Hungry Sunday Solo Hunts

On my own, no breakfast just coffee ( + green tea in the bottle).  Headed up the usuals, 19th, skidder, steep.  Up to top, and into Thomson#1 for a nice groove, then back up the road to top, down around the jumpies, hard right into Worm, and up onto the Traverse.  Good spin around here, stopping for a few (telling one group off for not giving way descending), then dropped into Huntsbury DH just after another guy had dropped in, slowly winding him in as we descended, flowing through the last gap right on his tail.  He hung a left on the older version of the singletrack just after that, and I followed, striking up a convo with him and him pulling over for me.  Bombed down through this then across the landing strip and seeking out the wee Rocky ridge entrance ways.  Climbed up the zig zag on the back of the knob to find my front wheel going flat.  Ugh.  Swapped out the tube and said gudday to Doug, and got going again, forgetting to unlock my rear suspension down over the rocks.  Down through the jumps, bypassing the odd one, all the way to the bottom of the dirt end of Huntsbury Ave.  

Turned back up the hill and climbed, and climbed.  Stopped for a rest under the cabbage tree below the rocky knob, snacked half a One Sq for 'breakfast' and continued on back up.  Gave some directions to a lost dad and son, then gravel ground to the top.  Back on the Traverse, good spin around stopping once for riders, feeling pretty strong on the climbs, then dove down the jumpies, see saw, brakestart then to rockgarden and gums dropping down through, out Skidder, road, 235, fun in there, wet landing off treebranch jump, then climbing, last blast drop behind houses to home.  Fun times.

Expressive 14.8 km with 525 m climbed

Saturday Morning T and R on the E and T

Beautiful ride today.  Up the hill with Tra'y, her on her E bike and me on the Troll.  Feels so good climbing on the Troll.  We rode hard through the Skidder and into the climb, with her getting miles up!  I walked up to her and we swapped bikes for the steep bit.  Back on, and riding climbing up all the way to the road.  Hung a left, and cruised nicely along to Castle Rock.  Here, she went off down the road and I took the singletrack.  What a beat up!  Hard work, but got smoother picking smoother lines, but feck it's rough.  Caught up to T just past the Bridle and we looked at the view and then turned back... There were people out everywhere, walking biking, running...

A bit over 20 kms, with an indubitable 762 m clambered 

Thursday Night Convoluted Topspin

Great wee ride tonight with Nelson, staying up high and looping about Mt Pleasant.   We'd figured ridgelines would be best given the amount of rain we'd had a couple days ago...

Parked on Parkridge and headed the usual byways entering Britten at the gate on Upper Major and singletracking up from there.  Zig and zag then at the top we hit the road and coasted down to hit the OG (Original Greenwood) entrance, peeling left into Sheepshit Alley for a nice cruisy descent.  This always has more upwardsness than I feel it did (considering the climb it is the other way), but a nice blast down and took the 'Moab' line towards the end.  

At the bottom we hung a right and cruised up the farm track, noticing for the first time a bulldozed fence line being put in.  Continued onwards all the way to the gun emplacements.  Bit of a tootle around here then rode and explored the closed Bluffs track to the point we couldnt.  Turned back and bombed down to the OG line across, me leading and juuust making it through all the tech bits.  

On the road again and back up to Britten for 'around the front' and then across the road at the cutting and up over the fence and up the very overgrown long grassed (especially for this time of year) zig and zag climbing all the way to the top of Pleasant.  Very pleasant to get to the top for a bit of a rest and snack.  

Dropped in, me in the lead, and pinging all over the place but enjoying the rocks and the down.  Carved our way through the tussocks and then out to then end.  Down the farmtrack briefly then dropping into what Trailforks calls Titus (Previously the Greenline/Greensticks/Swoopy).  Hero dirt stylez down here, carving back and forth with great gusto and grip.  Fun times.  Then climbing (what Trailforks calls) Knapsack but I call Sheepshit Alley back to the top for the final stretch along this road.  

Dropping into Britten, Nelson took off like a rocket.  I was not far behind but wasn't quite as gungho.  Good across the front then he missed a turn and I took the lead for the drop down, then we explored out to check out the rocks.  Back on track we bombed down the steep section (that freaked me out last time I took the Troll down it) and over the stile to hit down Kenton Track, this time all the way.  It was mint.  He led the first bit but took the high line (towards where I exited last time) and I went low, leading the last section.  Some awesome tech in there.  Finally, up the steps, pushing up alongside houses then out on to Rockview, and up Major Hornbrook to the cars.

A very pleasant 13.8 kms with 520m climbed.

Thursday Morning Along the Top and Back

T on her E and me on my Troll set out nice and early up through Vic, across skidder and up the gutser.  Both walked, I pushed her heavy bike and she couldn't believe how light the Troll was.  We cleaned the next bit to Brakefree then rode up to the very top.  Cruised the Summit Rd all the way to Cavendish Saddle, admired the view, then turned back.  Up Vernon we rode out around the wheelchair track which give some quite cool views I didn't realise were there.

At the top of Vic we continued down to Dyers Pass and bombed down the road, around down and into Vic Park Drive top-end, and back down through here.  I peeled off and did the 235 singletrack, enjoying the crap out of that, then out the lower end and home.

Lovely...  24.75kms and surprisingly 968m ascended.

In the afternoon we flew off up to New Plymouth for WOMAD.

Sunday Heated Head Loop

Feeling weary, took myself up thru Vic via the usuals, road, 19th, skidder, and gruntsvillian.  Across Brakefree and upwards to the top.  Peaked to the road and dropped down in, looping over the jumpies then straight into Worm and headed onto and around the Traverse to the top of Huntsbury DH.  

Dropped in, down upper HuntsburyDH, yumping the yumpies and then out onto the landingstrip zone taking the old line to the left over the rocks, and down.  New trail has been split off to the right for an out and back around but dead-ends, so back onto the dropster down to the cattlestop, and down Ali Express, attempting but failing the steepest rocky section I used to ride all the time.  Something about that wheel sized hole at the top gives me the willies every time.  On down the rest of it enjoying the tech, and around the off-camber ruts back and forth before hitting into the Old Skool.  

Nice blast down this, pumping the pumps and feeling pretty smooth.  Out the bottom and straight into the up-valley grind.  Very shortly overtaken by a young fit bastard, who proceeded to gap me all the way up the valley.  I bungled on, losing sight of him before entering the trees.  Grind, grind away, at Hospital corner I continued on up the valley.  Hot and still in here, I stopped after the bridge in a nice shady spot and somewhat unfathomably bumped into Doug. 

He's everywhere these days.  We had a quick chat and he headed down while I headed up, heat starting to get to me.  Walked a bunch and then rode the nice traverse across to the gulley below Brents.  Climbed up over the cattlestop thankful noone was descending hard, and then ground up the steepest bastard to the first 4wd section which was also insanely steep evil climb, stopping a couple of times for breathers.  Took a couple photos of cool fungi,

then ground on up the next not so bad steep to the Rad Zone.  Ugh, up to the skidder site, then easy over 19th again (due to trail closure on usual route), heat was hard... 

Lovely cool blast coast down road and into the 235 for a sweeeet descent in the shade on slightly damp dirt, jumpitty jump and oaked, then climbing granny, up road, last final blast down behind the houses and home.

Heated, nearly stroked, 11.9 kms, 502 m escalated.

Wednesday Evening Local Solo Zoop

Good wee spin on my lonesome tonight.  Quite warm out, and had been wfh getting new windows installed.  

Chuffed up from home, feeling fat and slow.  Usual over the 19th and up the skidder.  A young dude on a Santa Cruz entered the climb about the same time and proceeded to power away from me, making me really feel fat and old.  Survived the climb and proceeded up to the Thomsons, bomb down one and two, then coast through Kiwi and climbing up the road, a million gromlets rolling down the road towards me from the park.  

I bailed over the saddle onto the Gov's Bay track, finding it a little greasy.  Stopped for a quick blackberry munch (finding them a bit past it now) and kept going, around the south sidle and then climbing up the techy rockness.  Cleaned a lot more than recent attempts, tho still dabbed through or walked a couple of bits.  Over the top and dropped onto the lower Nun at the Drainpipe/CaptTorpedo juncture, floating down the rest and popping up onto the road.  Through Dyers Pass and up the Scummit Rd, past some groms walking(!) and on up to top of Vic (where there were more riders stationed).

Dropped in here, down around popped the jumpies, see-saw, then right-hander and along the fenceline up to top of Pedalfine where I perched for a little rest.  The dudes who were at the top of Vic boosted through the jumps and then headed off over down Shrooms/Cowabunga area, and I headed down Pedalfine, seeing them through the vegetation a bit lower down.  I peeled off to the lower left (like last time) and rolled nicely out through to the traversing 4wd track.  Looked at dropping down the bits I did last time, but decided against it and headed along to the bit that leads to Razza's.  Bombed down this, into Razza's and had a lovely hoon down this, one root nearly catching me out.  

Climbing again, up the bastard steepness to the Skidder, and strangely deciding to climb up the grunter again to take in the Gums.  Ugh, anyway, climbed, grunted, and out the top, quick drink and down the rabbit paddock and into the rocks, gums, back and forth, nice roll.  Through the bottom sequence and whooah!  Trail being worked on.  Climbed back up to Skidder and took the 19th route over, then down the road, rolly rolly, and into 235 for a final sweet burst, nearly greasy, good jumps, out through oaks, climb, onto road, climb, then Dog Park/Microwave Tower dropping fast down behind the houses and home.

An propitious 9.8 kms, with 420 m climbed. 

Thursday Night Captain God- Snake Escape -Ley Thomas

Good spin tonight with Nelsie.  I arrived at Sumnervale to find him already parked up, and having already tickled his drivetrain into submission.  We set straight to it, around Finnsarby Pl and across the redzone, along behind the gabion wall and into the grunt of a climb.  Stopped and ate some blackberries (which were a bit past it, in my mind).  On upwards, and both of us, tho mostly Nelson, muppetting and tweaky pinging all over the place.  It was like his balance was all off and he kept losing it, including having to step off over the bike on a couple of occasions.  Great climb (once you're past the bastard start) and it wasn't long before we were clambering over the slipped out gatefence and hitting the main drag.  Still muppetry ensued, with Nelson walking bits he probably hadn't walked for years.  I wasn't quite so bad, but still not 100%.  Eventually out the top and, given we were aiming to be back down before sunset, we took the road out to above Scarborough and headed up the farmtrack to the Godley.  

I led down over the boardwalks and through the curves, getting some great speed on, but bony trail was pinging all over the place.  No close calls but certainly on the edge a lot of the way, but gapping Nelson (for a change).  Through Livingston and Nelson led the climb over and down to Breeze, both of us getting a little hung up on the ruts after the pfmtbc rock (which it looks like hardly anybody rides anymore).  On the road back up the hill and we parked up at the top of the 'new' Anaconda entrance.

I dove in first, finding a lot of bones and looseness.  A little hairy around a few corners, and I couldn't quite get my flow on in this top section.  It's hardly used, by the feel of it.  Once in the OG snake I was away.  Started off a little slow but once speed was up I maintained it.  Super sketchy around some corners, and a few mega pings, but out onto the 'tail and struggling to keep on the offcamber, overgrown grass.  Then through the cattle grate and the final bits were plenty fun.  Managed to gap Nelson a bit too, which is always a bonus..  Straight into the Taylor's Escape trail, I put him out front again, and of course he slowly increased the gap on me.  Man it gets steep in the gully, but the going certainly improved as we clambered.  One rider coming down towards us, she waited off side for us.  Big corners, then across the top, and on the last hairpin I lost my balance and tipped, hand out to steady, I super-struggled to extract my foot.  Strain.

Onto the road for the climbing, up around the launch pad (lots of these floaty guys around today) and then after taking in the view of the spit and Scarborough beach (pumping!) we headed up the farmtrack again. 

Another break at the top then into the Godley, which I led and caned!  Awesome flow through all the rocky mess, and I finished by taking the walking track bit, coming into the last corner just after Nelson on the main track.

Across Evans, another quick break, both feeling pretty stuffed, I led into the Captain, into what proceeded to be a cruisy fun ride down.  All good, flowy, fun.  On the wee climb after the rocky bits I changed down too low, and spun out, managing to dab my way up it, but Nelson had selected the perfect gear and cleaned it!  first time in a while.  Flow flow flow, over the gatefencehole, and then overgrown techknuckle followed.  Fun, but on your toes, tight, lots of narrow and holes getting bigger, cool rock roll overs, trees to duck, so much fun.  In the pines I got a call from T, (how long?  half an hour??), and then down the finish, back along behind the gabions, gorse stinging salty arms, and then I found a grape vine and we gorged.  As we rode through the red zone 3 paragliders landed over us in that paddock.  Back to the cars and done, 5 minutes before sunset.

Moderately valid effort, 20.64 kms, and 8 m shy of 800 m ascended.

Another Shorty with the Doge, and T, on the Troll

Ebike Tra'y and me on the Troll quick spun the doggy up the hill. He ran and panted. I rode and panted. Tra'y just toodled along. We parted ways and I took Jet down the 235 trail for a good hunk of fun. 

Just over a mile again.  One happy dog.

Sunday Short Local Dog Troll

Love To Ride month and needed to keep up the content. Forecast leading up to today was looking like it was going to be shitty but it turned out to be a lovely day. T and me were intending on going out for another e-hoon but got stuck into the garden instead, so later in the day I took Jet out for a wee blast on the Troll, keeping it very local.  Barely worth mentioning, 1 mile with 50 m climbed, but greasy fun with inappropriate tires was had.  And the dog loved it!

Saturday Morning Summit Eeee-berries Breakfast. Then Late Afternoon Troll to Dinner

T and me took our ebikes up thru Vic to the top.  Down the road to Kiwi, and then a long way out the Summit Rd, checking out the views, and Omahu Bush all the way to Ahuriri cattlestop, overlooking Teddington.  Then turned back. Stopped and feasted on blackberries several times along the way.  Totalled 25 kms with a good chunk of 800 m climbed (with e assist, obvs)

Later in the day, I jumped on the Troll, rode up the hill to top of Vic then most of the way along the Summit Rd, into main (V-twin) Britten entrance, taking it easy on the greasy singletrack then across the front and down the steep to the pylon (nearly losing control here - street-tires on steep dirt, not so good).  Bombed down Longridge and Mt Pleasant Rd to Joy's for a family dinner.  Just under 15 kms and 570 m clambered (non-assisted...)

Friday Night Fatty, Dog Run

Weather inclement all day but no precipitation and dog needed a spin so I took him out on the fatty up into the park. Some good climbing and singletrack fun times.  Up the walking track, then bottom of dog park, back down road a little, down the access track then climbed up the 235 dh track.  From carpark, across road up onto the 'new' zig to behind the slide, around through the picnic shelters and up the walking track over behind the infocentre, then up behind the ranger station behind 19th, as usual to Skidder, then up the gutzer...  hung a hard right before the cattlestop and sidled along to start of Sesame St, flowing through into the Gums trails, fun blast down this all the way to 19th, then below road cutting up to Tawhairanui, poaching this, then from Dogpark carpark down the fun single and home.

Minimalia, 4.15 kms and 137m climbed

Saturday Afternoon XC Intro Ride For Paul

First time out for Paul (our German exchange student) on a mountain bike. He's very fit, riding a road bike up the hill every day from school, not to mention being a bouldering legend, so nothing was much of a problem for him. I gave him a few skill tips along the way and we rode some fun trails. 

Up from home, usual 19th, skidder, grunter.  Then Worm, and onto the Traverse.  A couple of rocks caught him out and he learned the lesson of not stepping to the downhill side for letting people pass.  Stopped for other riders quite a few times, but he kept up with me pretty good.  Over Vernon and he really enjoyed the downhill.  Again, one or two of the rocks were tricky for him, but he was definitely improving.  Then down the upper cRapaki trail, Full Monty, from the top, fun blast down this.  The steep hairpins were hard for him, but I think he managed pretty good.  I had major speed on the lower reaches beside the main track.  Then up onto Taramea, and he really liked this one too.  All the way round, with a wee pause at the rock play ground over which I rode all the features.  

Then into the singletrack above Rapaki and onto the main drag for the final climb.  Around the road on Vernon, and back onto the Traverse for a good spin towards home.  Into the trees, and I warned him I'd do the jumps, then pointed out the see-saw over which I went meeting him on Brake Free.  Another guy was on the trail just ahead of me, and he moved aside for me, then followed us into the Rock Garden.  Both of them had to walk the final rockiest section.  The other guy was from Rotovegas and hadn't ridden for a while.  Had no idea where he was going, but I sent him off down my favourite while I waited for Paul to negotiate some tech.  We cruised down through the Gums and around my usual favourite route.  He only walked the one steep corner (below where I cleared the most recent tree), then all the way down and down the road into the DogCarPark trail for a nearly final hoon.  Jumped the jumpies and then we climbed up to the Dog Park and down the final blast behind the houses.  

Half way down the last blast, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an insect incoming on a collision course with my cheek.  It impacted and I was hit with instant pain.  Fucking wasp, sting, to the cheek just below my glasses.  OUCH!  

Quite a warm 19.73 kms and 623 m climbed. Not bad at all!

Sunday Arvo Death by a thousand Climbs

Oh..  E-biked with the fam to Nostalgia Fest and home again on Saturday.

On Sunday I managed to get out on my own for a couple of hours of climbing and descending, climbing and descending, then climbing a bunch and descending again.

Around about 3 pm, headed out and up the usual route, hot in the sun but a good bit of wind around.  Over the 19th and through the skidder and into the grind up the grunterbastard.  Bumped into Nick from work with his fam at Brake Free, then rolled on up to top of Vic.  Dropped straight into the jumpies, around them then back up Worm to the top and dropped down over the cattlestop-stile-thing into the top of Pedalfine.  

Nice bloop bloop blootch down this, not turning left at the usual spot but slightly further down, which led me onto the lower part of that usual route at about that wee bridge, rolling out onto the 4wd track and dropping into the new one I've been eyeing for a while now.  It took me across RadiGarden and eventually down to where Pedalfine comes out on the next road-track down.  A couple of features I wasn't game to take on blind, but that I rolled (except for one log) from a standstill.   Left out to the Radi/Rad/Raceline intersection, climbing back up the Access track here to Razza's.  Nice drop through here, riding good, then hung a right and climbed back up to the intersection again, this time dropping into the rest of Pedalfine, good blitz down this section, then climbed again on Access track up to Rad^Sick finally hitting up the jump I missed Thursday.  Across same route as Thursday to Sneaky Ridge, dropping down this finding some nice lines, then dropped into Bridges, nubridges and bombed down the valleybottom.  

Into the Hidden Valley climb, gasping but cleaning it all, around and up to high point for a brief pause before hitting Old Skool bombing.  Much better run down here not worrying about the rear wheel being supposedly flat.  Straight into the climb again, grinding up the valley.  Stopped for a poke around in the bushes at the bottom of Hospital, eyeing up my future climbing trail.  Pretty dense country, but the bush is tall enough to get through, just a matter of cutting out the gorse and blackberry.  Up K2, walked a bit, then onto the sidle-climb through the pines, and stopped on the ridge for a over and below as to where the track might come.  I reckon it can be done, will involve a few switchbacks.  

Climbed up under Texaco (27footer) and up the shit climb.  I reckon I've found another place here for a climbing trail...  Then up under Ponos and through the 40footer zone and onwards up around the climbs I'd already done to the skidder where I topped up my water/tea.  Into Lower gums out to 19th, below road, nice coast through forest, up onto wheelchair trail, onto road around to dogcarpark and into 235 for a rapid and loose but flowy descent.  Mint.  Popped the jumps good then out through the oaks, hard right up to road, climb again for one last time, and a fast bomb behind the houses. 

An 11.2 km jaunt, climbing a couple metres shy of 500.

Thursday Evening Out the Numb

Bloody good one tonight. I popped down at 5ish and picked Nelson up from Bowenvale Ave, leaving his car there, and we rode up into Vic from mine. Up thru the usual combo of: road, 19th, Skidder, gutser to the top.  Spotted a FLOCK of kereru from up here, flying past.  Musta been about 12-15 of them.  Amazing!.  Then dropped into both Thompsons for the funtimes they always provide (walkers leaping out of the way etc).  

From Kiwi up the Scummit to the upper Governor's bay trail entrance for a good blast down.  I was taking it a bit cautiously, not sure why.  Wasn't feeling on my game at this point.  Hit this all the way around above the dude's stone house then down the zigs and zags, progressively tighter and now flowing through very nice bushy tunnels.  Across the dude's driveway and stopped in the gums for a moment, then hit downhill trail, which was cool and had been a long time (over 4 years).  It was tinder dry.  Stopped at Reuters Park (halfway down, trail heading around above Gov's to the right), spotted some blackberries, then more, then more. 

Had a good gorge on them.  Then knucked in for the rest.  Across, then dropping down through the valley, cleaning all, nice and dry (wet in the past) followed by a couple of tight wee climbs, before sidling around a little more and dropping into the switchies to the finish.  This time (unlike the last two (only) times) we headed up up the road.  Thankfully hardly any traffic.  Bit of a grind but a hell of a lot less taxing than riding (and walking) up the singletrack.  From the Kiwi, up the road to the top of Vic.

Down here, around over the two jumps, see-saw, Brakefree, and onto Sesame St.  I baulked and rode nanna line into it, but had fun on the rest.  Through the skidder, lots of people here, and into Razza's which was fun as hell, steep and dry and loose.  Into Rad, I should have, but didn't jump the jump in here (gotta session it some time), then across into Sneaky Ridge for a rock filled gravity propelled gnar-fest down and around.  Nelson dropped me by taking the No Road Bikes section.  Jump of the fence and then down through nuBridges, bombing down the valley and straight into Hidden Valley Climb.  Hot work.  Around and we stopped at the high point for Old Skool.  Some blokes turned up, they rested so we took off.  Gooooood blast down here, but starting to feel tired.  Then I heard a rim-strike and after that was paranoid my rear tyre was going down and getting washy so was kinda nursing it down.  At the bottom I discovered this was not so, and we cruised effortlessly down the road to Nelson's car.

A superlative 527m climbed (740ish descended on account of starting high), with 14.8km roamed.

Sundazed Haute E-Townbiking

30 odd degrees, and T and me rode to see her dad 'the long way' then home via Bally's - 25 odd kms.  Then later (not MMR'd) rode to Smashies for a session... tootled home sans lights in the dark via footpaths...

Thursday Steep'n'Hot Ups'n'Downs in Urumau-ns

Parked up on Fosters and rang Nelson.  Him and Craig (who'd parked at the gondola and ridden over the Bridle Path (in 29 degree heat)) were at the top already so they headed off for a lap while I climbed to the top.  It was hot going.  Right to the top, I perched myself on the top of the rocks and waited.  Eventually I saw them come into view below, and saw Craig head off down, but Nelson coming up to me.  

We set off down Stormer, and veered into Zombie Lurch.  Nelson did the log ride.  I just wasn't feeling gungho tonight, so I stayed on the ground.  All the steepness tech was fine, but trickery like logs and big gaps were beyond me this evening.  Into the climb back up Sloanstar and ugh, but my puff was clear having had 2 blasts of asthma-begone before I left the car.  Around the front and up the zigs again.  

From the not-quite-top this time down Sunnyside, with Nelson taking a turn on the super mad steep drop off to the right.  I went down the top of Sunny and he rode to meet me there.  Then down this, loose dusty steep goodness.  Corner that's always got me before was fine and then we took a slightly further line out and down.  Climbing again, zig and zag to the top top again.  

This time into Jackasaurus, dropping over the droppy starts.  I really wasn't feeling 100% confident and so what looked like a gap jump but wasn't, spooked me.  Down to the gutsy dropzone, steeper than I remember getting to it.  I rolled in several times and then still chickened out...  Down from there and I cleaned some more good steeps that were probably just as bad as the piece I chickened out on.  Into Grommies, nice hoon down through here, not even hesitating to drop the log drop.  Around into the Slabstacles, rocky wall drops.  Good for a bit of a freak out but easy as...  Climbing again.  This time just up around and off down the new exit trail (which meander-flows nicely). And down to the car.

The ups are steeeep and the downs are tech.

Extreme ups and downs, minimal distance... 4.94 kms with 309 m (according to MMR -  but my calculation based on low points and high points is 351 m) climbed.

Saturday Family Slumnit Pico-tour

Family ride on Saturday. I was on the Troll. Paul on his roadie and T and H on their ebikes .. up from home, along Summit Rd to Sumner. Ice creams had, then home. I had a few mechanical issues - brake started rubbing, didnt have tools, borrowed one to adjust.  Then rear wheel slipped in dropouts and at Derek's I found out the thread in the nut was stripped...

Other than the breakage, a rather grand 38 km with 985 m climbed...

Tuesday Night Pleasantries and flats

Parked on Parkridge and we rode up Britten.  I felt full and hot and gasped for air.  Didn't help that Nelson was way faster, and we were talking a bunch...  Around the front and up to the cutting, across the road, over the fence and zig and zag through long grass up to some rocks overlooking Lyttelton where we watched a cruise ship depart as well as I layered off.  Riding again, couple more zigs and we were up to top of Mt Pleasant.  Nelson adjusted his brakes.  

Into the down, and the weed-eaten detritus was strewn all over the trail, hiding all the rocks.  Sketch.  I followed, then Nelson got gazumped by the same rock as another time, and I took the lead through the tussocks.  Nice flow.  Then into Greenwood.  Through the ruins, and into the rocks, I's tight on his tail then oh, flat, front tyre got lower and lower stopped and started to fix.  My glue was shit.  First patch came off.  After I'd put the tube back in.  Ugh.  Nelson's glue was new.  Got rolling again and had a good blast down Greenwood, except for him blowing it just after the Gulch.  Good rest of the way down.  Bony as fuck.

Up the Summit Rd.  Steady pace, nothing to report.  Stayed on the road, and into Britten.  Hmmm, my front's not feeling great.  I led on the stretch across the face (from the hairpin) and down the final rocks, by which time my bike was steering itself fatbike stylez, so reneged on riding Kenton's track down and riding back up to cars.  Bailed to cars.  

Verifiable 12.77 kms, with 544 m climbed

On the way home I picked up H's ebike from Joy's and as I couldn't fit both on the rack I chucked mine in the back of the car.  Halfway home the patch obviously gave it up, and a high pitched whistle filled the car for a few minutes.

Saturday Morning Out and Back

Bike service completed over last couple weeks, suspension, shifter cable (and derailleur).

Warm and sunny, up what felt early, had a coffee (no breakfast) and headed out, up through Vic, up through the usuals to the top, and popped around for the jumps then back up Worm and onto the Traverse for the slog across.  Lots of oncomers, most of whom I pulled over for (me being solo, them in groups, and giving me a rest before stuff).  Onto Vernon blast down around popped through cRapaki top and tech-climbed into Witch.  Feeling good right through.  Rest at highpoint (to let some walkers get further ahead), then caught them up just before the end.  Up the road, climb climb.  Chat to a couple of ladies at the top of Castle, then dived in.  Fun blast, lots of speed, bike feeling very good.  Hit the climb and cleaned nicely over to Bridle Path and it was time for the slog back.

Longish climb back up to Castle, then too many walkers on the Tors so I bombed down the road and onto the singletrack just above it in the next section.  Ugh, bad choice.  Totally overgrown, no view of trail in long grass, so hard to follow, balance, slow riding tech on unexpected rocks, and no speed to carry through any whoop-de-dos.  Out the end, into Witch, climbing to a nice rest, then bombing around to cRapaki top again.  Into the Vernon climb, and second hairpin there's 3 ebikes parked, one of the dudes lying on the ground with a very deformed ankle.  Ouch, I said.  On up and around, tiresome, but clean.  Over and down, across the road and straight into the Traverse for a good hoon back around here.  Into Vic, straight across into the jump, jump, seesaw, first bit of brakefree then out to the rabbit paddock, rocks, gums, zig and zag, a plant of some sort whipping me across my eyes (unprotected) and drawing a little blood.  On down, quite a few more low branches and angled trees though all this.  Out to 19th on the lower, then below road briefly to the corners.  Coast to carpark, into 235, lovely blast down here all the way to bottom and then road to driveway home.

Just shy of 20 kms, and just shy of 740 m climbed  

Saturday Paraparallelogrammetry

Evening before, T and me rode fatty and skinny down to the Excellent St Walkway for a look in the evening, and back... walked up the steps and back.

Last full day in the bay so I headed out for a solo at Para para... Parked, and rode up the road and into the DOC / Fairyland gravel road.  Gate open for a change.  I explored the first ridge detour, then continued on up to the highpoint seat (past my descender),

 then back down the road and into the descender.  Bombed down this, great run, 

then explored a few little side bits, then started around the pond, explored and downward trail (to private, turned back), and into the zig zag, but took a low line track which skirted all the way around the pond, then back into the zigzag up up up to the road, then up the road to the top entrance of this and down down down, then through the back track above the quarry, around the back and down, then down the main drag trails out with the final nasty wee peaky climb out to the road.  Bomb down this, then flat gravel back out to the car.

Fun wee 11.7 kms, with a valid 387 m climbed.