Adv 223 Yumpu

BIKING
TALES
the old snow ghost road
Vista just past Ghost Lake Hut
By Emily Miazga, M.Sc. Clinical Nutrition, 3x Coast to Coast World
Multisport Champ and Creator of Em’s Power Cookies
Do you have a favourite ride, tramp, or route
that you have done several times and never
grow tired of it? I do. For me, I am fortunate
to have the Old Ghost Road in my backyard
and naturally, I have done it several times
either via running, tramping and mountain
biking (including before it was the “OGR”).
It is a pretty hard track to beat. It has a
diverse range of wilderness-porn on offer;
native beech forest, open alpine vistas,
rocky outcrops, virgin untouched bush, and
the fantastic Mokihinui Gorge. It is a natural
adventure bliss ball. Whenever I have
family or friends visiting, an obligatory jaunt
even just part way up the track, is a regular
feature and always a surefire wow-factor
outing that I never get bored of.
As we were heading into spring, it felt like
it was time to do another dash through the
Ghost. My riding partner Craig wanted to
ride all 3 of the West Coast tracks (Ghost,
Heaphy and Paparoa), so we started with
the Ghost. The original plan was to ride
it over 2 days. Day 1 was from the Lyell
through to Goat Creek hut, which is the
small, rustic DoC hut about 8km south of the
Mokihinui Forks. This section made up about
57 km of the 85km track. Day 2
was to be a shorter day, just 28km,
passing by the Forks and then out
the Gorge to the Seddonville end of
the track. From there, it is a further
road ride to finish at my house,
north of Westport.
The spring weather had been brisk,
and so we were expecting some
snow over the short alpine section
of the track, maybe 3-4km along
the highest part. The timing of the
ride coincided with school holidays,
so we were keen to get up and
through to Goat Creek Hut in
order to avoid the bigger crowded
huts. We knew we had to make
good time if we were to encounter
some snow which can be slow to cross,
however we were not too concerned about it
significantly affecting the ride.
"It has a diverse range
of wilderness-porn on
offer; native beech forest,
open alpine vistas,
rocky outcrops, virgin
untouched bush, and
the fantastic Mokihinui
Gorge. It is a natural
adventure bliss ball."
Heaven’s Door
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