Rail Trail In One Very Very Big Day - 3rd Nov 2010

"I reckon we should ride the rail trail in one day" said Coach.
Such a simple statement with a lot of work ahead of it. With naive attitudes we all agreed that such a mission would be a nice day out.

So began several training missions to build up to a daunting 150kms, some would scoff and say "Hey it's just an old railway track, it's dead flat, how hard can it be?" We were yet to find out just how hard it really is.

The Training Begins

The training involved many individual crusades out into the wild but the pick of them was a 30km route south of Brighton. This is a great starter route, nice rolling country with some good hills to challenge and a nice recovery on the downhill side. Coach and Steph got a mean lesson in using off road tyres on the bitumen, as the grind back to the cars was nothing less than ruthless.

Armed with a little confidence, the next mission was to pull together a ride around the Otago Peninsula - at 50kms long it really cut some of us down. The start was a big climb up the top of Highcliff Road to 321mtrs above sea level (thats a big climb for the un-initiated). A good downhill into Portobello township for a refuel, and then heading out over the back around Hoopers and Papanui Inlet to the Pyramids. Then followed a mean ride into a headwind back along the Harbour. Special thanks have to go to Brian and Super Jill for showing us how experience and practice pay very big dividends when the going gets hard. Coach got a bit of a shock to see a couple of us crumble so bad.

Stepping Up

Our next training rides were two attempts at 100kms on the Middlemarch end of the Rail Trail; 50k out and back what could be hard about that? On the first attempt (documented here) we got a quick and sure lesson on just how flat and easy the Rail trail is. NOT! You quickly become aware that the trail is rough, up and down with mushy gravel and you need to work. Our first attempt failed we manged 79kms after turning back at Daisybank and limping back into Middlemarch with not much to say.  Second time around we headed back with vengeance determined to break the back of that 100km. We made it to Taieri Lake a couple of kms short of Waipiata our intended destination. There was a fair bit of wind in the last few km to Waipiata but that was nothing compared to the vicious head wind all the way back to Middlemarch; that was surely a bad time, we all crawled back slowly at our own pace and were very thankful to be off those bikes.

The next couple of weeks I am sure there were some doubts floating around about whether we really could do the whole thing, no one mentioned it but you could see the doubt in some of us.

Map of the full Rail Trail route 152 km Clyde to Middle March

On Saturday the 24th October, we headed to Middlemarch jumped on the bus and headed to Clyde; with the bikes loaded on the trailer spirits were high. After a sapping few hours in the bus we couldn't wait to get off and scoff some ice cream. Then we headed to the Motel for a pre-ride meal and a chat about how we were going to pull this mission off.

At 5.30am we all woke and prepared for the day. It was a little hard to imagine how it was going to pan out; it was more like heading off for a 5km social ride with heaps of jokes as we rode down the main road from Clyde to the Rail Head. At 7am we were taking a team photo before heading off, it was immediately apparent that we were off and headed into a very big day.

The Wind

The trail from Clyde to Alexandra is a nice ramble through lifestyle blocks and the light industrial area out the other side, over the Manuherikia River and off into Central Otago country side. At first it seemed ok we were all cruising along enjoying the views as we wound our way along the trail. But as we started getting out towards the 25km mark the wind started picking up, heading out past Chatto Creek the wind got progressively stronger and more than a few of us began to wonder if we were going to get crushed in the north west wind. The wind got so strong it blew three of us off our bikes as we climbed towards the summit before the downhill run into Lauder for our first fuel stop. It was a beautiful thing to find the wind had dropped off on the Lauder side of of the summit.

The Tunnel of Doom

After a quick stop we headed out towards the Poolburn Gorge and the so called 'Tunnel of Doom', so named because its big, black and mean. Two of us walked into some massive hunk of rock protruding from the wall. This is a cool bit of the ride; you get to see some really tough country and can only imagine living there in a hut in Winter while working in a tweed jacket. As you come out the other side of the gorge you start to drop down into the Ida Valley, a massive flat bottomed valley that really has nothing in it.

Ida Valley Sucked

Cruising down into the Ida Valley you are blissfully unaware of what's coming next. That valley was the breaking point for one of our crew, who spat the dummy and got off and walked for half a kilometer. It was long, slightly up hill with mushy gravel and a 5 knot head wind to match; it went on and on and on and on and on (you get the picture) and then climbed up to the summit above Wedderburn and the highest point on the Rail Trail. After this mind numbing, soul destroying part of the trail it was a relief to hit the top and begin the run down into Wedderburn.

Flying in and out of Wedderburn

With a downhill run and a tailwind to match it really was the most exhilarating part of the ride smoking down the hill into Wedderburn to refuel and straight back into it to make Ranfurly for a real coffee. We were seriously flying down there top gear and cranking all the way sliding into Ranfuly railway station, pull a hard left across the road to e-cafe and a damn good coffee that was too.

Ranfurly to Daisybank

Leaving Ranfurly for Waipiata brought a sense of this trip being actually achievable, after all we had been (or nearly been) to Waipiata before so we knew we just had to push through for the last 50kms, just like one of our training days. Lake Taieri to Daisyback put us back on the flat and required a bit more pushing, the bodies were now really starting to feel like they had done some work. It was time to pull out the next lot of "Head Stuff"- whatever that thing is you can tap into that gets you through adversity, when you're at the last of your physical strength and you need a little bit more to finish off.

Refueling at Daisybank you started to realize just how much you had eaten and drank. Most of us had got through 6 - 8 litres of water and an unbelievable amount of food, but thats what you need to get through a day like that. Heading off to Hyde you get to see the best part of the Rail Trail as it winds round a neat little gorge getting you across a couple of big bridges and through two tunnels.

Hyde to Middlemarch - Home Run

None of us who had been on that last training ride will pretend we got round the corner to Hyde with out a terrible fear of the wind. That last slapping taught us a lesson we were not going to forget in a hurry. As we got to the point where you could see Hyde you could feel the wind on your face, hearts sinking we powered on through the gate and refueled at Hyde ready for the last 30km into Middlemarch. Crossing the main highway you are away into it, out past the old Hyde railway station the wind died, thank god that last bit of wind was just the old nor wester sneaking through the gap from Ranfurly. Now we could really experience the downhill everyone talks about, well, it's slightly downhill.

A quick stop at the Rock & Pillar gangers hut for a refuel meant there was only 15km to go. There was a detour sign there suggesting there was work being done on the track and that you should ride down Ngapuna road for 7km before getting back on the track. Turboman started down Ngapuna Road before coming to the conclusion that no one will be working on the track on Labour Weekend and that Ngapuna Road was rough as guts. A quick ride across the paddock back to the track confirmed his suspicion that there were no workers.

In fact the workers had graded the track back to a dead smooth clay surface which had baked in the sun. It was as hard and smooth as bitumen, perfect! A quick call back to the others kept everyone on track. This greatly helped getting us over the last 15k into Middlemarch. It took a couple of hours to get everyone over the finish line but all made it in style with only one of us having to vow to go back and do it again having had to pull out 30k short.

Dinner and a wee nap

We stopped in at Quench Cafe for a few quiet beers and a meal with local hosts Helen and Le Roux. Quench cafe has awesome coffee and great food. They even got in our special Emersons Pilsner to help make us feel at home. Some of the crew then headed back to Dunedin with the rest of us staying at Helen & Le Rouxs' rental house down the road "The Lodge". The morning saw us back to the Cafe for a brunch pie (yep you gotta go and get one) and a solid coffee from the espresso machine before saying our goodbyes and heading back to Dunedin.

All in all it was a great trip; 152km of challenging gravel track and let it be known you've got to work to do it. Time to do it? First in was 9 hours 32 mins and the rest all within a couple of hours after that, pretty good going.

News by Paul Southworth - Turboweb