Paul Petch

A sunny afternoon of Mountain Biking in the Port Hills

Amy and I headed into the city for a quick bite to eat and a coffee before I met up with Ben at Worsley’s Road to begin the long climb up the road and then the steep and now technical muddy and slippery Worsley’s Track. The track has huge ruts running all the way up due to it being open to 4WD’s and man oh man they really cut stuff up. We managed it ok considering, to then become unstuck right at the top on the Body bag where a rear wheel slip caused both of us to come to a halt. Gutted! Sweating and panting like old men we declared that our Summer MTB legs had left us- but I’d rather see it as the ground is wet and slippery instead :D

At the top and Inhaling some food (Power Cookie nomnom) we then put on our knee pads off we went up to the Flying Nun Track. In the shaded areas of the climb it was still icy, yet the sun was high in the blue sky. The Flying Nun has become a fantastic bit of trail after some months of bedding in….and it is in such great condition too….with alot of work done since we last rode it. Some new rocky sections have also been added along with some fantastic berms and launch offs. I love this track so much and it’s a saviour over the Winter months due to the soil type being what seems to be alot more sandy compared to the other side of the Port Hills. I wish that there were more trails over this side of the Hills as the soil type is far superior.

Once at the Sign of the Kiwi and smiles (relief?) all around we headed up the road and it the small (but ball breaking) shared tracks along the road edge. Before we knew it we were at Victoria Park and once we came out to where the Traverse Track begins- Ben stopped to eat some proper food. Our original plan was to head to Sumner, but with my efforts yesterday and Ben having Tramped also, we decided that we could not be bothered. So instead I stupidly agreed to ride down the Lava flow Track instead :) I say stupidly, because it was quite apparent within the first 100M that being a Downhill track classed at difficult it was 100% correct and out of my league. Holy crap It is a gnarly beast and lives up to its name too, with most of it being volcanic rock with drop offs galore. The Caption Thomas Track has nothing on this one. Far out. Being the first time that I’ve ridden it and combined with shed loads of mud and grease everywhere (ok ok I was scared too :0), I opted to take pictures of Ben riding stuff that made my chocolate starfish (Whafe that will never grow old :)) pucker. Ben is such a skilled rider and as I’ve mentioned many many times…has nuts made of unobtanium for sure. On one section he rode down…. I’ve never seen nothing like it….it was a 6 foot near vertical rocky drop FFS. I reckon the boy’s on P to be honest :D I must work on my frop offs and roll downs over Summer…FACT!

With a sigh of relief and just glad to get to the bottom in one piece- we headed off for coffee and some carbs at the very same spot that Amy & I had started the day :D I even caught some U.V. this weekend…and what a glorious one it was! What a mad weekend :)

WoOt!

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Related posts:

1. The Flying Nun track – Port Hills
2. Mountain biking on the Port Hills – an epic!
3. Mountain biking in Port Hills snow!!
4. First night ride at Port Hills
5. Winter ride in the Port Hills

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Bike Rides and tagged with amy, ben, port hills, Trails & Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.