Midweek on the Old Ghost road

If you want just the pictures with none of my ramblings, jump to the bottom for a convenient photo gallery!

The entire time I spent in the northern portion of the South Island of New Zealand, I was always thinking about biking the Old Ghost Road. Beyond what stoke I had from the photos and words online about it, I also had words from Dulkara telling me how amazing it was. Needless to say it had taken on somewhat mythic proportions in my head. I had to see it before we headed back south and so with mere days left before we had to be back in Mt. Cook Village, we loaded up the car and headed out to do an out and back from Lyell to Specimen Pt. Hut while tagging the Seddonville end of the track if we had the time. We’d have two whole days and one half day to get it done. A tight schedule, but totally doable. You can imagine our distress when we arrived at the trailhead to find the exhaust had burnt a 5cm gash into the sidewall of Dulkaras front tire! We salvaged the trip by driving into Westport and buying a new tire, then decided to just bike into Ghost Lake Hut that evening and play it by ear from there.

Heading up the track from Lyell to Ghost Lake Hut is as gentle of a climb as you could ask for. Of course, when you’re short on time and hoping to make it into the alpine before the evening light cuts out then it can still make your lungs burn!

Of course, it’s important even when you’re in a bit of rush to stop for proper snacks. Not pictured here is the excellent bike parking in between the benches.

Made it out of the trees just in time for the sunset! It was a slow meander along the ridge line as we alternated between watching the track and the ever changing light.

• 

• 

From there it was a short but chilly ride down to Ghost Lake Hut where we found a party of trampers already had the hut nice and toasty with a fire going and food cooking. Despite the near zero temperatures outside it was almost too warm inside that evening.

The next morning we set out in the soft morning light with a sea of clouds beneath us and the suns rays slowly melting the frost from the track.

As the sun climbed higher in the sky the temperature did as well and we found ourselves riding technical alpine single track in t-shirts. Fortunately the low hanging layer of clouds stayed around lending a sense of mystery and expansiveness to the landscape.

The Skyline Steps provide a short break from the downhill. Choose your bike carrying method carefully as not all are equally suited to this portion of the track.

With the downhill portion of the day finished we lazily biked into Stern Valley Hut where we had a snack before continuing on to Solemn Saddle. It was there we had to turn around and repeat everything in reverse. Sadly with our shortened timeline Specimen Pt Hut and the end of the track where not in the cards. But I’ll be back for them. Of that I have no doubt.

The Skyline Steps going up don’t even take much more time than coming down. That is, as long as you eat plenty of snacks first.

• 

• 

From there we rode a mixture of challenging climbing single track that kept your heat pumping full speed, and sections of pleasant hike a bike. They may have been less pleasant with fully loaded touring bikes, but with light FS bikes it was a breeze. Before we knew it the climb was over and we were back at Ghost Lake Hut for another cozy evening in the alpine.

• 

• 

We spent the next morning getting to know the local Weka population who were friendly and welcoming as Wekas always are. After posing at my request, this Weka offered to help Dulkara pack up her things.

Despite the fact that I didn’t see the whole track, this trip was pretty special in that we spent a lot of it on the high portion of the track most all of the views are. Shortly after leaving Ghost Lake Hut to head back to Lyell we came across this view of the Rocky Tor.

We made our way up the only bit of climbing for the day while the wind rose with the sun. I kept my coat on for the whole ride but apparently Dulkara is windproof, and needed no such protective layer.

From the top of the short climb we effortlessly cruised down 1300 meters of single track from Heavens Door to the Lyell carpark. We stopped for a long lunch and tea at Lyell Saddle Hut but other than that we kept our fingers off the brakes and cruised back to the car with minimal pedaling. All told we did 91 kilometres and 3,000 meters of elevation gain in our short three “days” on the track. Realistically it was car to car in just over 48 hours, and a leisurely 48 hours at that. Trailforks lists the full ride end to end as being 80km’s and 2700 meters of elevation gain. So statistically, I got the full experience.

Here’s where we get into the less picturesque side of things. I struggled a fair bit this ride. Not physically, but mentally. As stated earlier, I had built the Old Ghost Road up to near mythic proportions in my mind and had a lot of expectation on riding the whole thing. With the short winter days, a tight schedule to begin with, and an unforeseeable mishap to delay the start of the ride, I should have adjusted my expectations right away. But I didn’t. I foolishly kept trying to figure out ways to ride the whole thing in our time frame and spent most of the trip in a rushed mindset with a frustrating jumble of emotions going around my head. It wasn’t until we stopped at the (aptly named) Solemn Saddle that I finally got a hold of things. Dulkara deserves a lot of credit for being patient with me as I went through being grumpy and pushy about the whole thing and I’m really grateful to her for that.

Even though it’s not even two weeks since we finished the ride, I already only really think of the beauty of it. It serves as a nice reminder for me to stay in the present and to always deal with negative feelings and emotions as I recognize them. Had I taken the time to recognize why I was feeling frustrated and rushed, I would have realized it was absolutely silly to be feeling that way. And once you acknowledge frustrations and give them their moment of air time, they often tend to fall away and take a back seat to the greater positives of a moment. All that being said, I can’t wait for the next opportunity to ride on the Ghost Road, and I’m super excited to ride the whole thing in a day. I think it would be a brilliant ride.

Gallery