Early start, to avoid the traffic, 7am start (gate opens 7.30), phat af climb all the way up the Totaranui Rd to Pigeon Saddle. Only met about 3 vehicles coming down the whole way, all of them above the Awaroa Road turn off. Got to the the top and got a little cell reception (first time for most of a week). Rode about 20m into the track towards Gibbs Hill and parked the bike against a tree. Started walking to see where it went. About a kilometre, what would be mostly rideable but a few big rocky sections to make it non-negotiable, and ended going all the way up to Lookout Rock. Had a look around and headed back, always shorter on the return.
Back on the bike, and bombed down the road, tires a little hard and skittery. Released some pressure part way down, but not too much, which made it better. Hung a right and headed all the way down through to Awaroa Inlet. On the way, at the 2nd ford, there was a car and caravan parked int' middle of th'road, weird. Down to the grunty wee climb to the carpark, then down to the estuary, tide waaay out and could have ridden across.
Turned back and headed back through the flatlands then up up up. At the ford, a french(?) woman was eating breakfast and said they weren't game on the ford and would back up once the children were awake. Good climb the rest of the way, meeting no cars, and then the down, a couple cars on their way up, and stopped to photo the view. A rider rode past and I got going when he was a couple hundy metres below. Caught him not long later and rolled on past, mentioning "it's like riding on ball bearings sometimes, eh" as I passed. Mega speed on the lower down hill straights, then flat, and dusty return to base.
A pretty good 21.5 kms, with not far off 800m climbed.
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