Tip track at dawn

Choice.

A few laps of Danzig, Choppers and Big Weta

Never quite mastered the slippy bits of Choppers - got sucked into the rut => tripody slither to a stop at least once on each run. Not always in the same place though. If I could take the best bits of each run I would have done it clean.

Big Weta. That rocks.

Turners and I.V. Line.

Wednesday: WTP. Took my young apprentices from work for their first true MTB ride. Went out on a limb and used the work bikes - pretty much no brakes at all. Finished up with beer. As for the riding we just stuck to Labyrinth, Snail Trail, and Wetlands Loop.

Friday: Snuck off from work slightly early and headed up to the wind turbine. Managed four runs of Car Parts and Transient before heading home for beer.

Saturday: The young and stupid had a bit of a play on Roller Coaster for an hour or so. I'm gravity challenged so I just leant my bike against the fence for a rest. Pictures below. After inducing brown stains in various underwear it was off to Makara Peak for a gentle loop. Ended up doing Koru, Snake Charma, Zaks Track, Vertigo (long time since I'd ridden this - still awesome fun), exited via Swigg and Starfish. Then off to Monteiths Brewery Bar in Khandallah for beer.

Today: Round five of the Bike Hutt Cyclocross. Some of us might be guilty of some epic sandbagging and subsequently taking out first and third places in the C grade race, I was not one of them. Now enjoying some fine Three Boys beer.

On a related topic I just brought a box of three boys oyster stout. Marvellous stuff.

Yesterday, cycled with the Dude over the hill from Transient to Makara, via the fenceline and salvation. Did a loop of Makara and then back over the hill again, down CPX, CP and Transient. I was quite tired, trails crazy dry for this time of year.

Had a good ride up into the hills today. Nice to have a tailwind all the way up.
Greeted by hail coming back over the top but it didn't stick around.

Greens road

Great day for it here in Nelly.

Reasonably epic ride on saturday.

Headed out at 3:30 for a late afternoon ride up K-loop. Nice run over greens road and up the back track to the forest.
Been two years since I've been up there and the top is being logged so not really any idea where to go, so I just followed the bike tracks. Found a familiar looking fence line and followed a track along that( there were a few bike tyre marks). It was going down which was the right direction, and plenty of tape on trees marking the trail. The track slowly dwindled and turned into a narrow steep tramping track, which abruptly ended about 2m from the stream. Whoops. It was a trapping track that went nowhere. Was getting dark, and my front light runs off the dynamo so heading back up the dense track wasn't an option so I pushed through the bush and dropped down into the water, figuring I would be pretty close to the start of the track.

Hmm, didn't look too familiar. No sign of the tramping track on the other side of the either. Was now around 6 and getting dark so I headed downstream as fast as I could. Clambering over boulders and wading through knee deep water, made good progress. Suddenly found myself in a pool deeper than me. Dived under to grab the rear light off the bike, when I came up I found the bike wasn't sinking so swam with it for a few kicks and then found I could touch the bottom again. Parked the bike at the next bank and marked the location on my garmin. Checked my seat bag and cursed not having a small flashlight in there.

Took off again using my rear light to show the way (barely). After a few more swims the cold was getting to me so I decided to stay out of the deep water. I found a grassy spot and wrung out my clothes, ate something put on my jacket, and started to shiver. Wondered how long before the Mrs started to miss me, and how long would search and rescue take to find me. Too long.
Suddenly realized I could save my track on the garmin 500 and then pull it back up as a course, which would give me a map. This took a while with my hands violently shaking, but eventually found I was only about 800m from the carpark, and I knew there was a picnic area closer. The moon was just rising over the hill so I could make my way over the rocks easily and there were no deep pools. Before long I saw the picnic table, and soon I was back at the carpark. 2 min up the road I was picked up by a couple of guys driving up for a night ride and they took me home. Champs!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106056277

The Mrs thought I was having a sneaky long ride and avoiding the bed/bath chaos with the kids

Went back on sunday to scope out the bike recovery, saw I had gone past 3 or 4 easy entry spots to the track, and one picnic table. Unfortunately I had parked the bike a long way from anywhere so would require a few swims to get it out.
Felt up to the job today so went out armed with a wetsuit, lots of polypro, a thermos of coffee and a keen sense of adventure.
Got in about 200m upstream and managed to avoid getting in more than waist deep. Pretty bloody cold with the snow melt. Bike was just as I left it!. Took out the spare tube, inflated and cable tied it to the frame. Amazed my pump still worked.
Decided to haul it back upstream and found a nearby bank I could clamber up. Wheels were easy but the frame was a bit tricky to climb with.
Big ring a bit bashed up and my headlight is a little damp (still running) but otherwise bike in good nick.

znomit wrote:Reasonably epic ride on saturday.

Headed out at 3:30 for a late afternoon ride up K-loop. Nice run over greens road and up the back track to the forest.
Been two years since I've been up there and the top is being logged so not really any idea where to go, so I just followed the bike tracks. Found a familiar looking fence line and followed a track along that( there were a few bike tyre marks). It was going down which was the right direction, and plenty of tape on trees marking the trail. The track slowly dwindled and turned into a narrow steep tramping track, which abruptly ended about 2m from the stream. Whoops. It was a trapping track that went nowhere. Was getting dark, and my front light runs off the dynamo so heading back up the dense track wasn't an option so I pushed through the bush and dropped down into the water, figuring I would be pretty close to the start of the track.

Hmm, didn't look too familiar. No sign of the tramping track on the other side of the either. Was now around 6 and getting dark so I headed downstream as fast as I could. Clambering over boulders and wading through knee deep water, made good progress. Suddenly found myself in a pool deeper than me. Dived under to grab the rear light off the bike, when I came up I found the bike wasn't sinking so swam with it for a few kicks and then found I could touch the bottom again. Parked the bike at the next bank and marked the location on my garmin. Checked my seat bag and cursed not having a small flashlight in there.

Took off again using my rear light to show the way (barely). After a few more swims the cold was getting to me so I decided to stay out of the deep water. I found a grassy spot and wrung out my clothes, ate something put on my jacket, and started to shiver. Wondered how long before the Mrs started to miss me, and how long would search and rescue take to find me. Too long.
Suddenly realized I could save my track on the garmin 500 and then pull it back up as a course, which would give me a map. This took a while with my hands violently shaking, but eventually found I was only about 800m from the carpark, and I knew there was a picnic area closer. The moon was just rising over the hill so I could make my way over the rocks easily and there were no deep pools. Before long I saw the picnic table, and soon I was back at the carpark. 2 min up the road I was picked up by a couple of guys driving up for a night ride and they took me home. Champs!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106056277

The Mrs thought I was having a sneaky long ride and avoiding the bed/bath chaos with the kids

Went back on sunday to scope out the bike recovery, saw I had gone past 3 or 4 easy entry spots to the track, and one picnic table. Unfortunately I had parked the bike a long way from anywhere so would require a few swims to get it out.
Felt up to the job today so went out armed with a wetsuit, lots of polypro, a thermos of coffee and a keen sense of adventure.
Got in about 200m upstream and managed to avoid getting in more than waist deep. Pretty bloody cold with the snow melt. Bike was just as I left it!. Took out the spare tube, inflated and cable tied it to the frame. Amazed my pump still worked.
Decided to haul it back upstream and found a nearby bank I could clamber up. Wheels were easy but the frame was a bit tricky to climb with.
Big ring a bit bashed up and my headlight is a little damp (still running) but otherwise bike in good nick.

AWESOME!

Jeepers! Glad you're okay!

Oli wrote:Jeepers! Glad you're okay!

Nerves were shot Sunday/Monday and body pretty battered too.
Felt pretty good today.

Where I dumped it and my still untested submarinebike invention.

Makara Peak is riding real mint at the moment Especially Snowface

After taking the commuter into pieces, greasing it through and putting it back together (It really suffered after the snowy week).. had a nosey around with the dude, what condition Barking Emu might be in.. Wasn't too much fun as still plenty of mudpuddlesss, so return on the road and down transient what was nice to ride after the maintenance it received yesterday

Here some details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/108117192

Yesterday I rode a couple of hours at Makara Peak. Trails in excellent condition after a week of being hammered with H20

Today a got the commuter out and rode over to the Mirimar Tails for some digging.

Two stunnig days for riding in Wellington