The RiverHead Forest ride was another outing organised by the Northern Gravel Adventure Riders Nz. RiverHead Forest is in the North-West part of Auckland and is a substantial forest used as a plantation but it is also frequented by runners, mountain bikers and horse riders. Access is by permit only and this was taken care of by the ride organisers.
As this is on the other side of Auckland from where I live (about an hour drive) I managed to put my bike in Dean and Bev’s trailer and join them for the trip up. I had to set off at about 6:30am to meet with them at their place and it was freezing. The journey was definitely a lot warmer in their car.
We arrived at Sue and Jim Denham’s place and we all rode our bikes to the local garage where we met up with the other riders. I think there were about 40 riders on this ride which was a good turn out. The sun came out and the day turned out really nice.
We entered the forest and were greeted with gravel and clay roads lined by tall trees. Every now and again we would come across an opening where the trees had been cut down. There were great views out over the whole region.
The fun part of the day were some “technical” sections where we were taken off the roads and down some either steep or muddy tracks. These were really good fun and had just the right amount of challenge to test my skills. Having never ridden on soft mud on my heavy DR with tyres that, although knobbly, provide less grip than motocross tyres I wan’t sure how they would perform. I have many memories of losing the front end in thick mud back on the Isle of Man and didn’t want that to happen on this ride.
So, I took it easy in the deep muddy ruts and although I got out of shape quite a few times never really felt out of my depth. There was one rut I was travelling down and approaching a big branch I decided to try and swap ruts. I know that can be a challenge and it was. The front would change but the back wheel wouldn’t follow and I got spat off. No problem, just picked the bike up and carried on.
I was very impressed with some of the other riders on their big bikes tackling some of the muddy tracks. I don’t think that I would have been brave enough. I was really pleased with the DR. I don’t know what its capabilities are yet but it coped well with what I needed it to do today.
At the end of the day I was exhausted and had really enjoyed myself. This is one ride that I would like to do again.
Thanks to the club for the videos.
