Siberia’s makeover

Siberia Gorge, the notoriously difficult - and cold - section of the Rimutaka Cycle Trail has just got that much smoother.

Improvements to the rutted and rocky downhill gorge have brought it up to the standard of the rest of the popular rail and ride trail.

The gorge has long been the most rugged part of the trial. Cyclists have had to dismount and carry their bikes down the steep and narrow track, go over the Cross Creek stream and climb up the other side’s similar steep and narrow track.

‘‘The work has created a wider and far more even surface,’’ Greater Wellington Regional council principal ranger Jimmy Young said. ’’This means some cyclists can ride this section now and others can far more easily walk it with their bikes.’’

The gorge improvement was part of $80,000 of work on the traIl completed this month. It was co-funded by the regional council and a government Great Rides Trail Maintenance Fund .

Siberia Gorge is near the centre of the 22 kilometre trail which runs from Maymorn, north of Upper Hutt, to Cross Creek near Featherston in the Wairarapa.

The walk and riding trial follows the original railway route over the Rimutaka Ranges including the famous 4.8km Rimutaka Incline used by steam powered Fell railway locomotives up to the 1950s.

It is also part of the 115km Rimutaka Cycle Trail, one of 22 Great Rides that making up the New Zealand Cycle Trail.

Other remedial work included shaping and resurfacing the trial at the summit yards near the gorge and improving the track’s drainage between the yards and the trail’s main tunnel

The recreation area is used by 30,000 walkers, runners and cyclists every year.