Training Log Archive: syd

We weren't early enough to have sunshine, but it was still a nice fall day.

Logs/photos added for the last two weeks. New Zealand is an awesome place!!

Arms were pretty sad after not climbing for a while. Got monthly passes now that it's cold out.

Short run around Schenley after climbing.

The Redwoods (mountain biking): We were kind of tired of hiking, so we found a big trail system (140 km!) and rented mountain bikes for the afternoon. The bikes were hardtail Giants that were bottom of the line, it gave me a renewed appreciation for my bike! But the trails made up for the crummy bike. We started off on a few easy trails near the rental place and then headed farther out. There was a huge, clear cut hill that had a downhill trail with massive jumps. That was far beyond our skill, but we started up the dirt road to the top to try an easier trail down. We had originally planned to go all the way up, but the hill was bigger than it looked, so we bailed onto a trail maybe half way up. The trail down was awesome. Lots of little jumps and nice flowy trail. I think I would really enjoy downhill mountain biking. We worked our way back to the start after this point. Found a couple other trails that had super fun jumps/tabletops. I was only somewhat successful at jumping, but I had a blast trying. The last trail we rode was a grade 4 (we had been on grade 3 or below) and it required walking in a few places, so I'm glad we didn't do more of those. Fun afternoon of biking.



Kerosene Creek (no tracks): This wasn't really a hike, but we went to a creek where the water was close to 100F. It was clear, flowing water that felt like a hot tub! Amazing!

Mud Pools (no tracks): Also not a hike, but the sound of bubbling mud was kind of awesome.

Tongariro alpine crossing: The holiday park we stayed at offered a shuttle service for this one-way trek. Got on the bus at 7 a.m. and we were dropped off at the start about 30 minutes later. This was by far the most popular hike we did, our shuttle was full and there were lots of other shuttles running too. The route took us up a volcanic valley. It was so cool, it didn't even look like we were still on earth with volcanic rock everywhere. And then we topped a ridge and walked through a giant crater with snow capped peaks on either side. I was worried it was going to rain, but it turned out to be a nice morning and it was actually quite warm in the sun. The last part of the hike took us by a few thermal pools with steaming vents on the edges. The clouds started to move in as we made our way past the last pool, but the hike back down the other side wasn't nearly as scenic. Just tussock covered hillsides. We hiked as slow as we could, but we still beat the shuttle to the bottom and had to wait a while to be picked up. It was a nice day to sit in the sun though! Very neat hike.