DogsBollocks wrote:As of 30.11.2009 at 11.15am
Light rain has dampened the tracks. Some tracks are now at "avoid". Forecast looks showery for much of the week-so best to leave the bike at home for a bit. Will update as soon as condition's change.
Nick Singleton.

yeah, i read that. it was posted on the 30th, therefore was a day old. "avoid" doesnt mean "closed". it hadnt rained or drizzled for MOST of Tuesday, and there'd been a good wind blowing most of the day too. FYI, the trails were DRY. i counted a grand total of 2 puddles. 2 very small puddles on the Godley Track. the rest of the track wasnt even sticky. there was NO mud. plus, we chose the dry end of the hills for the "dampened" reason. figured castle rock or flying nun might not be so dry. by the time we were coming down, the mist was heavier, but it was still dryer than it had been on my Sunday ride.

no need to take Nick's word absolutely literally, and it IS possible to use one's own initiative and read the situation accordingly. i wouldnt be riding them today.

swtchbckr wrote: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.[/size]

A bit of contradiction - 'even after a couple of days rain' now becomes 'it hadnt rained or drizzled for MOST of Tuesday - and a fair bit of justifying - 'there'd been a good wind blowing most of the day too', 'the trails were completely passable', 'no puddles, no soft bits, no mud' - going on here ..... By my observations during the day the wind was blowing through a pretty steady series of showers and rain .... not drying the tracks

swtchbckr - It's not the first time your blog has given plenty of ink to justifying you being on the trails. I'm with DB - you could have just "used your initiative" and not gone riding on PH tracks.

pedalingkiwi wrote:

swtchbckr wrote: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.[/size]

A bit of contradiction - 'even after a couple of days rain' now becomes 'it hadnt rained or drizzled for MOST of Tuesday - and a fair bit of justifying - 'there'd been a good wind blowing most of the day too', 'the trails were completely passable', 'no puddles, no soft bits, no mud' - going on here ..... By my observations during the day the wind was blowing through a pretty steady series of showers and rain .... not drying the tracks

swtchbckr - It's not the first time your blog has given plenty of ink to justifying you being on the trails. I'm with DB - you could have just "used your initiative" and not gone riding on PH tracks.

Just got back into office.

I call bullshit. Everyone knows its been pissing down in Ch-Ch since Sunday night. The whole place is sodden and you expect us to believe the tracks were dry ? Crap. If you get 1/2 way down the snake and discover it's wet it's to bloddy late then isn't it so it's easier to say they were in great nick.

Like the pedalingkiwi says, you spend a hell of a lot of time justifying your actions when someone hit's you up. You have poaching (H.Ell) and wet track riding form. Farkin stop it. What makes you so special ?

Anyone else in Ch-Ch even contemplate hitting the single tracks yesterday ? I suspect the sensible ones stayed home.

the trails were dry. i had no issue with riding them whatsoever. we were not inflicting any damage.

christ, they were open in the winter when it had been wetter than the last couple of days, of minimal rain (DRIZZLE), on a very dry ground. it was last night and this morning that we actually got some real rain

it wasnt an issue. - you're just jealous you werent out riding!


oh, and we saw a couple others on Capt Thomas. a couple coming down, and then the female of the couple had ridden back up the road to ride down the track again (i reckon she was practicing for the Festival of Cycling race).

again, there was NO MUD, NO MUCK. it was NOT a problem.

DogsBollocks wrote:I call bullshit. Everyone knows its been pissing down in Ch-Ch since Sunday night. The whole place is sodden and you expect us to believe the tracks were dry ?

pissing down? sunday - 0.5mm total, monday - 4.0mm total, tuesday - 1.5mm. It may have been wetter your side of town, but last night I was seriously thinking of going riding cos the ground was already dry (bordering on dusty) by 5pm!!!

even today which has seemed pretty wet (I got nicely deluged on riding to work) has only dropped 7.5mm - this time of year where the ground is pretty dry even that will dry out in not much over 24 hours

danose wrote:

DogsBollocks wrote:I call bullshit. Everyone knows its been pissing down in Ch-Ch since Sunday night. The whole place is sodden and you expect us to believe the tracks were dry ?

pissing down? sunday - 0.5mm total, monday - 4.0mm total, tuesday - 1.5mm. It may have been wetter your side of town, but last night I was seriously thinking of going riding cos the ground was already dry (bordering on dusty) by 5pm!!!

even today which has seemed pretty wet (I got nicely deluged on riding to work) has only dropped 7.5mm - this time of year where the ground is pretty dry even that will dry out in not much over 24 hours

Semantics.

I suppose the point I am trying to make is that the bloke who runs the joint gets out there in his vehicle, and on foot, and make decisions on useage based on what he decides is best. He's in charge. I would say if he decides "avoid" is the call and there is water falling from the sky don't go up there. Once you are up there on your bike it's too late. It's his job to check for us.

I'm sorry but I'm a bit of a stickler for rules. If your boss says don't do something and you go ahead and do it anyway and to hell with the concequences you'r probably gonna end up in the shit. That's why people get put in charge of things, they usually know better.

It said "avoid", Nick said "best leave the bike at home". Pretty simple instructions really.

DogsBollocks wrote:It said "avoid", Nick said "best leave the bike at home". Pretty simple instructions really.

Nick unfortunately cannot easily (or frequently) update the web page - his update on the 30th would have been based on both current conditions up the hill, and forecast rain for the next 2-3 days. As it turned out we got very little rainfall compared to what was predicted - whilst I don't condone riding wet tracks, this time of year you HAVE to use your head and assess things

danose wrote:

DogsBollocks wrote:It said "avoid", Nick said "best leave the bike at home". Pretty simple instructions really.

Nick unfortunately cannot easily (or frequently) update the web page - his update on the 30th would have been based on both current conditions up the hill, and forecast rain for the next 2-3 days. As it turned out we got very little rainfall compared to what was predicted - whilst I don't condone riding wet tracks, this time of year you HAVE to use your head and assess things

Sorry, but I disagree. IMHO we don't HAVE to use our heads and assess things, we've got someone to do that for us who's greatest concern is protecting the resource.
But we could go on here for ages. Draw ?

Agree with Danose, Nick doesnt have time to update as frequently as ideal, but agree with you Dog's, this could go on forever...

as Pedalling mentioned above, i do justify my riding in mildly adverse conditions frequently, but thats because i feel i need to because if you're just relying on Nicks updates, and not actually seeing what the trails are like, you might think i'm out there trashing the tracks, when, really, i'm not...

HTH(I'm a twerp)

I wish we had the closed track system in nelson ..The amount of times people go out and ride tracks when they are completely saturated and vunerable is astounding ..... and the damage done sometimes takes weeks to rectify.... Its something that hopefully will be addressed in the future as it seems to be bred from ignorance and the popular myth that tracks can be ridden whenever and whatever the weather ....Whats the problem with waiting another day to ride ..obviously not everyone builds the tracks otherwise they would be more careful ... they just want to ride them when it suits them

latest ride this morning. nice warm, and rare - still, muggy day. fair few others out riding.

a valley, summit, vic

n o c o m m e n t . . .

:edit: now sufficiently vague enough so as to not 'lead anyone into temptation'...

swtchbckr wrote:latest ride this morning. nice warm, and rare - still, muggy day. fair few others out riding.

'paki valley, summit, vic

n o c o m m e n t . . .

t o u c h e'

You're right, it was bloody muggy up there ay

me and a coupla boys had a good blast last night, marred only by my total lack of steam.

first time evah on lava flow. can see what i'd been scared of, but at the same time, dont know why its taken me so many years to get down there... quite fun, really.


oh, and amazingly, not a single wet or illegal track was encountered!!!!

swtchbckr wrote:oh, and amazingly, not a single wet track was encountered!!!!

Try saying that after tonights ride and we won't believe ya ....

pedalingkiwi wrote:

swtchbckr wrote:oh, and amazingly, not a single wet track was encountered!!!!

Try saying that after tonights ride and we won't believe ya ....

haaa. no way would i have gotten out there tonight. and tomorrow's off limits too...