Graeme Simpson: Navigating track changes

You go out of town for five minutes and come back and they've changed all the trails.

That's quite a bit of exaggeration all round there. We were actually away for nearly a year and it's really only the trails on the city side of the forest that have changed.

But what change. In March, when we first got back to Rotorua, we went for a ride south on Te Ara Ahi, the new cycleway, and then rode home through the forest. As Pohaturoa Rd met Nursery it was a total transformation.

Without trees the lay of the land was totally different. Since then I've been off my bike. My good mate, Rick Twimane, did take me for a drive to the entrance of Corridor on the Tokorangi Pa ridgeline, a couple of months ago.

With his great little dog, Flo, we walked to the top of the hill to his seat and admired the shape of the new trail and the 360-degree view.

That seat was originally at the high point of HotXBuns at the top of Direct Rd. It was always a good place to stop and have a breather. Then the pines grew, so Rick moved it to new open spaces.

Sitting on the seat catching my breath, it took meamoment or two to re-orient myself. I've never hadaGPS unit before, though I've been seriously tempted.

However, I'm back in the forest on a bike, now. After such a long time away and with all the change, it was a reassuring moment when a new Magellan eXplorist 610 unit turned up on a courier a couple of weeks ago.

Magellan is the sponsor of the Whaka 100 run at Labour Weekend. I did some work for them and race organiser (and my good friend) Rawiri Bhana, who took over Nduro Events this year. AGPS was a bit more than I expected in return and I amvery grateful to Magellan for their generosity.

However, I had explained to them that I planned to chart my return to riding. They feltaGPS would help me do that as I slowly increase distance and time. It's a fascinating process, a lot of fun and very easy to play with.

The eXplorist will be a constant companion. I hope I don't get too geeky tracking my rides. No, hang on. I love it and will bore people to tears about it all - from here till Christmas. If you've never tried one, you really must. Something else I love is being back on my bike. Just my little old Blur right now. The 6-inch travel tractor can waitawhile.

Apparently riding a bike is one of those things that, once learned, are never forgotten. It is something about how the brain works, storing the information in the long-term memory. I can testify to that. First time out for seven months was a lap of the Forest Research Institute on Labour Day-my own little Whaka 1.

It felt perfectly natural. I even got off the pegs a couple of times and roosted of a bank. Age9-again.

? Shameless plug time. Thanks to Magellan NZ-good people and big supporters and fans of mountain biking:

www.magellangps.co.nz.