Mountain Biking and Kayaking at Te Miro

Well all things being equal the blood and bruises were worth it!

View map here

I went for a couple of blats, one up through the PD track and back through Kaimelean.

		Te Miro MTB VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Nice little warm up. Then off again and along the road to the Joiner, up the Jumps Track and then headed out along towards Miro. I came across a sign to Goblin and headed along there and then realised that this was a serious grade 4 track, but taking it slowly I had a great time up til the point where I found myself sideways, in the air and heading for the ground. I grabbed a tree one the way down to arrest my motion and managed to break the tree, so tree, bike and me headed south! It ended up with me on the bottom, then the tree and finally the bike! I knew that there was pain somewhere on my legs but knew it was nothing serious but there would be much pain tomorrow! So after stopping laughing, I managed to extricate myself from the tangle. It really involved me rolling out from under the bike and further down the slope, managing to get to my feet and staggering back, pick up the bike and dragging it back to the track. A quick look showed a bit of blood and what was going to be a great bruise later.

So headed off and came around to come out just off the lookout and back onto the Jumps Track. I headed back up to the junction, knowing that most tracks were single track or one-way. When I got there I checked the map but realised that there were more tracks than appeared on the map. So I headed upwards to try to catch Miro and head off back around the dam. Suddenly I came across a rider heading towards me….I leapt off the track and he stopped and replied to my “I’m heading up a down track aren’t I ?” He laughed and said it was a common occurrence. So he explained how to get back on the right track and I followed his dust for 2 sec as he disappeared off down the track. I managed to find my way back down via a track the went straaaaight down and I had to walk most of the way down. Still it was a great ride once I got down, I learnt a lot about my limits and my pain thresholds.

After a bit of a rest it was time to get my boots on for the working bee and headed out to meet the gang and pitch in to help with some track maintenance. It turns out we were creating a new piece of track heading into the Snakes. So we hacked out a new piece of track, cleaning out the undergrowth and shaping the track to make a much more gently sloping track to make it far more family friendly.  After the major work was done I joined the second group reforming some berms on the Snake Tracks.

A great evenings work and we arrived back at the car park around 9pm.

In the morning I was certainly feeling the bruises and cuts, so decided instead of going for a bike, I would have a gently paddle around the lake.

		Te Miro Kayak VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It was a lovely gentle paddle around a lovely area. The only issue was the hike back up the hill with the kayak. All good though!

Met some lovely people including an ex competitive cyclist who has given up road cycling and has taken up mountain biking while he finishes his apprenticeship and decides whether to take it up again as a senior.

A great morning and then I headed back to Walton where I will take a break for a couple of days, clean the bus inside and out, do some repairs and sort out a few minor issues before heading back to Auckland ready for my trip to Wellington next Thursday.