Mountain Bike Ride.
The Pensioner, The Bread Lad, The Ginger One, The Trainee and Richie.
Following a blip in the time and space continuum or maybe a misunderstanding around start times, The Trainee and me eventually made it to Hamsterley, slightly later than advertised. As we dropped down the bank into Bedburn, I was pointing out the trail burglars car park where cyclists of low morals park to avoid paying the Hamsterley £4 parking fee. Amongst the vehicles parked were the cars of The Pensioner, The Ginger One and The Bread Lad obviously intent on some shameless freeloading such are their poverty stricken circumstances. The Trainee and I took the moral high ground and rode the trails happy with the knowledge we had contributed towards their existence.
Hamsterley is quite a large forest but a bit of careful planning and sign ignoring can have all the best bits (on the official trails) polished off in about 11 miles. As The Trainee’s Hamsterley virginity was to be lost today, this edited highlights approach was taken, sticking to the main tracks and missing out the unofficial bits through the deep woods - much to The Pensioner’s relief, who finds anything dark, narrow and slippery akin to a ride through The Devil’s colon. Shortly after we had PAID OUR CAR PARKING FEE, me, The Trainee and some trail burglars were plodding up to the first section, Pikes Teeth, which begins on an almost natural trail through the trees, with lots of roots to negotiate, then widens into a newly built trail (probably built with MONEY from the CAR PARK fees), nicely flowing with berms and drop offs depositing us on a fire road. A nice introduction. Moving on, we took a short drop to the river before a fire road climb to avoid the execrable Route 666, a trail which has no flow or any other redeeming features, heading straight to the newest bit of trail, Oddsox, a better example of the trailbuilders craft, fast and steep - so good we did it twice, followed by the continuation through the trees, which was differently pleasant, except for The Pensioner, it being a bit of devil’s colon.
A quick pedal on the flat to The Grove and we began the climb to Transmission, another worthwhile section, the top part was visited twice by our motley crew before we moved onto Accelerator, a contrasting trail to Transmission, seemingly flat, which as the name says accelerates the riders at remarkable speed between trees and shallow berms until the fire road is regained. Another double ride. The trainee was presenting himself well, doing all the trails without demur. As sure as night follows day, Nitrous follows Accelerator, another different type of trail more rocky and technical than the others, ending with a mini path jump into a bermed finishing section. Big grins all round as we congregated on the track to The Grove, prior to the lowlight of the day, the climb up the opposite side of the valley to reach Section 13.
Plodding up to the Descend huts for the halfway breather is never fun and it always seems as though the huts are moved a little bit further up the track every time the ascent is tackled. It was almost neck and neck between The Pensioner and The Trainee but 40 extra years of experience kicked and The Pensioner took the lead up to the huts. Section 13 is followed by some older sections of track which are essentially original routes tarted up a bit, Boneshaker is aptly named, the bottom section, down a root-ridden gully, rattles fillings loose, Special K has a bomb hole and a wooden wall ride, Brainfreeze has a wooden jump which very few of our craven contingent have ever attempted. Today was no different.
An excellent day’s riding was had in a brief eleven and a half miles, a compact circuit which still managed torture us with over two thousand feet of ascent.
No comments:
Post a Comment