Paul Petch

Crater Rim ride at Port Hills

Just when I thought I’d ridden all the trails on Port Hills, Ben sends out an email to see if anyone wanted to join him to ride the Crater Rim trail on Sunday. Spence was kind enough to pick me up and his girlfriend dropped us off at the Kennedy Bush carpark in Haswell for 10ish and we set off.

Carrying a fair bit of kit and food the climb up Kennedy Bush was really tough without a warm up…. so much so that my breakfast struggled to stay down. Ben on his carbon rush set a blistering pace up this section too… and Spencer and I followed like old men :D I would not recommend riding up here cold! a warm up is a must as it goes from flat to struggling to keep the front end down for most of the climb……. it was fantastically tough. At the top the views were stunning with “patch work” like patterns of the Canterbury Plains under fluffy white clouds heading off into the distance :)

Over to the Flying Nun we went and this is where things got a little messy. Riding behind Ben he just washed out at the front on a turn and went down hard on his inside knee. Ben was stunned and shook up a tad as I helped him to his feet and once he got his bearings back off we went. After a few corners and a few rocks on what is an amazing track, Ben washed out again and landed on the very same knee! OUCH! As much as Ben could not work out what had just happened…. I cannot go past blaming the 2.1 Maxxis Crossmarks front and rear *shrugs*.

Anyway, I took the lead this time and we soon caught up with Spencer and while chatting about Ben’s misfortune a chap on his son passed us and commented on how this was their first time in the hills….as they bounced off every rock and rut. It was scary to watch… and we all stared open mouthed as they headed off!

Hitting the cafe at the Sign of the Kiwi Spence and I had coffee while Ben inhaled pie and chips… haha. I could have stayed there all afternoon over looking the city.. but after sunblock and topping up our Camelbaks we headed up to the top of Vic Park and then to the Traverse. It was not until I got here that I started to feel like I had warmed up and started to get into the flow of things!

Hitting Castle Rock I had the regular butterflies in my stomach before unlocking the shocks :) I absolutely nailed this track yesterday…. what a buzz it is on a dually! Unfortunately, at the bottom I heard a hissing and knew what had happened…. a snake bite on the rear again!! Last time I hit Castle Rock (Thursday?) I pinch flatted in exactly the same spot on the track! Looking closer I also noticed two reasonable dings on the Syncros rim too…..doh! Cursing and grumbling I replaced the tube and I won’t be running Nobby Nics again….. they are just to small and soft for the rocks here.

We stopped again for food before hitting Greenwood and then we climbed up the magnificent Taylors Track. Ben was following me over a rocky ledge and I heard a clang….and a loud painful shout. Ben had hit his bloody and bruised knee at full force into a rock!!!! Holy shit… even my eyes watered at this point!!!

Before we knew it (or did we block out the climbs?) we were traversing the coastal tracks and at the Anaconda coasting into Taylors Mistake. After… yep… more food off we went on the road into Sumner…. which tends to split up the group quite successfully due to its gradient ;)

Wedges, beer, coke and dips were welcomed over looking the ocean before we headed back and greeted with a rare event…. a tail wind!! hooorah! As Spence commented…..yesterday was a ride that he has wanted to tick off his list for sometime. I highly recommend this ride as it pretty much covers the whole of the Port Hills XC tracks…. in style ;)

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Related posts:

1. Richard’s visit. Ride five. Port Hills to Taylors Mistake
2. Port Hills Crater Rim 30KM trail run
3. Showing some more visitors around the Port Hills
4. Richard’s visit. Ride two. Port Hills
5. The Flying Nun track – Port Hills

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with ben, crater rim, epic, port hills, spencer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.