Central Plateau - 42nd Traverse and Fishers Track - 29/30 November '08

[Aslan]

thanks for posting this info Eddie - it's a facinating area isn't it?

[Eddieb]

Unfortunately I bumped a button on the camera to a wrong setting and a lot of my photo's didn't come out great with the sky being washed out or a bit fuzzy.

Here's some of the better ones, I'm not great on names the first time round so any I haven't named let me know and I'll add the names in.

1) Our accomodation Friday night at the Convent in Jerusalem
2) The view out the window above my head
3) From the outside. Our beds were on the top floor of the building on the left
4) Gerard (BoGSer) on the BIG GS on Fishers Track

[Eddieb]

1) Gerard (BoGSer) again on Fishers Track
2) Stephen (Aslan) on Fishers Track
3) Gerard (BoGSer) about to tackle one of the steep stream exits on the 42 Traverse
4) One of the DR650's on the same crossing

The camera doesn't give a real impression of how steep and high these stream exits were. I am zoomed in a fair bit there on a 300mm zoom. There were 3 or 4 of them at at least a 45 degree rise and the shortest must have been at least 25-30 feet.

Thats how they felt to me anyway.

[Eddieb]

All on the 42 Traverse

1) Fred halfway up the same incline
2) Stephen (Aslan) looking very relaxed, again the same place
3) Regroup and bullsh*t time
4) Gerard (BoGSer) on a bridge leading out from the 42 Traverse

[Eddieb]

1) Stephen (Aslan) on the same bridge
2) Pablo (Pampa) on the bridge
3) Gate duty on the Mataire road just outside Ohakune
4) Regrouping on Whangaehu Valley Road

[Eddieb]

1) The DR on Whangaehu Valley Road
2) Stephen (Aslan) on the same road
3) A snapshot of the Valley, awesome place!
4) Gerard (BoGSer) in the valley from about 500 meters away
5) Gerard (BoGSer) again

[Eddieb]

A big thanks to Aslan for organising this. It was organised enough to have a purpose and route to our destinations but loose enough we could throw in some variations on the way.

So here's where we went:

Friday:
Met at various points and headed up the Whanganui River road to Jerusalem

Saturday.
Jerusalem to Raetahi to meet the Te Aroha boys.
Lucy I tooted as we passed your place but it looked like no-one was at home. There was a note on the door.
On to National Park were we dropped out bags at our accomodation.
Fishers track from National Park to Owhango.
Owhango to Kapoors road
42 Traverse starting at Kapoors Road
Owhango back to National Park after farewelling the Te Aroha boys

Sunday:
National Park to Ohakune
Ohakune domain loop
Matiare Road (cattle route from near the domain back to the Ohakune-Waiouru road)
Whangaehu Valley road to Marton then to Bulls.

We said our goodbyes at Bulls and went home our separate ways, where some of the boys headed to the beach.

The GPS says I did 809km, though it switched off a couple of times and I reckon an even 900 would be closer. I have track logs of most of it but haven't tried sorting them out yet. Hopefully I can isolate Fishers Track and the 4 Traverse and Whangaehu Valley Road, as well as Thompson's track in Te Aroha from the weekend before and load them into CooneyR's site.

[Aslan]

great pics and interesting commentary - thanks for posting

[Aslan]

Pampa - thanks for your report and pics - great - cheers S

[marks]

lots of great photos but no real indication of track conditions and difficulty - is it all a walk in the park or a nightmare or somewhere in between.

Would a lone klr be ok going through it all?

cheers

Mark

[Eddieb]

lots of great photos but no real indication of track conditions and difficulty - is it all a walk in the park or a nightmare or somewhere in between.

Would a lone klr be ok going through it all?

cheers

Mark

I would have to say no, not due to the difficulty itself but the risk of not being able to extracate yourself if something went wrong.

Fishers track was a bit slippery in places but overall pretty good with only 1 place that could have caused real issues which was the fallen tree stump, there is a risk there of breaking something on you or the bike as the drop off was several feet high, damp and pretty much vertical. You can see in Pampa's photo of me sitting on top of it how high it is. And you would only get over it from the direction we went.

42 Traverse overall was firm, dry and easy with mostly gentle undulating track, however if you got stuck on one of those stream exits you would be well and truly stuffed with a serious risk on a couple of them of not being able to go forwards or backwards as the drop in was as steep if not steeper than the exit and some were quite muddy. Ask Aslan about that.

[Balrog]

...and some were quite muddy. Ask Aslan about that.

Father BusaJim and Friar Marks, are awaiting the confessions

[Aslan]

I would have to say no, not due to the difficulty itself but the risk of not being able to extracate yourself if something went wrong.


42 Traverse overall was firm, dry and easy with mostly gentle undulating track, however if you got stuck on one of those stream exits you would be well and truly stuffed with a serious risk on a couple of them of not being able to go forwards or backwards as the drop in was as steep if not steeper than the exit and some were quite muddy. Ask Aslan about that.

Eddie is referring to a particularly long and steep exit on the 42nd- sandy and quite rutted - that I had three attempts at before calling for help having slid back down on 3 occassions by which time I was getting tired keeping the DR upright and turning it side on in order to run back down for another attempt. Coupla factors here - my skill level and gearing 14T front sprocket. Suspect this is one where Jamie (aka Ducati Jim) would advocate use of a 13T engine sprocket on a DR.

Mark - I've done Fishers alone on my DR350 - relatively fine but I wouldn't recommend you do the Traverse by yourself

[pampa]

lots of great photos but no real indication of track conditions and difficulty - is it all a walk in the park or a nightmare or somewhere in between.

Would a lone klr be ok going through it all?

cheers

Mark

Aye if you had a kT 950 it would be peace of cake as Brent (was it Brent?) show us how to do it quick an easy, proof is no pics of him since he was miles away ahead ... and with tourances. Also let me add that with a kT 640A it was even easier, allowed Mark to do some pretty tricky things over tree stump

Now with a Klr it may be trickier to do alone for the reasons stated by Eddie, in a group u shouldn't have any problem. Obviously depends on your level of confidence/skills.

I personally think that Fishers was trickier than 42 despite of being shorter although didn't have much problem going through it. The vertical drops were pretty scary for me. Muddy and slippery even with the lack of rain.

I didn't lay the bike on the whole track and i'm a professional at that

Cheers,
Pampa

[Eddieb]

Eddie is referring to a particularly long and steep exit on the 42nd- sandy and quite rutted ............- Coupla factors here - my skill level and gearing 14T front sprocket.

The longest, sandiest exit by quite a margin I'd say, with a muddy slow run up. Probably close on twice the rise as the other exits.

Judging on how you handled the other exits, even after exhausting yourself on that one, I'd say it was more setup than skill level that was lacking.