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The ride meet outside of the Princess Margaret Hospital on a fine Easter Sunday, with a couple of new riders along for the ride we talked for a wee bit and then set off to Little River to meet up with Clark.  Easter Weekend Riders As the Trusty ride leader I drove out to Birdlings Flat to check that the Lake Forsyth river mouth was open and rideable: A couple of rustic locals driving a quad bike across the stoney beach section confirmed it was passable, so I set off to meet the others at Little River. We found Clark in Little River, so that made a group of six - with a couple of new people, both road cyclists. Who were keen to see what the club was about. The ride left from Little River travelling towards Christchurch, finding Kinloch Rd on our left and following that till it branched left again into Okuti Valley Rd. The option of taking the the sealed Kinloch Rd all the way to the top, was off the cards: The road was closed due to rowdy bunch of petrol heads, who were holding an organised hill climb race. The ride soon found Reynolds Valley Rd, which is an unsealed and rises all the way to Bossu Rd. I bravely took up position at the rear of the convoy, while others demonstrated their hill climbing prowess by granny gearing it all to way to the top. We stopped at the Bossu Rd intersection for lunch and a quick drink. The ride continued East along Bossu Rd, passing just under the summit of Te Oka. Along the way Mike Allison pointed out Devil's Gap and we meet up with a lone female mountain biker (Alice?): She'd biked along the Rail Trail from Motukurara early that morning and had plans to drop back down to Little River via Reynolds Valley Rd, until she found out that were doing the loop and she tagged along with us for the down hill.  The Long way down, looking south from Te Oka. The down hill was a beauty, there was plenty sun to stop the fingers from getting cold and absolutley no pedalling whatsoever. The only things to avoid were patches of deepish gravel, John's squeaky brakes and apparently some one was singing on the way down too - but I never heard them. At the Lake Forsyth sea mouth we said good by to Alice and trudged through ankle deep shingle to Birdlings Flat. A quick cycle to back to the Rail Trail, and we had to put up with a wee head wind for the ride back to Little River. The Cafe with the Art gallery proved too popular for its own good and so we ducked into next one up the road. Tea, coffee and pies were all despatched mercilessly. Sundries
All up there was 36Km of riding, which took us 2:23 Hours of actual riding to complete. There were three sections to this ride: 11.25Km of uphill; a long downhill and the 10Km ride from Birdlings Flat to Little River. According to Mikes GPS the highest point was 760m. Despite being last up the hills, I found the hill climb easier than the start of the Double Fence Line. There was very little wind, which was fortunate for that stalwart ride leader who had left all his jackets, gloves and other important warm things back in Christchurch. Riders
Riders: Mike, Susan, Michael, John, Clark. Ride Leader: Rob Lancaster |
