North Range Road

Ok, so there was a bit of a spoiler in yesterday's post but now for the story...

With a new rear fitted to the Vee and a nice day it seemed only right to get out and give it a whirl.  I didn't really have any fixed plans but wanted to go and search for some gravel.  Originally I was going to have a play around Eketahuna and Pahiatua but didn't want to be gone all afternoon.  As I was riding up the track another brilliant idea leapt into my mind - North Range Road!

North Range Road is a great wee ride offering some fantastic views but it is fairly rough in places and when wet there is plenty of water to wade through - and it appears that we must have had quite a bit of rain while I was away on the Four Points...

The first gravel climb was nice, I took it easy, getting familiar with riding on gravel after 5,000kms of sealed riding and a long time between BRR Adv rides.  Off the gravel and onto the dirt everything was going well until the first big puddle.

My approach to these (if I can't avoid them) is to try to ride in the wheel tracks of other vehicles - the water may be deeper but the bottom is usually smoother and not as soft as it might be either side of the wheel track.  I reckon I must have either not quite be in the track and slipped into it or was in it but hit a rock of the side of the track when I had my involuntary dismount.

Luckily I didn't land in the puddle or under the bike but I did have to somehow get the bike upright and check her out.  220 odd kg of bike take some lifting when you're standing in a slippery puddle with water over the top of your boots...

Anyway, I got her right side up and pushed it out of the puddle a bit before firing her back up.  She started up straight away and everything appeared ok so I carried on.  In the other videos you'll notice that this puddle was just the first of quite a few and that some of them were real doseys!  I reckon the deepest one was nearly up to the top of the bike's crash bars...I was fairly careful when I attacked each puddle small lake...

Still, even after my dunking, I was enjoying the ride and as I said earlier there are some great views looking back down towards Palmy.

Perhaps not quite half-way through the track changes to a very good gravel road - it used to be a muddy bog for a lot longer but was upgraded as the wind farm expanded - and progress gets a lot easier.  More great views out over both sides of the ranges:

After dropping down the hill into Ballance I headed home via the Gorge and Mark's place so that he could get a few pics of me and the bike after the splash.

Now to dry out my boots...

Here's a video playlist with most of the video from the ride, some great views if you want to wade through it all...

And a few more pics here.