Queenstown ... another rainy day!
It's been raining/sprinkling since we arrived in Queenstown. This morning was another Internet catchup time, sending photos to my cousin to post. After lunch I rented a full suspension mountain bike and set out to try one of the trail systems the bike shop people had suggested.

Directions are a bit brief here and signage is sorely lacking. Luckily I remembered the name of the road before the parking area where the trail was supposed to begin. We pulled into a gravel parking area that had single sign which said, "track". That was it. The name of the place was supposed to be "Seven Mile Reserve". We continued down the road until we got to "Twelve Mile Delta" and decided the previous one must have been it.

At the "track" head it was sprinkling, as usual in Q-Town. I had my monkey fur jacket on and a rain parka stuffed in my pack in case it got worse. I would say I biked about 5-10% of the track and walked or carried the bike the rest of it. It was very steep, narrow, wet and included a set of wooden stairs, which I found out later no one can make it up (I carried my bike up), but they're not so bad coming down (not that I would try it!). It was quite beautiful and interesting. Part of the trail goes right next to the lake shore. At one point I biked onto a pier from the trail and nearly got blown over from the wind. Part of the trail was in a evergreen forest.

Call me chicken for only doing 5-10%, but boy, have I got a bunch of excuses!
* I've never ridden a full suspension mountain bike before
* I've never ridden a bike with the front brake lever on the right (dangerous when you're used to it being on the left!)
* My knee had just recovered enough for me to consider biking
* I hadn't been on a mountain biked in over three months
* I had never seen the trail before
* I was biking alone
* The trail was wet and slippery
I guess I am the cautious type...

I came out from the trail an hour earlier than expected. I started heading towards town, which was about 4-miles away on a paved road. About halfway there it started raining a lot harder and I pulled over under a large tree and waited to flag John down who was coming to pick me up in the car. Unfortunately he didn't see me and I saw him go by and waited but he didn't return since he hadn't seen me. I biked two miles in the pouring rain to meet up with him at the "track" parking lot. It was a little uncomfortable, but the monkey fur and rain parka keep my upper body warm.

I'm really glad I did it. I just wish the weather had been a bit better.