Mystery Rider

We gathered in the carpark expecting a torrent of rain to engulf us at any moment, it didn’t. We had a cracking ride and got back to the carpark much cleaner than any of us expected.

The usual route into the woods was a bit of a slog as the fireroad was damp and we were cold in both mind and body; however by the time we were at the top we were all overheating. Risking the weather we pulled off the waterproofs and hoped that we weren’t tempting fate. Rob led the way but then feigned memory loss as we approached the first section of singletrack, Martin took over but then got lost on the trail, no worries we are about fun so when the laughter died down we found the trail and continued.  The jumpy trail was next including the extended loop, we were panting as we gulped in the cold air on the mulch covered climbs. The fast swoopy trail with the hump was very slippery and all of us had a couple of very close moments due to speed overtaking common sense. The trail that starts with multiple twisty rootballs was unride-able as someone had obviously wedged logs and tree branches into the standing trees at each side blocking the trail, we made our way down clearing everything out of the way so that we could loop back and ride it properly. We cleared this trail over two years ago but during the last summer months it has been discovered and is now well ridden, increased use has bedded it in to everyone’s increased enjoyment. If anyone is planning to ride this trail take care on the corners as someone is obviously intent on blocking access. From here we headed back into the fun trails. We had a couple of goes at jumping off the exit ramp before going the new jumps. Coppicing work has taken out a couple of jumpy trails but undeterred and laughing we built a ramp out of the stacked logs and practiced riding over it for a good 15 minutes. The dew pond trail followed by the new hidden trail into the back of the University for the step jumps finished things off and we arrived back at the carpark at 9-10.

We all enjoyed this one, the joy of not getting rained on helped and although the ground was muddy we ended the ride pretty clean, either that or the final jumps had knocked the mud off! Don’t wimp it in the winter just get out and ride, it is different but equally good fun as dry dusty trails.