Sunday 29th June

A wonderful day for a ride.  Not too cold.  I headed outside and there waiting was Dozer, Tinkerbell and Bugs.  We headed out and then up Rapaki and a nice steady pace.  Got a text on the way up but forgot to check it at the top. Stayed within hollering distance of each other all the way up passing quite a few other riders.  Chatted with Nic Singletrack Singleton at the newly sealed car park at the top of the hill before turning left and heading over the now legal route towards the east.  Witch Hill first with some work at the very beginning making it rideable up here then along the road and into Castle rock track.  Tyre pinging little number, a few wet spots, and a dab or two later we were at the top of Bridal path.  I remembered the text and read it.  Helmut and Sandals were out riding and looking to hook up.  Ended up they were ahead of us going up towards the Gondola.  We set off in pursuit only to find the track super greasy and more technical than normal.  We eventually caught them at the top of the steps after walking more than usual.  We then headed down to the saddle.  Felt really good.  Sandals decided to head up the road and into Greenwood by the main entrance and meeting us at the ruins while I led the rest up Mt Pleasant.  It was all in good condition and real joyful climb.  Regrouped at the top before heading down towards the ruins.  Top of this track is greasy as and I nearly had a ball crushing moment as I slipped off rocks and having to have a big dab. Lucky no contact was made.  Got down to the ruins where Sandals was waiting.  Had a break and a snack, let air out of my tyres and then we followed Helmut down the hill.  I had a fantastic run through the rocks, slowed in the muck fest before gloomy gulch before regaining momentum.  Good run down the lower half but Tinkerbell gained and Bugs was pushing him hard by the bottom.  We thought we had lost Bugs to an accident but it was only some chain suck.  Sandals was meandering down and had told us to go ahead as she was gonna take the road down to Dot Com.  I took up tail end charlie spot as we headed down Ct Thomas.  Sections of absolute muck followed by dry spots and greasy rocks.  Dabbed over the two low rocks, cleaning the rest passing Bugs who had a chain issue before the final fast blast down.  Helmut took a more vertical descent riding the slip face down.  Good stop at Dot Com before the ride home.  Good pace all the way keeping it steady and home at mine about 12.50.  Great ride and all legal.

In the meantime, on the other side of the Canterbury Plains, Nelsie and Mellonfarmer, with Jet the Dog, headed up and down the Blowhard Track.  They too had a fantastic ride, 2 and a bit hours up, 1 hour down.

Tuesday 24th June

The decision was to meet at top of Worsley's road and explore the tracks in the forest. Bug's arrived first followed by Dozer, Silverfox with Tinkerbell then Phatboy. Quick chat then up though the gate to the start of the 4wd track. Dozer got a little confused on which way to lead us until we went into the forest then we all managed to find a different way that all meet up at the same spot. Into granny gear then we started the grind all the way up to the rocky look out. Phatboy lead off with Tinkerbell, Dozer, Bug's then Silverfox. Down Fight Club all the way to the bottom. Track was in awesome condition with the normal technical bit's proving to be just as tricky in the dark. Bug's stopped half way down to wait for Silverfox so he wouldn't get lost. Then we regrouped at the bottom. Climbed back up the 4wd track which was muddy and greasy most of the way up. Decided on a 2nd loop so into granny gear and back up to the rocky lookout again. This time we decided to ride down Wayne's world followed by the old track at the bottom. Ended up being a bit of a fizz as the track still had wind blown trees at the bottom. Detour back up then Phatboy found another way down meeting the 4wd track. Regroup then back down to the cars which was a great blast down though some new track with some nice drop offs. Tinkerbell rode home with rest of us driving.     

Saturday 21st June, The Shortest Day

Planting day at Eastside Bush so a late start was in order.  Phatboy, Silverfox, Dozer and Bugs all arrived at mine in reverse order and we set off up Crapaki.  As we climbed so did the temperature so we delayered at the top of the tarmac before continuing at a steady pace to the top.  Good climb and I must say I did better than last Sunday.  I led off over Mt Vernon and then we regrouped at the start of the Traverse.  From here we blasted around to the top of Vic Park, regrouped and then headed down the rock garden, into the Gums and all met up at the skidder site before heading down Shazzas.  Into Ponos where we stopped and planted.  got that all done in quick time before grunting up K2 to the skidder site where we were all gasping.  No-one succesfully made the climb in one go.  I failed to get the last few meters at all.  We then went and had a glorious feed put on by the rangers.  Phatboy and Silverfox headed down the road at different times while the other 3 of us headed down K2, passing a guy with  a broken arm who wimped out walking and demanded a chopper ride.  Home by 4ish.  The day was wonderful.

Sunday 15th June

After a hard night of dancing and drinking I awoke to find my muscles like lead, my head totally pounding and a feeling of dread for the upcoming ride.  I got myself sorted and headed out to meet, Tinkerbell, Silverfox, Dozer and Phatboy.  After much debate and a coin toss we decided to head up St Andrews.  The tracks were closed so it was going to be tarmac anyway.  We headed around the river along the towpath which was incredibly damp and slippery before starting the clime up St Andrews, Marama, Cannon Hill then left heading over to major Hornbrook and then following the normal track to Upper Major Hornbrook.  By this stage I was walllowing at the back of the pack.  We then headed up the last of mt Pleasant road. Eventually at the top we took the tarmac to the pines at the top of richmond and the down started.  We took an off piste line across paddocks down to the road which avoided a lot of muck before the speedy descent to sumner.  I was feeling crap with a rumbling stomach so I peeled off and headed straight home to catch up on healing myself poor body.  The others went to dot Com before heading home.

Sunday 8th June

This being the 500th post on this blog!

The crew of Dozer, Mellonfarmacist (with his flash new Turner 5.Spot), Buggs and the Silverfox met at Tink's's and headed around Cashmere Rd to Halswell Quarry Park and up C2.  Dryish under the trees, but the Crocodile was a grease fest and they contributed wisely to the ruts.  Most dabbed most of the big corners, ruts and grease just too much.  Up the Low Road a bit then onto the main track up to Siberia - sloppy under the dripping trees.  Onwards up Kennedy's they went up up up further and further into the clouds, greasy muck under tread.  All made good efforts at the top section, Tinks doing a bit of a loop-de-loop - losing balance, veering to the right until he was heading down again, then juuust about managing to turn it back round before dabbing.  The narrow broom infested top track was sticky as shit (and actually, there was a lot of actual sticky shit on the trails today, some cows seem to have had laxatives).

Onto the road and around to Worsleys.  Deciding against a proirly planned lap of the Nun.  Bodybag, hoo boy, what a descent.  Just enough grease on the surface of the clay to make for no chance of stopping, and barely a chance to keep the speed down.  Most survived it, Tinks lost it, all taking lines that proved less slick.  Bottom of bodybag up into the forest, most walking, Tinks cleaning it.  Into the woods, veering right right onto the Original.  Mellonfarmer having annoying chain droppage (only under zero power, if rear was up on 1st or 2nd).  Good rolling down under the trees, out over the clifftop and into the trees again, taking the right hander, some new line in here then onto the old, then onto lower Waynes World and pulling up at Fight Club.  Mellonfarmer chatted briefly with Zane about how great their 5.Spots were.  The group followed him shortly thereafter, the upper half awesome, the lower half all fixed up and sweet as, lots of tricky off-camber.  Greasy climb out of there.  Regrouped at the junction and spotted someone climbing the fence across the main track, so the adventurers ventured across to check it out.  A nice we entrance to a trail Nelsie and MF had found a few weeks back, and so the crew rolled down this, by-passing all the jumps.  Below the fence jump there was lots of fresh trail grooming, rolling on down found some really very young groms working their magic.  Crew continued on down, doing more of the jumps below here and enjoying the end, the onto the sticky exit track rolling out to the carpark.  Next it was down the road, mud flying and then into the new  "Farside" Track, which Tinks and others had found a few weeks back.  What a little beauty!  Sweet sidling and not losing too much altitude, always downwards with a few wee whoop-de-dos then spitting you out above the bottom road corner.  Sweet!  Mud flinging off the tires again as we rolled down the road again, then to Tink's's for a coffee and bickies. 

Tuesday 3rd June

A cool breeze blowing but I picked up the Cook and headed upto the meeting point on Upper Major Hornbrook.  Bugs was waiting and shortly after we unloaded our bikes, Dozer joined us.   We headed up Lower John Brittain at a goodly pace, track in quite good condition with just a little greasiness to it.  The problem was the higher we climbed the less we could see.  Thick fog/cloud was coming in and the lights only made it  worse.  I wobbled lots but no dabs, and so did Dozer.  Decided to get onto the  road at the top rather than try Upper JB.  We dropped down to the saddle and then climbed Mt Pleasant.  Quite eerie riding up here with out any real distance to our vision, no landmarks.  Track was in excellent condition.  At the top the fog was thick making the ride down interesting.  It was super greasy on the Lyttleton side of the hill and rocks were testing us all.  Fog was so thick you were down to 10-15km an hour to stay upright.  Could not see anyone if they were any distance in front or behind.  We decided to skip greenwood due to speed restrictions and headed back to the car via the Greenwood entrance track.  Interesting but dryer which made for  a bit more speed even in the fog.  The new work on the entrance was a surprise to me.  Then down JB at speed, nearly having a good off but major dabbing kept me on when I hit the edge of the line.  Home by 8.  Short, cold and oh so interesting ride.

Sunday 1st June

Dozer and Tinkerbell got together for a small team effort today.  They headed up St Andrews, into Lower John Britten which was in not bad condition and then into the Old Greenwood start.  Some work has been done in here to beat  the mud.  Tinkerbell led and they had a pretty good run.  The main part of greenwood has some shocking bits.  Gloomy Gulch was frosted over and the board walk was super slick.  Down Ct Thomas which was Ok but the bottom is muck.  After this they headed home feeling chuffed for having got out on the bikes.

Saturday 31st May 2014

Another planting day but this time up on a hill so we were able to actually get a ride.  Everyone except Phatboy, The Cook and I were unavailable for so many reasons I can not put them all down here.  The 3 of us set off from home and headed up Rapaki, quickly despensing of any extra layers early in the climb. During the last stop to remove my leggings we let The Cook continue by himself. Phatboy and I  then gave chase at steady pace and soon caught andf then passed him.  From here I backed off a tad while Phatboy continued at top pace.  In the end it was a solo ride for all of us to the summit.  From here we headed up overr Mt Vernon, feeling rather good and regrouped at the start of the Traverse.  A good pump around the Traverse regrouping at the halfway mark and then pumping around to the top of Vic Park before heading down Thompsons to the Sign of the Kiwi.  Stopped for a Pitstop before climbing up towards Worsley.  I had pulled away and just started up the road when Di (CCC Ranger) pulled up alongside in her ute.  I held on to the side ,continuing to pedal hard but gaining extra speed to the top.  A bit of a cheat but I was surprised to find my heartbeat was right up there at the top.  Up to the start of the track, grabbed a spade and then down to the planting site.  lots of people showed up and we got all the plants in the ground by 2.30.  We then headed down.  Track was greasy in spots, dry in others so the ride was interesting.  The botoom half was where I let it rip and felt better.  From here we headed up to the top of Vic park before heading down via the Rock Garden and the gums.  A lot of gums gone and a bit of debris around.  Down Shazzas and then into Brents. Down Bridges, and Flow.  Towards the bottom it was pretty wet and rutted with a near over the bars incident occuring.  Down the 4wd track hucking it over the speed humps and then headed home.  All in all a good ride.