Mono goes berko

Don't get too excited folks - just a ride report from Sharpie.

I took advantage of the mint weather today and got a few miles in on the MTB - with no real rain for the past week I swapped out my 2.4 winter tyres for some 2.0 semi-slicks. Fun.

I headed along the road from Karori, out onto SH2 towards the Hutt Valley. Some dude on a full-on Time Trial bike came past me on the motorway, and although I've only got a 32T on the front I rode along at his pace from before Horokiwi to Petone (I sat about 5m back though, didn't want to cramp his style). Cruised along the Petone Foreshore, enjoying the sunshine and lack of any real wind. I peeled off the armwarmers at the foot of Wainui Hill, and headed up the track off the side of the road. Upon reaching the saddle I headed south, along Rata Ridge, towards Mt Lowry. I saw a fair few people out enjoying the trail, including a few walkers and a group of 4 on mountain bikes. The trail to Mt Lowry along Rata Ridge is great fun - pretty rooty, and quite a challenge to ride in places. Same goes for the descent down into Wainui - plenty of tight corners, rooty bits, steep bits, etc... fantastic fun. It was riding super nice too, everything was dry and grippy.

Once I'd popped out onto the streets of Wainui I headed along to the Crazyman Climb (the Konini firebreak). Moseyed up the various wee pinch climbs and clay bits to the T intersection at the top. Normally I head left, and head for 491/Spoonhill, but today the sun was shining, the shanks were doing OK, and I had some time to kill (Obviously). I thought I'd check out the trail leading to the right, see where it ended up. Long story short, it ends up in Stokes Valley... hmmm, OK. Once I'd escaped gangland I headed down the Hutt River trail, wishing I had a compact road crankset on the MTB. The combination of a slight downward slope and a slight tailwind made the thought of a 50T appealing. Anyway, I carried on along with my teeny 32T, eventually reaching Lower Hutt city. I jumped onto the roads again, and headed across the motorway and up into the hills. I flagged hitting Danzig, instead climbing by road to the top. Along the tops, and into the paddocks. I bumped into The Godfather (Marco) and had a chinwag until I got cold standing in the wind. Along I went, up to Round Knob (Always funny) then down to Takapu Road substation. On the way down from Round Knob there were heaps of sheep on the track, and I was making lots of odd noises to try and get them to move outta my way. At one point the track does a 180 down the hill, and I had a couple of sheep do the mean road gap - a drop of about 2m, and they landed about 4m from where they took off! Kamikaze sheep in Belmont.

From here I had more tarmac to cover - I had planned on riding through Spicers forest to Ohariu Valley, but seeing as I don't actually know where to go I thought I'd flag that. Instead, I headed along the road to Johnsonville, where I made a stop for 2 packets of mini dinosaurs and a drink. Up to Truscott Park, then to the top of Mt. Kaukau. I didn't stop to admire the view, but I'm sure it was just lovely. I had some confidence in the tyres and I'd played around with the new(ish) Fox F29 fork a bit too to get it working all proper like, so I had an excellent steam down through the farmland near the top. Infact, since the new stiles have been installed I was able to ride uninterrupted from Kaukau to Makara Road. Awesome. The little bits of singletrack that have been cut in along the way are excellent, and really help give the Skyline track some continuity.

After negotiating the gate near the water tank, I headed for the summit via Varleys and Zacs. Straight through at the top, to try my luck on Ridgeline. As it turned out the tyres were fine in the slushy bits - during the winter months a couple of sections of Ridgeline don't see ANY sun at all, and are quite sheltered from the wind, so remain soggy for some time after rain. This was pretty much the only mud I saw the during the entire ride! Ridgeline extension, Swigg and Starfish were fantastic fun. At the carpark I refilled my bottle, and made a tough decision - I live about 3 minutes from the carpark, and could have quite happily headed home at that point... but it was still sunny, and my legs still worked. Damn.

Up Salvation to the top of Wrights Hill, then down alongside the Sanctuary fence to the Long Gully access road. Riding up the road I had time to check out the hoons drifting around on the old airstrip, and passed a corolla parked up, with 4 young guys standing on the roof and the unmistakable smell of pot. I reached Hawkins Hill Road, and headed for the golf ball. I caught up to a dude on a 6" travel trail bike, and as I passed asked "How's it going?", to which he replied "Not as good as you". I nearly burst out laughing, but didn't have the energy - my legs felt like they'd been through a tumble dryer, and I had absolutely NO energy. Maybe he didn't notice the salt (dry sweat) covering my face...

Once at the top of the Tip Track, I conjured up enough energy to steam down to Red Rocks. This is one of my favourite descents around - mainly just fast and loose, and the little pinch climbs break it up nicely. I had a stretch at the bottom of the track, before battling with the dozens of groups of walkers using the track round the coast - great to see so many people out, but a pain in the arse for me to navigate. Back onto tarmac, and I headed round the coast to Houghton Bay. Up Houghton Bay Road, and across the park to join up with the trail that climbs to the top of the hill. Progress was slow, but that gave me more time to check out the burnt out nifty fifty near the top... kids these days.

From there I went past the 4X track (Which I didn't know was there until 2 weeks ago!) up to the top of Mt. Albert. Around the side, and down to the soccer field by the zoo, before crossing over to Karitane. Didn't hit any jumps up, not cos I suck at anything like that, but cos I was in a hurry. Honest. A bit more tarmac followed, before I got to the top of Mt Vic, which was to be the last hill of the day (Apart from my ride home... forgot about that). I cruised down the North face, and popped down to Oriental Bay. Smashed a chocky milk, then sifted along the shared footpath thing - bloody hell it was packed! Some reet went speeding the other way on a road bike, would probably only be a matter of time before they took someone out. Along the waterfront, down to the Beehive and back up to Karori.

A great day out - bike was fantastic, the weather was great and the trails were just dandy. It was cool to hit some decent hills, all in one ride - Mt Lowry, Konini, Belmont, Kaukau, Makara, Wrights Hill, Hawkins, Mt Albert and Mt Vic.

Factoids:

Total Distance: Definitely more than 22km.
Total Ascent: Enough to make my legs a bit sore
Total time: 8 hours
29ers rule
Number of yellow dinosaurs found in 2 mini packets: 3 (yellow ones are the best)