This is the trail at The Gorge that everyone rides.
It’s the trail where the fun starts
It’s where the excitement builds for The Gorge first timers wondering if the riding is as good as everyone says.
It’s where friendships are made, close calls are recounted and tall tales are told.
If the stars align you get to ride it five or more times in a day at Wairoa Gorge.
Yup, it’s the access road up the mountain.
Technically, it’s called ‘Wairoa 1 Road’ from the pick-up point at the bottom up to Irvine’s Hut, and it’s ‘Creamed Rice Skid’ 1km up from Irvine’s drop off.
For the time being the shuttle road is the only way to get to the top at Wairoa (yes, a climbing track is being planned). With two or more shuttle vehicles and trailers on the road at any time, it’s a far better way of gaining 1000m in altitude than riding up!!, so shuttling it is.
There are professional crew at The Gorge who know the shuttle road a bit better than the rest of us, in fact they know it intimately, every rock and every rut, and in all weathers. They are the shuttle drivers, the most visible of all the Crew that the rest of us rely on every time we take our mountain bikes out to Wairoa.
The guys are essential to the experience that everyone has riding Wairoa Gorge. Yes, they drive the trucks, but they also run the radio comms and make sure everyone is OK. They are a font of wisdom if you need some pointers about which trails to ride, or which routes are running sweetest, and they might even let you in on their favourite link-ups to try. They are also going to be your best friends if you are unlucky enough to have a mechanical that you can’t sort on the mountain.
But enough about the drivers, let’s hand over to one of them, Ben, to tell you a bit more about the shuttle road.
I’ve been driving at The Gorge for over 2 years.
The road itself is the original forestry road that was put in when Wairoa Gorge was first planted out in pine trees. It was also the access for the trail builders and real builders in the case of the huts and lodges.
The road is roughly 7 km long from the bottom pick-up point to the very top, and for a lot of its length it is only safely wide enough for one vehicle at a time.
Gorge volunteers ( Asphalt and General contractors), with help from our sponsors, do a fair bit of maintenance on the road to keep it open and safe for the people who come and ride our trails. Fallen trees and the odd small slip are the sort of things that regularly need fixing up to keep the road open.
When we have multiple shuttle trucks running at one time, which is pretty much every day that The Gorge is open, we make use of 8 passing points along the road. We use radios to co-ordinate the dance that we need to do to ensure the trucks meet at the passing points.
Over the years I’ve seen all sorts of stuff on the shuttle run. Pigs, deer, goats. Broken bikes that get patched up with duct tape, zip ties and whatever we have to hand (we’ve actually got a good range of workshop tools and even various common consumables and spares available at The Gorge). Every driver has a current first aid cert, and every truck has a comprehensive first aid kit too for the occasional rider that needs patching up.
The Wairoa Gorge bike park is so unique. Nowhere in the World does a MTB club own and operate a bike park as good and as well-built as The Gorge. Those who live in Nelson are spoilt for choice of places to ride- there are great trails (500km of single track) all over the Nelson Region – but the professionally managed builders of the Gorge built something special and now the Club manages and maintains the trails to the same high standard. The continued success and further of the Gorge sit with the support of the club members that own the park – 3500 Nelson MTB members – if every club member takes the opportunity to use the 25% discount they get to ride the Gorge as a member, the shuttles would be at capacity every weekend!!
Book a trip to The Gorge, and we’ll see you out there.
