Back Road

Pakuratahi Forest, Wellington, New Zealand

Alternative to a section of the Rimutaka Rail Trail, running along and up a parallel valley.

Intermediate

Bike and Foot

From Ladle Bend, the track climbs up to meet Dela Rosa. It then turns into a valley that runs parallel to the Rimutaka Rail Trail, drops down a little to Miro Creek and then climbs more-or-less steadily to a saddle point where Centre Ridge branches off to the local summit.

Just 40m after the Centre Ridge corner, the track splits into two branches. The lower branch is Pig Gully, while Back Road continues on the upper branch to climb a bit further and then drop down to rejoin Rimutaka Rail Trail at the summit plateau.

There is a reasonable amount of climbing when heading from north to south - around 200m altitude gain in total, at a typical gradient of 10% and occasionally up to 15%.

If doing a there-and-back trip on the Rimutaka Rail Trail, then an interesting alternative to the first part of the return trip might be to go (mostly down) via the Back Road.

The northern end heads up the hill off the Rimutaka Rail Trail a few metres south of the Ladle Bend bridge, around 0.5km north of the Pakuratahi River Camp.

The southern end branches off Rimutaka Rail Trail just as it reaches the summit plateau, about 0.25km from the summit shelter.

3.63km

Gravel road

7 Jan 2009 by Ian

Ian