riverECHO

We took advantage of the sunshine this weekend and spent two days on two very different types of biking tracks in Wanaka and Queenstown. On Sunday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we drove over the Crown Range to Wanaka to explore the Sticky Forest, a network of trails that overlook the lake. Each trail was actually quite short but they all join together making it easy to ride most of them in just one afternoon. Navigating was somewhat of an issue as only a handful of the trails were actually marked so we spent a few minutes during every ride looking at a tiny map we bought for $2, trying to figure out where we were. We spent about three hours exploring the forest before heading to the lake front to skip rocks and brainstorm ideas for BJ’s upcoming redesign project at Vertical Media. Although we had planned to camp in Wanaka that night, we somehow managed to remember everything but our tent and sleeping pads. We even brought an extra blanket because we knew it was going to be a cold night. So instead of spending the night restless in the back of the car, we drove the easy hour drive home and snuggled in to our warm bed.

The following morning, we ventured out for another bike ride in Skippers Canyon. A very different ride from yesterday, the Mount Dewar track has a lot of climbing in the beginning and the end and a huge downhill in the middle. It is a classic cross country ride with a handful of hike-a-bike sections. Although on a 4 wheel drive track for most of the downhill we both concluded that it was probably one of the longest descents we had ever rode. The trail flattened out for a while as we rode high above the bright blue waters of the Shotover River before meeting up with the road again for our final ascent to the car. We have been up the same road a couple of times before, coming in from a different trail, but this time it seemed to take us twice as long. We were beat after four hour ride of ups and downs and arounds. But we weren’t nearly as tired as our friends Tim and Mary Lynn were this weekend. They completed an 18 hour race together in Fruita, Colorado . . . nice work you two!

Now it’s back to another week of work and wine in beautiful NZ . . . damn, we have it rough.