Crossmarks – Not the Ideal Wet Riding Tyre

In our shed at home we have a stock of tyres, bought when they were on sale. They are all Maxxis Crossmarks. That’s because we live in Christchurch and in Christchurch when it rains the tracks close. This means that I don’t do a lot of riding on wet tracks, maybe a splash about Bottlelake or McLeans Island, but nothing technical and certainly nothing rooty and rutty in the wet (ew eeeerr!).

Yesterday, after an evening of heavy rain, I ventured back into Redwoods to see if my legs were feeling any better after their run the previous day. I knew the tracks would be wet, but I felt hopeful that it wouldn’t be too bad after a sunny morning. Being the lazy beast I am I caught the shuttle up to the drop off point on Tawa Rd and headed straight into Huckleberry Hound. It was pretty dry and I had fun hucking my way down. Then I made the Best Decision Eva and decided to go down Corners rather than Little Red Riding Huck. Cornering is one of my favourite things so I felt I couldn’t go wrong with a track called Corners. It was absolutely fantastic. For Canterbury locals think Yankee Zephyr to the power of 10, without that horrid climb to get there (if you’re shuttling). Corner after perfectly formed corner caught my skittish tyres and guided them safely onto the next one. The track was a little wet (as it was my first run I actually thought it was pretty wet, but was proved wrong by my later explorations of the forest). All I could think on the way down was how great this track is and how I want to ride it in the dry. If it is the only thing I ride today when I drag myself out of bed I’ll be happy.

Corners conveniently drops you back at the shuttle pick up and I caught the last shuttle of the day back up to the top. I asked some Aussies who’d ridden the top tracks earlier what they were like and they assured me I’d “be fine” on them. Which was a nice compliment considering they’d never seen me ride. Spinning up to the start of Billy T my legs and lungs actually felt pretty damn good, and soon I was into the track and sliding all over the place. It was wet. I had zero traction. But it was still super fun. Sure I was going a lot slower than the previous day, but because control was tentative at best it was still thrilling. There were a few dabs and unplanned stops, but no crashes so all in all it was a success. I quickly decided that riding the tracks in the wet on Crossmarks adds 1 to the grading of the tracks.

Now I was off into unfamiliar territory and into G Rock. It was plenty wet, with large soak holes and deep wet chutes. It was in one of these chutes that I had a very minor crash where my front wheel clipped one wall of the chute and then wedged itself firmly in the opposite wall, forming a wheel dam in the chute. I gracefully tumbled onto the bank and thought I had just applied an extra layer of mud to my leg. I had forgotten about the cheese-grater nature of the Rotorua’s volcanic dirt and soon the mud was leaking red. ALWAYS wear your knee high socks when riding in the wet.

Soon after this little mishap I was out of G Rock and taking the relatively straightforward Chesnut Link into Rollercoaster, riding an upper section I hadn’t ridden before. All started well and then I came to a wide section that was a deadly looking rut fest to the left and what appeared to be a smooth line to the right. I rolled slowly into the right and saw that my smooth line dropped straight down before levelling out a bit. It dropped away so quickly that I couldn’t bail and ended up riding down it, sure I was going to die at any second. When I safely reached the bottom I was shouting and giggling like a mad person amazed I’d escaped serious injury and stoked to have ridden something so full on in the wet.

The rest of Rollercoast was a slippy slidey mess, but I found the little pinches way easier, which pleased me greatly.

Then it was onto Old Chevy. This is a great track, lots of climbing, rewarded with fun fast descents (well they would be in the dry), choices between challenging and less challenging lines in places, and long. Very very long. Everythime I thought I was getting close to the end I’d find myself climbing back over a ridge and heading deeper into the forest again. I began to wonder if I was lost. On I pedalled, loving how well my legs were responding to this challenge and then came my second crash of the day. Down a steep and unusually rocky section into a tight wet right hander. Unfortunately there was a bloody great stone in the middle of the track and I chose the wrong side of the stone to head down, straight into a wet patch and slidey slide slide. A tiny amount more gravel rash and I was kicking myself for not taking the rocky high line, after all, I know how to ride rocks. Finally Old Chevy popped me out at the entrance to Yellow Brick Road and I couldn’t resist heading into it. Mellow and windy, it had gentle climbs and descents and a back ground soundtrack from the Wizard of Oz provided by my slightly energy starved brain. Good times.

It was a great ride and restored my severely dented faith in my fitness and then to top off a great day’s riding, and an awesome 7 years since my wonderful husband and I got together, we found a fantastic Mexican restaurant and I got to quench my hunger on an epic burrito, and drink delicious cocktails. The burrito was so huge that I had to share it much to my hubby’s delight. And now today it is sunny. Oh yeah.

And here is the view of my monster getting a little snuggly on our return.

After the Storm

Apparently there was a significant storm in Rotorua last Wednesday. Hubby and I first noticed signs of apocalyptic style destruction on our 11km ride from the Airport to the completely awesome Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park. You may wonder why I’m noting the distance of the ride when it seems so short. Well it turns out riding that far with over 17kgs on your back in a big pack which forces your helmet forward and completely precludes you from turning your head to check for traffic while turning is something of a mission. Even more so when it is 20 degrees and muggy and you’re wearing jeans. Then having that amount of weight on your back feels like it is all being directly transferred to your seat via the hard raised seam in your jean’s crotch. I’ve put that as delicately as I can, I hope no one was offended. Needless to say I will not be volunteering to carry the heavy pack again.

I was pretty knackered after this effort and subsequent trips into town for a Zippy’s feed and crucial supplies that upon returning to our quaint log cabin I fell asleep while hubby went out to “suss out the trails”. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him, he met up with a group of Aussies and ended up doing an epic 3 hour ride and returning back to the cabin a babbling hypoglycaemic mess. Lucky beer and lollies soon remedied this and we later took the lazy option of taxi-ing into town for a massive fed at the Pig and Whistle where we caught up with the Aussies again and chatted till the early hours of the evening. I say early hours because we headed back to the camp around nine and after a very enjoyable soak in the complementary thermal pools enjoyed a rather good sleep.

Today we woke bright and early-ish and I was able to convince my hubby to take his first ever shuttle. Soon we were most of the way up the hill and warming up by grovelling up the steep little bit of fireroad that leads to Billy T where we met up with the Aussies again. Oh such heaven, the track, not the Aussies. It’s been a long time since I was in Rotorua and now I felt completely comfortable attacking the trail rather than tentatively inching along. After plenty of drops, roots, ruts and bermed corners I was at the bottom, to meet the boys who weren’t far ahead. We went our seperate ways here as I was desperate to ride Split Enz again (one of my favs) and they were hitting up G Rock.

Split Enz was just as I remembered it, fast, flowing and bermed to perfection, from there it was down the steps on Pondy Downhill, which then became a descent down a fireroad due to logging, and then popping into the fantastic Pondy New. At this point my trail descriptions get a bit blurred, there was climbing and swooping down through the forest, drops and bridges, challenging rut/root combinations and just generally awesomeness. Then it was into the second half of Rollercoaster, aptly named for its up and down nature and then with the help of some awesome local knowledge onto a new track called Moonshine. This is a slightly technical wee beastie with a number of slippery off-camber roots that test your line selection and commitment. I loved it and came out the bottom with my traditional grinning like an idiot face on.

After failing to play on Pump because of downed trees, we cruised down the road to Spring Roll where we began to encounter more and more fallen trees blocking the track. It was a fun little track and then we were on Sweet N Sour, which was a climb (and therefore not my favourite), with little challenge other than the portaging of bikes over the recently fallen. This track seemed to go on forever and I was feeling quite fatigued by the halfway point. On I ground and after what felt like an eternity (who says I exaggerate) we were out on the road and ready to tackle Dragon’s Tail. Here we encountered some slightly lost riders and with the combination of our two different maps managed to get them heading on the right track. We must have seemed like we knew what we were talking about as they thanked us with a hearty “Thank you friendly locals”. Funny. Dragon’s Trail was brilliant (apart from one particularly annoying fallen tree which required some bush bashing to get around as over really wasn’t an option). Lots of little pinches were rewarded with tight fast corners and a few drops, and just a few bits of techy rooty goodness thrown in to keep you on your toes.

From the end of this trail it was a blast down Red Tank Rd, to hook into Mad if You Don’t, where we had a brief conversation with a rider who’d spent almost an hour lost in the logged area and was quite frustrated at not being able to find any tracks. I suggested that a shuttle ride would immediately place you on the correct side of the forest to avoid all the logging mayhem and he seemed quite keen.
Mad if You Don’t flew by and I was feeling great on the bike, if completely knackered, I rode the track hard and fast and even managed a rather nice jump at one point. At the bottom it was back down to the base for some greatly needed food and delicious cold chocolate. Heaven.

Right now it’s raining outside, so hopefully it will stop sometime in the night and tomorrow will be good for riding. I’m very keen to hit up the two Huck tracks and maybe even slog my way to the top of Hot X Buns. I love it here. 

PS - That night we had the most epic pizza eva, so delicious and vast that we couldn't even eat the whole thing. If you're staying at the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park I highly recommend ordering from the Pizza Library, or even walking around the corner and eating in. Ordering is better though because then you get to see the crazy delivery vehicle.

And finally here is the cute camp cat.

Journey to the Northern Isle – Part the Final

Getting towards the end of the trip and the forest was getting wetter and our legs were getting tireder. Despite this we decided to tackle Hot X Buns first thing in the morning. After a decent climb to get to the top, we, well mainly me, enjoyed the fantastic view from the top and then we were on the way down. Does the phase “bitten off more than you could chew” sound familiar? Yep, that was me. Managed to ride the first 3 decent drop offs, but after that it was basically a walk down for me. It was a bit frustrating after the climb up, but I had no traction and I knew I didn’t have the skills to go fast enough to get the flow the trail needed. I got to the bottom in one piece with very tired feet and a very muddy butt after sliding down a bit of the hill.

After that it took a wee while to get my flow back on Be Rude Not 2, but I did get it back and by the end of the flowing lovely trail I was grinning again. From there we decided to try the Pig Track, which was aptly named. Some challenging rutted out climbs and messy rutty track in between, with no forest to distract you from the pain of the pinch climbs. From there we headed into Soak Hole and after going round in circles for a while headed out of the forest and back to Zippy’s for lunch.
After a delicious lunch I felt a lot like a nana nap, but that wasn’t an option. Back into the forest via the bike track through the thermal areas and we headed up the forestry road to A Trail and then Tickler. Both fantastic tracks and even though I was feeling pretty tired it was so much fun. The climb out back to the house was not good. That night we headed down to Toni and Jeff’s and had drinks and talked bikes for hours, a fantastic end to the day. Plus Toni gave me a load of Total Betty clothes to try on. They are very flattering, but being a bit poor at the moment I couldn’t buy anything.
The next day we decided to try Gunna Gotta even though it had been bucketing down the night before. After an interesting hike-a-bike shortcut to the top we headed off. The track was very wet and slippy. I could see how much fun the track would be if it wasn’t so wet, but it was so wet and again I had to walk a number of bits. Hopefully on the next trip it won’t be wet and I can really enjoy the track. Then it was into town for a last coffee at Zippy’s for hubby, some lovely chocolate cake, again for hubby and a bit of lunch. We then called in to see Jeff at the Kiwibikes shop and Pete gave him the run down on his list of problems. Result, one bike still in Rotorua, in Jeff’s capable hands. Once back at the house the rest of the day was spent lazing and laughing at the crazy sheep and cute lambs.
Watching the sheep turned out to be very useful as one went into labour so we let Toni know. The next morning there was a lovely new orange baby lamb. Cool.
The last day consisted of a long sleep in and packing. In no time I had my bike dismantled and packed and then we were off home.
It was a fantastic holiday and my skills and fitness have both improved amazingly. Only a week and a bit to the Molesworth now and I’m feeling confident of finishing without dying.

Journey to the Northern Isle – Part the Three

The Big Day Out

The third day of our Rotorua adventure brought the largest exploration of the trails in the stunning forest. We began our day by discovering the hidden entrance to the forest near our abode, known to the locals by the mysterious name “Roosters”. Soon we were freewheeling down Red Tank Rd looking forward to the greatly anticipated Be Rude Not 2. The anticipation was well justified. Be Rude Not 2 is a fantastic flowing speedy swoopy trail. I loved it. A huge grin was plastered on my face by the end and the confidence that was rocked by the previous day’s tumble was returning. From Be Rude Not 2 we were straight into Mad If You Don’t and before we knew it we were out of the forest and heading down the road into the city to pick up a rental car.
Once we had our remuera tractor, yay free upgrades, we loaded up the bikes, parked up and headed to the Rotorua icon that is Zippy’s Cafe for a spot of second breakfast. Feeling sustained by the fine food and after chatting to the manager and sussing out an afternoon route through the forest we headed home to move the sheep (yep, you read that right, a bit of everything on our holiday).
I decided a nana nap was the order of the day upon returning home and awoke feeling greatly revitalised. This time we headed up the road and ended up riding back up Hill Rd and up Frontal Lobotomy (no incidents this time). After a brief sit down(by me) we continued up the road to the start of Billy T. I was feeling a bit apprehensive about this as I hadn’t ridden a grade 4 downhill track yet. Seats down slightly we headed off. In no time at all I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, swooping down corners and riding down drop offs. This was definitely harder than anything I’d ridden before but I rode the whole track clean and I felt fantastic at the end. From there we headed up Moerangi Rd to the start of Split Enz. Best Track Eva! I flew down here. It flows so sweetly and has the best bermed corners. From there it was onto Pondy DH and Pondy New. Both were fantastic. Then onto Rollercoaster. By now both hubby and I were feeling pretty knackered and while Rollercoaster was a nice track we were both not really into it. Especially when we came across a couple of big trees down that necessitated some bike passing over. A big thanks to the fast guy on the sweet Transition that helped me get my bike over. At the end of Rollercoaster we were both ready to head home and the climb out hurt.
It was by far my best day riding ever, over 40kms, over 400ms climbing and loads of technical single track. Fantastic. I was happily broken at the end.

A Lunar Experience
Day four and it was time to head down to Taupo to Craters of the Moon. Two words. Cruise control. It rocks. A quick drive down the road to Wairakei. On the first climb out from up from the Tunnel Track both of us realised we hadn’t recovered from the previous day’s exertions. The Crater’s of the Moon tracks were lovely and I enjoyed sailing around the lower ones, but I really wasn’t up to the big climbs to the outer tracks. After a couple of laps and some fun playing on the structures (I rode my first see-saw, yay!) we decided to play tourist and then get some lunch in Taupo. On the way home we called in at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and it was brilliant. The day ended with us watching the new born lambs discovering the structures, maybe they’ll be hucking off them soon.

Journey to the Northern Isle – Part the Two

Children – Always Wear Your Helmets

Firmly getting into the swing of vacationing I found that my slumber had extended past 8 of the morning, quite a rarity for me. Another cloudy morning with fine periods greeted my eyes upon waking. My body was feeling a little tired from the previous day’s exertions and this was confirmed with a few laps of the lawn and structures. My dear companion and myself surveyed the map of the forest and decided on a route for today’s explorations.
We started up the road and entered the forest onto Hill Rd, which turned out to be very aptly named, as it mainly consisted of a decent sized hill. My pedalling legs were not very impressed with this early assault, but fortunately they were not in charge and I slowly rode up the hill. Early on a young woman participating in a multi-sport event of some description zoomed past me, however it was with a degree of schadenfreude that I discovered her pushing her bike a couple of corners later. I wasn’t in a mood to be racing so took my small pleasure from riding the whole way up even though she beat me to the top. Once at the top my companion and I rested and contemplated our ascent up Frontal Lobotomy. I very much enjoyed this climb. The trail was quite wide and the grade good with the odd root and slippery section to keep me on my toes. Unfortunately pride comes before a fall as they say, and it wasn’t long till I had a good one. Heading up one steep, slippery section I chose the worst possible line which caused my wheels to spin and for me to tumble head first down a bank with my bike still attached to me. Luckily a tree stopped my tumble and I was left wedged at the base of a tree, feet in the air, looking at my bike which was resting in a large tree fern. I was very very grateful for my helmet which was the first part of me to contact the tree and without it things would have been very bad. That’s why we wear them though and I was actually completely fine. Not a single part of me hurt and my only problem was that I couldn’t unclip my foot and was slightly trapped. After a few minutes yelling it was evident that I needed to extract myself from this dilemma and fortunately my recent yoga practise assisted me in this matter as I contorted myself to remove my foot from the pedal and extricated myself from beneath the bike. Once up the bank my next problem was getting my bike back. This took quite a bit of consideration. Finally I headed down the bank and managed to wrest my trusty stead free from the native growth.
Unhurt as I was, my confidence had taken quite a battering and I was very much feeling afraid of mud for quite some time after my tumble. I came across my lovely husband not long after continuing up hill and we made it to the top. The bike got a decent once over and everything was still working well so we headed down Huckleberry Hound. The map describes this as 45 small to medium jumps, hmmmm. This didn’t start well for me as I ever so slightly freaked out near the start and almost turned back. However I couldn’t bear the thought of riding all the way up the hill and not riding this track so I walked down a couple of slippy corners and continued on. The further along the track I got, the more confident I felt and by the end of it I actually managed a couple of hucks. I very much want to head back and give this another go when my head is in a better place.
We decided my head wasn’t in the right place for Little Red Riding Huck so headed down the road a bit and tackled Sidewinder which was a fun downhill, narrower than other tracks, but gave me a lot of my confidence back. There followed a quick zip through Lentil Link and we were back on Hill Rd, heading home.
Not the most successful second day, but I got to have a good rest this afternoon and am very much looking forward to a full day of riding tomorrow.

Journey to the Northern Isle – Part the One

Our journey did not start in the most auspicious fashion as having almost finished packing, my companion and I found ourselves out of doors with no key and an inopportunely snibbed lock. In fear of missing our booked passage to the north, a locksmith was hastily summoned forthwith and with wallets slightly lighter we were happily indoors and completing the preparations for the journey. Carriage to the airport was booked, though this too was more troublesome than I would have liked, as the operator seemed not to understand that my baggage necessitated the procurement of a van, not a hatchback. When the taxi did arrive it was touch and go as to whether our vast boxes would fit within its narrow confines. Fortunately they did and our journey was begun.

Our travels were incident free, although we did manage to escape the need to pay an additional fee for our luggage as the electronic payment system went down. Hurrah! Upon arriving in the sulphur scented city we secured portage to our dwelling in a shuttle and were soon lugging our luggage up the gravel driveway to a lovely cottage. Later in the evening we journeyed back into the city with the aid of the proprietor’s vehicle to provision ourselves for our week long adventure. Exhausted but happy my lovely companion and I tumbled into a deep slumber, excited by the prospects of exploring the forest on the morrow.

The new day dawned slightly overcast and my companion set about building our lovely bicycles and I set about lazing in bed reading trashy magazines. As the morning wore on I eventually dragged myself from the warmth of the bed to the deck chairs and commenced a session of intensive sitting and watching my companion riding on the structures provided by our hosts. Eventually the lure of the structures became too much and appropriately attired I mounted my cycle and had great fun playing on them myself. After an early, but substantial, lunch we set off down the hill to acquire a map of the notorious Whakarewarewa Forest (or the Redwoods as the locals call it). Map successfully acquired and anticipation running high, we planned a route which I hoped I would be able to tackle, not being sure of the difficulty of the various grades. Also it has been quite a long period since I rode anything particularly technical so I was slightly nervous of how I would find the grade 3 tracks and thought that grade 4 would probably be beyond my skills on this first ride.

Our ride began with a short climb up a forestry road and then we entered the forest proper on Genesis, a Grade 3 track. My concerns were not allayed by the necessity to push a short distance up this entry track. However soon after I was sweeping through the prehistoric forest and grinning with joy as I rode past the boughs of the mighty redwood trees. This first track was fantastic and flowed beautifully. I found that everything was within my abilities to ride, and even managed a couple of rather good hucks along the way. Once we exited Genesis we found the entry to another Grade 3 track, Challenge, which was also great fun. My confidence was slowly rising as I rode over wet roots and down drop offs. Soon we came across the entrance to an easier Grade 2 track, The Dipper, which was basically flat and flowing with some very nice berms. We agreed that while this track was most enjoyable it did not bring quite the same level of pleasure as previous tracks.

Next we came to the Rockdrop track. The entrance sign said Grade 5 (!!), but the map said Grade 4 so we sallied forth and were soon enjoying some lovely switch back climbs, rooty descents, drop offs that were larger than any previously encountered and lovely flowing corners. I loved this track. I almost rode it clean and for me it really showed how far my riding has progressed over the past six months. My climbing skills have improved immensely, as have my descending skills and confidence. I rode things on this track that in the past I would have got off and walked round and I was controlled and comfortable on all of them.

Unfortunately we managed to get slightly lost on this track and missed the last section by ending up on a road so we shall have to return. Finally we exited via Exit Trail, another good test of my new found confidence as I rode down the fast flowing trail and through deep ruts and bumpy wee drop offs with the greatest of ease (well a lot of grinning anyway). Happy and impressed with our first foray into the forest my companion and I headed into the city for some much need sustenance before tackling the hill climb back to our dwelling.

So our first ride in Rotorua was a 3 hour ride and I felt really good, and pretty tired at the end. I am most intrigued to see how my body copes with another such ride today. And today we will endeavour to ensure our photographic device is in working order to capture the glory of the forest.

Vegas Baby!!! Yeah!!!

Flying to Vegas tomorrow!

Las Vegas ??? you say.

No! Even better. Rotovegas (or Rotorua for those not in the know).

Can't wait to ride that sweet sweet single track for 7 days.