Saturday sojurn

Saturday was a cracker and with the weather supposed to be turning bad I decided that I needed to get a ride in.

On last week's ride, we'd finished up really early and as we were coming back from Dannevirke I couldn't help but being drawn to the sight of Wharite sticking out from the ranges.  I was very tempted to lead the crew up there but it may have made Andy late and there was also a chance of a dousing as there were plenty of clouds hanging out up there.  Oh well, another day...

So, yep, Wharite was my target.  I pictured a quick trip to the top and then a pie in Woodville and home.  A quick little blast in the late morning sunshine...

I was also in the mood for playing with different GoPro mounting options.  (Reviewing the footage later, I got a bit moody about the missing sound in some of the videos).

The ride up the hill was pretty nice except for the sun hiding a lot of the corners.  This knocks the pace back (funny that) a bit as does the skinny road that often has a bit of traffic on it.

But still, I made it up to the views...

Then it was time for the descent and a different camera position.

Back on the flat, it was not quite lunchtime so I decided that I'd go for a bit more of a wander, work on a little project of mine (more in another post) and then get that pie in Pahiatua.

The cow may be a giveaway...

After crossing SH2, I made my way through Hopelands and towards Millers Road where I'd take in that neat bit of gravel before heading into Pahiatua.  Along the way though, I noticed another wee road disappearing off to the left.  

I'd ridden past it a few times before and wondered where it went (with at least some inling) and as you can see from the map, I did ride past it again before doing a 180 and checking it out.  Pahaheke Road soon went to gravel and after hooking onto a few more roads (again following my nose a bit), I hit Makairo Track and confirmed my "inkling".

Being alone and not in the mood for dropping a T7 off the side of Makairo Track, I decided to skip what would have been a fairly adventurous ride and popped out at another old building.

There's that cow again...

Now it was time for that lovely Millers Road:

Well, that was fun, now to find a pie...

And that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - my pepper steak was only just warm.  At least it didn't kill me overnight...

Time to head home on the most excellent Tararua Road:

That was even funner!  And after a quick squirt over the track, that was the ride.  Cracker of a day and some neat roads.  We now have a cooler route to Makairo track Colin...