Initial Bangtail Divide Climb

In July Katie and I ventured north (well, north north west) to Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend.  Seeing as my truck looks like a sporting goods store vomited inside of it, by no surprise our mountain bikes were loaded in the bed.  We went into a local bike [...]]]>  

Initial Bangtail Divide Climb

In July Katie and I ventured north (well, north north west) to Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend.  Seeing as my truck looks like a sporting goods store vomited inside of it, by no surprise our mountain bikes were loaded in the bed.  We went into a local bike shop, Bangtail Bikes, and asked for a trail recommendation.  The guy at the shop asked a few questions about what kind of bikes we ride, how often we ride, and what type of terrain we like; all good and logical questions for a trail recommendation.  Then he asked where we were from.  With Boulder being the answer he smirked and quickly recommended Bangtail Divide (Bangtail Ridge?), what he said was an 18 mile ride.  He raved about how the trail had unbelievable views and all the magazines were glowing about the it.  Sure sounded good to us!

We drove up to the Bracket Creek trailhead and headed off into the wilderness.  The first many miles were climbing, with a decent but not painful grade.  And we just kept climbing.  I think all said there was almost 4,000 feet of climbing.  Thankfully the long climb was negated by the absolutely fantastic views.

Awesome Views on Bangtail Divide

A few hours in we started wondering about the 18 miles as, while we were no longer climbing, the trail was not seeming to be descending enough to get us back to the road.  That and the rapid gunfire from some nearby gun range started to make us mildly nervous.  However there were still beautiful meadows of singletrack to ride and a fair number of posts to mark the trail so the concern was fairly minimal.  Finally we reached a seemingly endless series of switchbacks and we knew we were dropping down to the Stone Creek trailhead and the five mile ride on the road back to the truck.  Which was good, seeing as we were both running empty with our Camelbaks.

When we got back to town I quickly searched the internet and found out the trail was 26 miles, with an additional 5 miles to get back to the car.  Was it worth it?  I am sure the shop guy had a good chuckle.  And I cannot even be mad, as this turned into my all time favorite ride.  26 miles of almost exclusive singletrack with less than 20 people going the opposite way on the trail.  The views were incredible, the trail was well marked, and I had an absolute blast.  Sure there was nothing overly technical but this was a long cross-country ride.  I would strongly recommend heading out to Bozeman if for no other reason than to ride this trail.  And remember, it is only 18 miles…

Meadow on top of Bangtail Divide Trail

Ahh, what a beautiful day for [...]]]> Yesterday I rode two laps at Walker Ranch.  When I started, it was 52 and partly sunny with a few clouds floating through.  When I finished, it was 46 with visibility less than 10 meters.  On the bright side, the clouds hid how slow I was going on the second lap…

Ahh, what a beautiful day for a ride!

Gee, the sky is getting dark but I'll go for another lap anyways

Hmm, it is hard to tell if I am still on the trail in this cloud

It has been almost half a year since Katie and I returned from our New Zealand honeymoon and in remembrance celebration I am posting the last piece of our four part adventure. After the painfully long flight into Auckland we met an old friend for a tour of the city. [...]]]>

View at Hosking Farm

It has been almost half a year since Katie and I returned from our New Zealand honeymoon and in remembrance celebration I am posting the last piece of our four part adventure. After the painfully long flight into Auckland we met an old friend for a tour of the city. The next morning, still confounded from the flight over, we headed to Ahipara for a week of surfing.  Returning to Auckland, we took our time to casual tour the city and the harbour. While we certainly enjoyed exploring a new city and learning a new sport, our excitement for the trip was highest heading into Rotorua to try our hand at mountain biking.

Killer Black Swan

Katie had asked if we could stay on a farm while we were in New Zealand; uncertain with the low quality of websites advertising a farmstay I opted for the one with pictures of massive brown trout, the bed and breakfast at Hoskings Farm just outside of Ngongotaha.  I cannot say that all B&B’s near Rotorua are run by one of the uniquely pleasant and heppy ladies I have ever met, have a beautiful house surrounded by meticulously kept gardens, and fields of curious cattle and sheep; the 120 acres at Hoskings Farm certainly did. Oh, and I forgot to mention the really big trout.  Really big.

Our host, Trish Hoskings, was a vibrant lady who dotted over her gardens and her guests.  Always full of suggestions and eager to offer food from her garden, Trish made our stay truly delightful.  Trish introduced us to her massive country garden, and assortment of chickens, lambs, and cattle; her pride in the land was evident.  On our first tour of the grounds we met the amusing young cattle as they would follow us to the gates between fields, hoping to get a free trip to the fresh grasses.  We amassed some impressive views, though the pool of massive trout under the bridge was edged out by the epic sunsets.

Rotorua Mountain Biking

As difficult as it was, we left the farm and ventured into Rotorua to hire (that means rent in “American”) mountain bikes for three days.  At Bike Vegas ran into a shop guy from Eugene, OR and scored a pair of modified Haro Mary XC 29ers; the front derailleur was removed, leaving us with the middle ring.  The shop guy assured us we would not need any more gears for redwood forest where we would be riding; he proved correct.  We loaded the bikes and headed over to the Whakarewarewa Forest trails with a quick visit to the New Zealand of Walmart to buy some cheap shoes. And no, I have no idea how you pronounce Whakarewarewa…

The locals claimed the Whakarewarewa Forest has some of the best riding in New Zealand; having nothing to compare and with our epic experience, I cannot doubt the claim.  The forest contains more than 70 km of trails interconnected by fire roads (that means even more available riding distance beyond the 43.5 miles of trails).  The trails were primarily flowy single track through densely treed woods; better yet they were all one way so you never had to hold back in fear of a crash.   Maps were scattered through the area, the trails were well marked off the fire road, and a smattering of water stations were available.  The was not major amounts of climbing (at least compared to our Colorado trails), but if you wish to get in more riding with less fire road climbing you can take a shuttle.

View from Riding Down Split Enz

While we did ride during the week, we very rarely met into other riders on the trails.  Those we did meet, primarily Australians whom were quite pleased that nothing in the forest was going to kill them, all exposed the same excitement as was on our faces.  The trails were phenomenal and I hope to have a chance to return and properly chronicle all of them; our last ride took us down Split Enz, continuing on the Pondy trails, and finishing on Old Chevy.  The fire road climb was long and we passed a few groups of Australians before finally reaching the trailhead for Split Enz.  The trail is tightly built with fast flowy curves swooping through huge trees.  As difficult as it was to stop, it was well worth it to see the gorgeous views.  Upon being dumped out to the Pondy system we had some slower, gentler grades of curves with moments of downhill speed.  We came out on Old Chevy, an up and down trail with more fast curves.   All combined, these trails were the single favorite ride of my life.

Fly Fishing a Spring Creek Near Rotorua

On a ski trip in the Colorado mountains shortly before we left for New Zealand I fell ill and spent a day perusing the fly shops in Summit county.  At the time, the only travel fly rod I possessed was a Fenwick 5 piece 5-weight that my father had built in the 1970s; I needed a better rod.  I picked up a fast action Sage FLi in an 8’6″ 4 piece 5-weight with a Sage 1850 reel for $200 on clearance.  Like most fast action rods the FLi can really punch out a lot of line, however I was more interested in the backbone to handle large New Zealand browns.

The country is fiercely proud of their fisheries and go to great lengths to protect them by restricting what gear you can bring into the country – I took the rod, reel, hemostats, leaders, and tippet material figuring I could buy everything else in-country.  I picked up about two dozen flies, some floatant, and some split shot before heading into the water. From the top of the steep banks I spied a plethora of browns and rainbows, ranging in sizes from around 12 inches to the largest trout I have ever seen in my life.  Along with the impressive size, I have never encountered such a concentration of large fish – it felt like walking along a fish hatchery. The New Zealand trout however were a lot smarter than their counterparts raised in American hatcheries.  My first challenge was hot to approach the fish; with the high banks I could not easily drop in behind them and spooked quite a few trout in my attempts to do so.  Eventually I made my way in and started working upstream.  Notice I have mentioned nothing about waders; I had none.  The spring creek was cold.  Very.  Cold.  Of course after a few minutes my feet and legs had gone completely numb so it no longer mattered.

The first day I spotted a few feeding fish but was unable to get them to take.  The next day, after a brief consultation with the fly shop, I purchased some 7x tippet and headed back into the water.  With the smaller tippet I was able to coax a mid-sized rainbow into taking a midge on the surface.  Unfortunately I discovered another flaw in my system – I had no net and the steep banks offered nothing to work the fish onto shore.  After a solid fight, the rainbow broke off as I unsuccessfully attempted to land him. I continued the trend with a few other small fish, breaking them all off before I can land them. Then it happened; I hooked a massive brown easily approaching 30 inches. The fish pulled me up and down the stream for well near 10 minutes before beginning to slow. The first time I got her close enough to touch the fish took off for another minute of sheer running; the second time I started to get my hand under her when she sprinted again and broke the line. I will definitely need to return for a rematch.

New Zealand Café

So what about the town and food? On our way into town we stopped for a bite of lunch – we ended up at a quaint, garden covered café.  The food matched the gardens in quality – fantastic!  In Rotorua each day we would eat a late lunch and pick up some bread and brie (with Trish’s garden vegetables) for evening snacking.  Given my love for lamb chops, I was amazed that it was the end of the trip before I finally had a rack of lamb.  With the outdoor activities, food was an afterthought though everyone we spoke to in town raved about the culinary options.  The town itself was very attractive – it was definitely a touristy/outdoorsy town but with the friendly New Zealand atmosphere.  Hot springs were on the edge of town and afforded a pleasantly casual stroll.  The lake bordering Rotorua was gorgeous but apparently the black swans are killers…  We heard that there were tons of outdoorsy activities to do but limited by our time and endurance,  we stuck with mountain biking and fly fishing.

Unfortunately our trip had to end and after two weeks in country we began our journey home.  On our way back to Auckland we stopped in the minuscule town of Tirua; they have the quintessential tourist trap in form of a massive corrugated metal sheep. We initially pulled over for the i-SITE visitors center but wondered into the Big Sheep Wool Gallery. One of my goals for the trip had been to acquire a new fly fishing hat, while I had successfully found a suit and a cycling jersey it appeared no hat was to be had. But then I was saved by the metal sheep! I found a great and airy Selke hat, just what I was looking for; Katie acquired a warm lumberjacks hat.  With our heads covered, we boarded another Air New Zealand flight for home (and failed attempts by three different flight attendants to get my entertainment system to work).

After bailing on 8:00.am Sunday morning mountain bike ride (almost a two hour car ride away), Katie and I were eager to sleep in. And by sleep in I mean we made it to 7:00 am.

We woke and turned on the Tour de France to watch Pierrick [...]]]>

View from the top of Hall Ranch

After bailing on 8:00.am Sunday morning mountain bike ride (almost a two hour car ride away), Katie and I were eager to sleep in. And by sleep in I mean we made it to 7:00 am.

We woke and turned on the Tour de France to watch Pierrick Fedrigo (Pierrick, if that really is your official website you need to get a new one; contact Katie. Or anyone. Please.) take the win over Franco Pellizotti, who had stopped helping at the 1 km mark. Karma perhaps? Or just that the climber couldn’t sprint…

After breakfast we loaded our mountain bikes, my Trek Fuel EX 8 and Katie’s Specialized Epic into the truck bed and took off for Hall Ranch, via the Antelope Trailhead. The Antelope trail takes you to the same loop as the main Hall Ranch trailhead, minus the rock garden.

I had not been to Hall Ranch in over a year, specifically the ride when I proposed to Katie. Further, I had not had luck at this particular trailhead before; the only other time I tried it my rear derailleur broke about 100 meters into the ride and the aborted trip ended at Oskar Blues. This trip was very successful as I only had a minor seatpost issue. The views were spectacular and there were minimal people on the trail.

Hall Ranch Singletrack

The bikes came down filthy and in need of some tuneups. I have to replace both of my derailleur cables, which were fraying rapidly, and Katie need’s to tune up her brakes. The Specialized Epic came with rim brakes; I happened to have a pair of Magura Marta SL brakes that I won at the Fruita Fat Tire Festival and switched the brakes out. Unfortunately the front brake has always been a bit soft, now to a point that Katie really would like me to fix it. I have never played with hydraulic brakes before but hopefully I can just add more fluid to the hydraulics. Seeing as my seatpost keeps dropping my seat back no matter how hard I tighten it, I probably need to pick another one up as well. In any case, the bikes made it home to the storage closet and eagerly await their maintenance.

After a quick break for a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Katie and I loaded the truck up with our kayaks (our two ancient whitewater kayaks were purchased for less than $250 total from Craigslist). Our destination, the complete opposite of whitewater at Gross Reservoir. Before we could launch our boats the ranger quickly came to check on us “kids”; he made sure that we had life jackets and gave us whistles. And then he called us “kids” again. We paddled around the reservoir for a bit less than two hours when the skies darkened and we hustled back to port. It was a very scenic paddle and we will surely return.

The shower at the end of the day felt particularly cleansing.

Ah, your honeymoon; time to go relax on a beach and drink brightly colored beverages with little umbrellas for a week or two. That sounds amazing, or amazingly boring.

Opting for the second, Katie and I went for more of an adventure honeymoon. We [...]]]>

On a volcano with the Auckland skyline as a backdrop

Ah, your honeymoon; time to go relax on a beach and drink brightly colored beverages with little umbrellas for a week or two. That sounds amazing, or amazingly boring.

Opting for the second, Katie and I went for more of an adventure honeymoon. We wanted a holiday to play, ideally somewhere warm since it was the middle of a Colorado winter, and surfing, mountain biking, and a dash of fly fishing seemed to fit the bill. Now we just had to decide where to go for such an adventure. Sure Florida, Hawaii, Costa Rica and Mexico were all valid options but this was our honeymoon. We needed to go somewhere more anomalous, more riveting than we would otherwise normally travel to. And the winner was New Zealand, a land I have lusted after for years. As much as we would have liked to visit the entire country, we only had two weeks and stayed on the northern half of the north island. Clearly now we have to return to explore the rest of the county.

The flight over took a long time. A very long time. Waiting to board the plane in San Francisco, I had quite a few people came chat with me regarding my fly rod, a brand new 4-piece 5 weight Sage FLi, very obviously attach to my pack. Given how much New Zealand was revered as a fly fishing destination in my house growing up, this should have been no surprise. What was a surprise was the fact that I did not have any firm plans on where I would fish. I heard all sorts of great places to go fish (I am not sure that if I had a month, I could spend enough time to properly explore all of them. Not that I wouldn’t be willing to try…).

We finally boarded our flight, on Air New Zealand, and settled in for 13 hours in a very confined space. As uncomfortable as it was, Air New Zealand did their best to make it enjoyable. We had an excellent meal and the entertainment systems had more movies and TV shows that I could possibly stay awake for; Katie did her best trying though. If you have to fly for that long, Air New Zealand was a great way to go.

Surfers at a black sand beach, west of Auckland

We landed shortly after 5:00 am local time and were met by an old friend who resides in Auckland, Rebecca Tetley. While I am not sure when the last time Rebecca had to get up that early was, she cheerfully picked us up and guided us around Auckland for the day. We ate breakfast on the harbor and then followed the cows up a volcano for a great view of the city. After a failed ferry ride (something like $200 NZD, we passed), Rebecca took us through some attractive wine country to a black sand beach on the western coast. We saw a bunch of surfers, enjoyed the rocky views, and Rebecca introduced us to Hokey Pokey ice cream. On the way back we stopped at a small winery and tasted the local fare; if we knew more about wine it would have been awesome. Finally, and thoroughly exhausted, Rebecca left us at the Rendezvous Hotel and we fell asleep shortly after seven. If we had the energy, surely we would have dreamed about the surf camp that was to come in the morning!