5 April 2006

Mud in your eye #2. Mud therapy.

After hearing about and riding past this one forest, on my roadie a few times, I decided to take the singlespeed out for a spin. This is the first visit to the forest for my singlespeed and she was looking so excited upon seeing me with my mtb shoes and kit on. No more shopping trips or sightseeing for me, she was saying over and over again, or it could have been the hum of the knoblies on the road.


Nice ride out to the forest. Bikes only, thank you.

I had heard there was some tracks close, but 6km, hey it was just up the road. With my trusty GPS I ventured on my way, with an intelligent (as opposed to stupid) grin on my face. Something had been missing, and I knew it was a bit of mud, a few trees and a hell of a lot of sweet twisting singletrack. I hoped this little trip would give me the fix I needed. As much as I like road cycling, I need to balance things out occasionally with a few jumps, nature, and that ever present danger of 'what's around the corner, today'.


Some very sweet singletrack, ahh it's nice to be back.

The trails ended up been better than I expected, kind of a mix between Rotorua and Woodhill forests. I was just here for a reckonoiter, so stuck to the boundary track. This was a whopping 28km, a perfect twisting loop through some pretty sweet forest, even plenty of small climbs, and some nice descents. What more could I ask for on my door step. The boundary trail had lots of little tracks peeling off in more directions, later on I will be discovering these as I didn't want to have all the fun in one day.


Time for chillin, ahh so peaceful.

It got a bit crazy during the middle of the ride as it got very cold all of a sudden, lucky I had my customary for this time of year, three layers on top, two pairs of shorts, windstopper gloves and shoe covers, hat and ear and knee warmers on. As within minutes the hail was falling through the trees, I couldn't believe it as the sun was still out at the same time. It looked like snow in a matter of minutes, but as quick as it came it disappeared, crazy.


Dirty girl, and she still loves me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Benny,

Make sure you clean the dirty girl up before you come home mate or the uniforms from MAF will have ya.
Took the single speed up to Woodhill with Dougs old SID shocks and she runs sweet.

Cheers,

Shaun

benny said...

Even better, leave it dirty, let them know it's dirty, and they clean it for you. Last time they had the toothbrush on my shoes, they have never seen so much love. hey there my old SID's as well, watch out they know that forest very well.