Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Tuesday evening off the eastern beaten track

Pick up from the Countdown carpark and through to Sumner in traffic and off up the Captain at 5.46pm.  Good climb, me not struggling quite as much as usual, even given the small head-cold I'm suffering from at present.  At Evans we spotted a clusterfuck of riders (group of more than 10) heading into the Godley, so decided to try something new.  Into the bottom of Greenwood, and up the worksite track up the ridge above.  STEEEEP.  Nelson cleaned it the whole way, I managed about half and then it got too much for me.  We had a wee look around and then got onto the walking track and headed up through some pines, over a fence, looked down Chalmers Track (into Lytt), and then headed on up some techy rocks and onwards to the Gun Emplacements.  From here we got onto what we usually descend down through the tussocks, climbing all the way up, quite enjoying it, to the stile.  Talked to a guy who didn't know where he was, explained to him how to get back to his car, and then we peaked up.... resting at the top for a bite with one more rider riding through while we were there.

Off down the trail, I nearly lost it after the first descent losing balance on the rocks on the way to the stile.  Over this, and flying.  I was tight on Nelson's tail the whole way, catching him on the corners, not quite so much on the straightaways.  My cornering was magic perfection.  So fast, and we were down to the 4wd in no time flat.  Down this and left into the old Greenwood start, flying around this, with Nelson getting the goods on me on the couple of climbs.  Before the end/start of the trail we hung the right onto the new track, getting good speed through this down and across above the road and under the rocks.  Awesome blast, tho one of the lower corners could really use a berm - sketchy.  Across the 4wd track, down near the gate, and into the other new one, this one mostly climbing but with a couple of small descents, hovering along close to the top of Jollies Bush, then numerous zig zags climbing up to above the ruins on Greenwood.

Into Greenwood at great speed, fanging down through the rocky top sections, me right on Nelson's tail right through this section, flowing good.  As we rounded through the rock gap and across the pumpy face to gloomy gulch he got the gap on me, and then I started to slow after the gulch where I usually rest, but I pushed on, and got good speed down the rocky section and through the swoopy bits.  I hauled up at the drop jump, and Nelson was in the tussocks just below here, resting.  I pushed back up a bit and then rode down and rolled the drop.  Easy, will drop it next time.  We got going before the next riders came down and bombed it all the way on down, me gaining on Nelson in sections, especially the face down to the first rocky up.  He cleaned this, I dabbed through it, and off again and out the bottom.

Stopped before entering Captain Thomas, let a few riders through and watched for the others who were all out and about tonight.  First, we spotted Robin finishing off Godley.  He rolled up to us and we chatted, then we saw Pete and Alistair doing the same, they rolled up and we all talked.  Robin was parked up here so the rest of us took off down, Nelson, Alistair, me then Pete.  Ali was tight on Nelson's tail for a good while, and I stayed latched on Ali's tail, pushing him harder in places.  Fast run down just over 7 minutes all done.  Good show on the first of the techy rocks with some other riders walking it as we rode through.  They were impressed.

These trails are getting a lot of traffic with the other end of the hills out of action.

All told, 18kms, 578m climbed.

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