February 3, 2025
Mangakino through heaven to Ongarue.
The Timber Trail!!!
Today I set a personal climbing record of 2421 m of elevation gain. I had no idea that I’d ever set a record that high after eclipsing 2000 m on the Great Divide trip.
Today I popped up at 5:45 to my alarm and felt well rested. I did the usual and got moving by 6:45. I might start pushing my start times a bit earlier because the start of every day has been the perfect temperature. And beating the midday heat makes sense.
The ride followed the lake for several amazing kilometres before heading onto pavement for some scenic countryside. The pavement then turned to gravel and some big climbs. Partway up one of the climbs I met an Aussie named Stewart who was pushing his full squish and heavily loaded mountain bike. I stopped and talked to him and learned he stayed in a full house in Mangakino. After riding the rest of the day I fear he may have struggled because there was loads more climbing after that stretch.
After the gravel there was some double and wide tracks that were interesting and I stopped and talked to a lady with 2 dogs barking hello. The trail had some more pretty jungle and a suspension bridge and soon afterwards I made the centre of the North Island. That was a spectacular place alive with vegetation and it had the most incredible huge tree. I still find that big trees can almost take my breath away. I often sit back and think what the world was like before us humans. We have the same magical beauty in British Columbia but it’s sparse similar to here.
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3 weeks ago
I made a little direction snafu there and road a trail 100 m mostly down before realizing and had to push my bike back up a couple of really steep pitches. Back on track I headed for the Timber Trail.
I had no idea how far I’d get today. Riding singletrack is so different from either gravel or roads. It’s much slower so with the Timber trail being 80 km of mostly singletrack I thought I’d camp partway through but the trail conditions had other plans.
I started on the Timber Trail at about 11 AM and this is one of the most amazing trails I’ve ever ridden. It was mind blowing!
I found mountain biking in 2017 and quickly fell in love with it. There’s something about having to exert significant effort and then riding down flowy trails. It completely lights me up. And I am certain there’s a healthy dose of good chemicals flowing through my body.
This trail had everything! It was shaded 90% of the time and mostly in the jungle. That made for an ideal temperature that felt 10 C lower than in the sun. The scenery was magical with huge trees, giant ferns, multiple giant suspension bridges over 140 m about the gorge; the views were unreal as you were above the forest canopy.
I felt like I was 5 years old at times. You know how when you pick up a kid and spin them around and set them down. And they say again. And you continue to exhaustion. I had that energy today. With every hill I knew there was another amazing winding descent.
I met lots of people on the trail. There was a pack of 70 year old guys on e-bikes. I passed them and then they passed me. Back home we love to try and keep up to e-bikes. I stepped into in and caught up to them on the descent. They passed me again on a hill and I caught them around the next corner. They were having a great time as well. They stopped for a photo of the one guy draped in ferns.
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I didn’t know where I was going to camp. I learned later that all the signs were set to walking speed. That makes sense now but at the time it was confusing. I knew my speed and how much daylight so I decided on Ongarue and made it to the camp by 5:30. This is way further than I’d planned so I’m carrying way too much food but that’s okay.
This was an epic day. I felt absolutely incredible today both physically and energetically. I was shouted out on some of the descents it was so amazing. If this is what I can expect elsewhere I’m in for a treat.
Oh, and a final thought. Each country I’ve travelled I’ve always thought about whether I had the moment that’s quintessential for that place. For British Columbia that would be finding guys playing hacky sack and smoking a joint; this actually happened for us when a friend from Ontario was visiting.
Yesterday in Mangakino after I did my shop I was on the sidewalk. There was a really big guy sitting at a restaurant talking to a guy from India. I’m sure his heritage is Māori. This guy was jovial with a big laugh, huge smile and seemingly a big personality. They were talking about people and he says ‘yeah, it bothers me when people come here from Auckland and they don’t say hi to me. We say hi to everyone. Spread the love.’ Maybe that was my moment? It made me smile.
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Highlights:
-meeting lots of people
-Timber trail - just wow!
-new elevation record
-campsites are great
-perfect weather in the jungle
Distance: 126 km with 2421 m elevation
Today's ride: 126 km (78 miles)
Total: 460 km (286 miles)
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3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago