skool. feeling pumped and amped at the bottom.

L. Ak Meanderings to Menzies.

glorious weather, headed up the Decanter Bay Rd, steep wee grovel in places, but not too high (just under 200m), then good gravel bomb down to Decanter, then up road towards Menzies Bay, pulling off to let a sheep truck down, then onwards, forgetting how far it was, peaking at [airstrip] about 260m and careening down towards Menzies Bay. Didnt bother going all the way down, stopping in the pines (around 10km mark), taking in the view, and heading back up. weather was looking threatening on the tops the whole ride, with a few spots of rain getting me but nothing to dampen the dust.

then turned around and rode all the way back, meeting the sheep truck again just as it was pulling up into Rehutai (by the airstrip). nice bomb all the way down and round back to Decanter, then the clamber back out of there and fast sealed descent back into Little Ak. all up 20 kms, total of 750m of climbing and the same descending.

New Years Eve Eve, Banks Pen: Mt Pearce, View Hill.

Holidayed at Little Akaloa from Boxing Day til yesterday. Took my bits and pieces over and replaced entire drivetrain, cassette, chain, derailleurs, cables, shifters, middle ring (new 36t), and new bashguard and tensioner...

30th December, 2009, me Sis and partner were heading to Akaroa in our car, so i grabbed a lift to the top of the hill with them (saving me a 45 minute granny-grovel). from summit rd (540m), i headed up track to top of Mt Pearce (737m). a few gates, a few steeps, with great views, and a nice cool southerly blowing across the tops. turned around and bombed it back down to summit road.

then tootled around Summit Rd towards Okains, peeling off below Duvauchelle Peak, hitting the ridge (571) to View Hill. across the ridge, walking bits and pieces upto the sidle round to the paper road, and on up the zigs to the very top (762m). helluva gale up there, but views extraordinaire. looked at watch: 12.00. and headed down. down, off piste a bit, then onto the paper road officialis, bombed, shook, shuddered, hoofed, huffed, pushed by wind up bits normally pedalled, bombed (again), hooned, full noise down the last gravel, onto the seal at Chorlton, then back round into the wind for the descent into the bay, pedalling to keep the speed up into the wind, then awesome speed down to church and on down past beach, up road, up drive to house, 12.15... choice, nearly 800m altitude, 8kms (4kms and more than 500m alt. of which was off road), 15mins...

Xmas Eve blat, Rapaki to Slumner

great ride today with Chris. got away from mine about 2, tootled across to the 'paki, and up. heat was pounding down on us, and we kept up a good cadence but both wilted, so a quick break under the manuka tree part way up, then onwards to the top. feeling like i was dying in the heat and the climb.

hit Witch hill, and i really struggled, fumbling on every rock and gasping for air, richochet'd my way back down to the road, and then round and up to Castlerock. bit of a breather there too, awaiting the mustard Simple rider guy (again), and then we headed off down. bit of cross wind down here, and Chris was off form, with me catching him, letting him out, catching again. on the climb he got away from me again. round road to Britten

Doing better on round the britten, and then onto Greenwood. lawns mowed, so slippery dry grass all over the trail. the wideness cleared made the trail seem less rutty, but the occasional loss of front wheel traction added to the excitement. at times it was almost like it was wet. bit of a break mid way and then back onto it. feeling a bit more on form lower down.

crossed the road and hit the Thomas. i was finally feeling like i was getting it again, whereas Chris was baulking on heaps of spots, so i took the lead. usual couple of bits caught me out, but cleaned the other usuals nicely. great blast lower down, bumping into Helmark on his way up and having a good old yarn. on down, hitting the road for the long slog home. at least there was a tail wind most of the way.

Sunny sunday, Sumner to Evans to Taylors to Sumner again.

nice ride this morning. picked up Pete and we drove out towards scumner. passed the boys (Steve, Tony, Abba and Wazza) on the causeway, so parked up just into redcliffs and then chased them round to DotCom where Andrew and Wahayno were parked. headed up the Thomarse, me cleaning more than usual, including right to the steps at the start, all of the rooty section before the bridge (in the gulch), and nearly getting that little steep before the seat. then walked up the three or four other usuals, and all in all didnt feel that bad. we all grabbed shade whenever we could, the sun was beating.

At Evans, sheltered in shade of the bank and shot the shit til all regrouped, Abba bailing out here on account of knackeredness, then the rest of us hit Godley. i got miles up the first section, and one more pedal stroke would have had it, but i didnt. one of my best efforts yet. pete also was on form here and did about as good as me. then nice breezy flow round up and down, up and round and down. some of the party took the new right hander on the way down to Livingston Col, which isnt finished and they took the fall line straight down to us. grass is long round to Breeze, keeping you on your toes.

i led off into the 'conda. taking it pretty easy to start, flowed nicely, round and then opened it up a bit. i could feel Andrew on my tail most of the way, he seems to be on form at the moment, but i still got some distance on him, with him commenting "dunno how you can do that so fast on a hardtail" or words to that effect. stopped at beginning of 'tail and took in the lovely view. also there were lots of summery peeps on the beach, and the water was black with surfers. nice wee blast down the tail to Taylors, another regroup and water taken on and then the slog begun. i pushed reasonably hard up the hill today, cos i just wanted the climb done. caught some shade til everyone else got up and then off down Nicholson park with steve getting a close call with a car on the lane above the cliffs. meandered round waterfront watching the longboarders and enjoying the sun, then coffee time at the 'Com. then zoomed back to car and were home by 12.15.

planning to ride tonight the Packhorse with Nelson and others tonight, but this storm's come through, so we'll see i guess...

:update: hooked up with Nelson and Craig (with Bergamont!) and we drove through rain to Gebbies, then proceeded to sit in the van for over an hour chatting, then finally giving up. it absolutely pissed down, so even after it'd lightened up a bit, the trail would have been bloody wet.

desperate ploy at post count increase

didnt ride, but the PFMTBC groovers assembled at Pomeroys for a beer or 4 on Tuesday night. most brought their girls, tho i couldnt. even Nelsie showed with Trudes. and Chris joined in the fun too.

there, one more towards my 75 posts for the year...

Sunday evening, Worstleys nun traverse (first time)-lava hidden oldskool

good loop with Chris and Nelson last night. in the bongo, nelson and me picked up Chris from centre of town and we parked up in Wherstead Rd. hit Earnsley Reserve and round to Worsleys. i struggled with the hill, suffering from a bad case of previous-evening's-overindulgence. but made it to the top eventually, walking the last 20 metres or so of the 'bag.

surprisingly good blast down the 'nun, catching good air, tho the other two were pinning it all the way and by the time i got to the road, they were way way ahead. up summit road to top of vic, and hit the traverse. my struggling continued, with me dabbing(!!!) on a couple of bits, and running out of grunt on a couple of the wee climbs... appalling!

what was amazing tho, was when we stopped at the Sugarloaf stop, the way the sun came through under the norwest arch and lit up the city like it was some crazy religious icon chosen city, surreal dark clouds all round the background and this pure slightly yellowed white light blazing down on the 'chosen' place. the sun crept slightly further down, then encompassing our trail ahead (with just the shadow of Sugarloaf covering a little bit). fucking lovely.

got to top of Lavaflow and descent began. my first time ever, amazingly. cleaned lots, but had to walk a couple of wee bits just cos i wasnt feeling on form enough. quite enjoyed lots of it. nelson had one step-off-over-the-bars moment, but other than that we all survived out to the bottom and down valley. then we hit the Hidden valley track up to oldskool. excellent hammer down there and back to the bongo all of us craving some Angus...

Sunday, a valley, traverse, gums, dazza's, nats, hidden, oldskool

good blast this morning. Pete, Andrew and me met at Steves. the four of us headed off.
because Rapaki is so dull now, we decided we're boycotting it (couldnt remember when last rode it, so checked - was back in August). so, we ventured into a "here-there-be-dragons" zone between two well known tracks. nice steep techy climb, lots of dabs, lots of walking, lots of pedal shoving rut-sides, and lots of keeping good relations with the few walkers and runners we met. none seemed bothered at all by our presence. upon meeting back up with one of the aforementioned well known tracks, we stayed on the animal paths and pushed and shoved our way up through juncus, tussocks and ruts, the overall climb taking twice or three times as long as Rapaki normally would. all of us were feeling the mugginess and lack of wind by the top.

Steve had had a wee tumble down in the rushes, landing on his thumb, so he took the road round vernon, while the rest of us grunted up the singletrack. regrouped at road crossing and hit the Traverse - steve taking it easy. great blast round here, feeling (finally) more on-form than i have done any time recently, with excellent line choice and despite having a small head-cold, seemingly enough power. it was like the narrow techy climb had dialled in my riding.

From Vic, we avoided the DH racers by taking the classic Gums trail down to the skiddersite where Steve and Andy bailed, leaving Pete and me to blast down Dazza's, then Pono's and on down the Nats, mostly pretty good downhill. meeting the racers down the bottom, where we decided to avoid them by hitting up the Hidden Valley track, cleaning all of it, and then blazing out way out down Old Skool. Met up with the others and hit up the cafe at St Martins. biked home via C1 to grab some beans.

Tuesday night, Captain Godley Conda

great ride tonight. picked up Chris at 6.30 and we headed out to Scumner. Cruised up Captain Thomas, took it pretty easy. failed to clean many of the usual obstacles, which seemed to become a pattern for the evening's ride. Fog was low, juust above Evans when we got up there, otherwise muggy.

tackled Godley, neither of us getting the first rocky section. i think we both blew the second wee snick too, but easy going after them. Fog seemed to get wetter the further out we got, but the trails (even after a couple days rain) were completely passable. no puddles, no mud, no soft bits, just very slightly greasy in a couple of spots. Chris was having more and more trouble seeing, with the misty fug accumulating on his glasses as we rode. i took the lead after the second boardwalk section and blitzed it down to Livingston Col (new section to the right noticed, just begun digging), tho taking it easy too, what with the grass slightly overgrowing most of the trails. up over to Breeze col, cleaning it all nicely, feeling my mojo starting to return a bit.

from Breeze, we took the trail below the road out to the end, then up the hill back and onto the harbourside walking track. awesome wee float down this, taking it carefully, cos the rocks were just greasy enough to be interesting.

then onto the Snake. i took the lead and got a good flow on. track condition perfect, no dust, just well firm. popped all the air, and railed all the berms and was a sweet descent. then the climb up and over back to car in Slumner.