Day 10 Rough in ready

 Having stayed at a motel I threw my newly washed clothes on knowing within half an hour they’d be sweaty again and need another wash. Chris was a new person after a goodnights sleep and was ready to go. We overloaded with supplies from New World and left (OSMs are very hard to find as we are at the tail end of TA brevet).

We had two climbs today a 400 and a 600m climb to be ready for the jet boat at the “bridge to nowhere” on the morning of the 11th. Now I swear we have built trail fitness as we crushed the first climb up a unused gravel road then flew down the other side for some lunch at Owhango. 

Back on the bikes to finish the last 100m climb then we were down hill to Whakahoro and the Blue Duck Cafe. The ride was all gravel roads with some big cliff faces and some quick down hills. We passed a couple of other riders but otherwise we are out of sync with the groups we started with.

A quick toasty at Blue Duck Cafe and we filled the water bottles, this place looks interesting will have to come back and see what else is there on day. We hit the trail about 430 down a gravel farm road into the Whanganui Forest Park. This had every trail terrain you can imagine and the first section up was more a tramping track you can ride then a formed MTB track. 

I loved this trail it was ruthless I had my shirt off to keep me from overheating fighting to keep on the bike. They have started work to form this trail but the first section was tight and we were continually shifting through gears 1-3 to keep momentum and ride the tight rock sections, quick jump ups, small bridges and muddy holes. There was a bit of pushing and we had to drag our bikes under a fallen tree. 

Part of me is disappointed that they are upgrading this to a MTB highway but it’s probably a bit tough considering the rest of the terrain we have encountered through the TA. The trail got back into a farm track as we ground out up to the  Mangapurua Trig. 

The land throughout this area hand been set aside for returning soldiers and their names were on the side of the track but Jeepers this land would be tough and better off left as bush. The last settlers had left by the 1940s and nature has claimed it back.

We smashed the decline here and dropped 400m in less then 15 mins, another awesome trail to do on a full sus bike. The trail was still downhill but flattened out a lot we rode through trying to beat the dark. We didn’t manage to beat dark but with good bike light it’s pretty good to ride through. We quickly set up camp, cooked risotto and ate nut meat ready for our early start to get to the jet boat.