Trundle on the River Trails

On a brief off-base excursion, I met up with Megan for a gentle ride on the Waikato River Trails.  We had heard quite a bit about the trail and seen a heap of beautiful photos taken at various points along its 100 kilometre length, but we hadn't ridden it for ourselves. People who had ridden the trail usually said the same things: the first section (Karapiro) was boring and worth missing if you could arrange your trip around it.  One of the best sections of the trail was reportedly the Arapuni section from the end of Waotu South Road through to Waipapa Dam.  With this in mind, we drove straight through Arapuni village and out to the end of the sealed road.



If the first 100m of trail were anything to go by, this section had the potential to be pretty tough in the uphill direction.  We pushed our bikes through the "moto-trap" bike gate and up to the top of the hill.  We were immediately surprised by the 360 degree views and the stunning landscape below us.  Right in front of us was a massive quarry.  It was a quite a blight on the otherwise picturesque landscape, but at the same time I couldn't help but appreciate the size of it.

The descent to the bottom of the hill was, decent.  Fast, flowy sections of trail, with a few whoops to catch some air off, led straight into tight switchbacks with loose gravel scattered across them.  Brocky's words rang in my head: brake on the straight before it's too late.  Fortunately, the trail crew had built in some run-out areas at the head of the switchbacks, and I made judicious use of a couple of them.

The track mellowed out after we passed the quarry gate, but the loose gravel was still lurking in the corners to catch out the unaware or lazy rider.  Entering the more dense bush section, where the track surface was packed a little tighter with leaf litter and the forest provided some shade, was a welcome relief.

The track wound its way along the river bank, climbing up and flowing down, over boardwalks, past a waterfall, and up more pinch climbs, to reveal some nice views of the mighty Waikato River.  That one last big pinch climb was worth it for the view, but even more so when we rode down the trail and around a corner to find this:

 

This was the first of the new cycle trail swingbridges I had seen, let alone ridden across.  I liked the look of it and tried to imagine what the really big ones in the Pureora Forest might look like.  I love a good bit of engineering and this fit the bill nicely.  After too many photos, lots of gazing over the side at the bridge abutments and anchor points, it was time to get pedalling again.

We didn't get far - the trail popped out onto a forestry road 250m past the bridge.  We had been riding just over an hour, and had covered only 6 kilometres.  It was time to turn around and head back the way we came.  This meant the flowing downhills became steady uphills and that mellow gradient up to the Quarry became a solid climb.  From the quarry, the trail kicked up again into a grovelly climb where the gradient on the ground started to match the gradient on my heart rate graph.  After that final 2.2km of climbing was done, we once again got to soak in the vista, sunshine and fresh air on top of the hill.

Our gentle trundle along the River Trails had been just what our out-of-practice bodies had needed.  Sun on the skin, wind in our hair and big grins on our faces (when we weren't grimacing at the climbs).

The Waikato River Trail is well worth a look, for both the views and a good bit of mountain biking.  You can ride it in sections, or do it over several days.  If you don't stop to smell the roses too often, then you could do it all in one day.  We still have plans to ride the whole thing in one day and after driving alongside the Karapiro section down Hora Hora Road, I think starting at Arapuni (the end of Waotu South Road) is the best idea.  Missing the first section reduces the distance to about 70km.  With the gravel trail surface, I'm picking this could be a good winter ride.