The Timber Trail you got it going on!

Riding through Pureora forest on what’s commonly known as the Timber trail I felt like a little kid again. There’s no doubt that today was probably up there with the most fun days I’ve ever spent on a bike, and I can’t wait for the next proper trail section.

In Taupō I had managed to convince Brian, who worked at the hostel I was staying in, to drive me to the start of the trail, and several kilometres down a gravel road I told him to pull over next to a tiny track through a bush and a sign pointing to “the historic tractor”. He wasn’t entirely convinced I knew what I was doing but this was where my route started today and soon he was off leaving me in the middle of nowhere, in the cold, before the sun had risen:

Through the bushes on the right was the start of my route and immediately I had a good feeling about the day. The sun was starting to come up and as a rode through the pampas grass the light spilt through the nearby trees and everything was lit up spectacularly.

The first 10km were no piece of cake, and on my way up through the forest to the highest point on the trail I really felt the effect of not having enough gears. That said having seen the elevation profile for the day I knew things would get fun after that so I didn’t mind too much.

30km of uninterrupted downhill trail biking lay ahead before the next big climb and boy was it fun.

The trail had everything you could want: steep descents, banked corners, little jumps, mud sections, suspension bridges (many of them), forests, cliffs, tunnels and even a place to stop for pizza and a coffee. I couldn’t get enough.

Being on a proper trail again really reminded me of gassing it around forests and down footpaths when I was younger. Except this time there was 80km of it. It’s brilliant that New Zealand has invested so much in this. Although the trail was largely there before either as a logging road or as a tram road to transport timber, the many suspension bridges, the clearing of certain sections and the general upkeep of the path must cost a fair whack, and it is totally worth every penny. They’ve even got signs every now and then telling you about what that particular section used to be and how people used to run the whole logging operation. I didn’t stop at too many of those but you can see an example in that last pic.

Another thing that was bloody great today was my bike. I seriously threw everything at it, riding it as if it was a full on mountain bike. It certainly made some noises that suggested it was struggling but then again so was I. 70km in and my hands, forearms and pretty much my whole body was suffering but together we smashed it down this trail tearing it past people on several thousands of pounds worth of gear. Was I smug about it? Why yes, yes I was.