Timber Trail Center : Ongarue : Cycling the Timber Trail

Had a day off so I borrowed one of the 'electric assist' bikes that the property has.

Martyn drove me out to the Piropiro camp site which sits about halfway along the length of the track.

I set off in what I hoped was the direction of Ongarue.




Weird sensation with electric assist. There is the normal resistance from the bike pedals when I push down, and launched my self up the track.

The track began a slight incline and I haven’t been on a bike in a long time. It was hard going with the bike wobbling about a bit, and then the tech kicks in.
It felt like someone had run up behind me, gripped the back of the bike, and pushed.

I stopped pedalling and the bike slowed so I twisted the hand grip and the motor whined as it powered me up the hill.

The track has several rope ridges which bounce and sway around me a bit as I concentrate on not hitting the sides.

Plug keeps falling out of the battery and the loss of power is dramatic so I so quickly adapt to reaching with one hand beneath the seat and pushing it back in while trundling along.

Stretches of the track have a radical camber. I slid off the track at one point trying to use all the available width. Decided to try and ride on top of the rounded crest of the path.

I'm re-learning bike skills rapidly.


Met a group of real cyclists. Bit of a wolf pack but they were funny and gracious about the nerd riding the electrical city bike in the wilderness.

Especially when I motored passed most of them on the steep inclines. They disappeared ahead of me on the downhill stretches which is where I tended to slow down and spend more energy concentrating on managing the bike against the pull of gravity.

The track is a re-claimed logging railway. At one point there is a tight spiral, built initially to guide the rolling stock through ninety degrees.
There is a tunnel which is punched through a hill, which I had to navigate without much illumination. It was a case of looking at the small patch of light ahead and hoping the track in front of the bike wheels was clear.

Applied the breaks while cutting through some mud and the back wheel slid out but my bike skills were seeping back at that point and I caught the slide and kept motoring.

At one point riding through a deer farm, the trail almost disappearing and I'm forced to stop periodically to work out my next route.

This track is a great adventure.