Packhorse Blast

Picked up Craig from his place and headed up Hackthorne Road to Dyers Pass (lower section of Dyers is still closed) and over into Governors Bay then out to Teddington and up Gebbies.  On the way up Gebbies Pass we could see a logging truck coming out of the road were the track starts.  We figured this would probably mean the track was closed, but the signs all said track open at the top so we headed in.  My cold had now enveloped my lungs so I was struggling right from the start to keep up with Craig as he has just come back from 300+Kms last week up in the North Island so was attacking the climbs at high velocity in the big chainring.  I could only spin along and watch him dissapear.  He filled in the time waiting for me by turning around and riding back to me then hooning off again. 

The logging crews have been busy in here, but the track is still fine and the top section of forrest is still all standing.  This section was fun, but with only half the normal lung capacity I was struggling.  In the end on the steep switchback section half way up I got further than any other time due to the corners being wider, but blew up and had to walk for a while.  Made it eventually to the top of the trees and then out into the open, less steep section.  My legs had no strength left though, so I was spinning along slowly to the top.  At the hut it was pretty windy so we only checked out the few for a minute or so then headed back down.  I took the lead seeing as I had gravity helping and Craig was on a fully rigid bike.  I had a blast finding some new lines and popping off some of the rocks, but had to be careful as some of the corners ar pretty tight and close to the edge.  The drop off the side wouldn't be much fun if you went over it too.  Craig was a few seconds back at the fence where the forest starts due to the lack of suspension on the rocks, but from there down was pretty close behind on the decents.

The forest section is much smoother and flowy so we had a sweet ride down with some really fast sections and fun swichbacks thrown in too.  Had a few close calls with the long grass pulling on the bars on some narrow off camber sections and had to push off a tree that has now grown to big to get around on the track.  There are 2 like that on the lower section and lines above them have started to form.  We hit the logged area and I grovelled up the hill while Craig caned off again.  Over the open farmland section I found some awesome lines giving a real roller coaster ride down to the fence crossing into the treeline.  From here we cruised up and out to the logging road then found the trail just below the road which is now covered in grass but has a good line on it.  I was expencting it to be pretty bad but it was actually quite fun and definately better than the road.  Back at the car we loaded up and headed back the way we came.  About 1hr 20 but it was a good tough workout with some awesome fun trails to keep the spirits up.