steve_sordy
Wedding Crasher
- Thread starter
- #91
Well that was a fun day out, I reckon 22 miles in all. We started with seven and ended with four. @Rahr85 had motor problems and pulled out. We all agreed that the emtb area needs a motor and he did well to do half of it. @Davvee hadn't intended to do the full route and his ribs were giving him some gyp, so he pulled out at the same time. @DaveDog's broken collar bone doesn't seem to be healing as quickly as usual (!) and he lost strength on a descent and decided to call it a day.
The weather was great, the insects stayed away, nobody was hurt too badly.
Some pics:
Here are the Magnificent Seven that started.
From the left: @Ontherail , @Davvee , @DaveDog , @PhilG , @myapes , @Rahr85 (I'm hiding behind the photographer).
In the pic below, Davvee has just climbed over the ridge behind him and is dropping down into some very soft and loose loam, about to carve left before climbing back up onto the ridge and doing it again.
This is Rahr85 willing his motor to cool down and work!
We crossed over the old railbed into the National Coal Board area where the emtb trail will be when Forest England get the funds. We did one circuit and that is where Rahr85 and Davvee left us. We did a second different circuit that required a long climb and to pass by a water feature. The area is crossed with 4x4 trails and some have left deep wallows. This one was full to the top last week, but at least we know how deep it is now. The photograph has done what all photos do and made the land look flat, but it wasn't.
Here is Ontherail trying his best not to discover how deep the mud is.
And here is Davedog (front) and Myapes making a better fist of it. I think I prefer it muddy like that, when it was full of water it looked like it might contain something very nasty.
Here is PhilG dropping down from the NCB area into the old railbed. The dry and dusty nature of the trail was unforgiving and gave everyone a small flutter of panic.
And here is Davedog about to hit the photographer! His shoulder gave way and he lost his line. The new line was where I was crouched. His head hit my left thigh square on and gave me a dead leg. Lucky really, as the alternative was the hard rail bed. I may be imagining it, but I think you can just about see the realisation beginning to dawn on Davedog that he was about to go down, hard. Where was my shutter delay when I really needed it?
Myapes was due to follow immediately after Davedog but decided to lower his bike down ( I think he did, I didn't see because I was covered in Dave). I also believe that he was not laughing at Davedog's misfortune, but either at his lucky escape or at me hopping about with a dead leg.
It was at this point that DaveDog wisely decided to count his blessings at surviving a nasty fall unscathed and call it a day. I escorted him to a safe route back to the carpark and rejoined the group. Now down to four hardy souls.
We headed for some fast flowing gravity assisted singletrack at the far end of the desert and did a couple of circuits of that before making our way back via the old blue trail where we attacked the trenches area and then finishing off on a section of the 5km run. This is fast and flowing and at one section diverts onto a deep rut made by one of the forest clearance machines. The rut is deep, wide, winding, up and down a lot, bumpy and littered with roots. Great fun!
And here are the survivors, the Fantastic Four! (I'm the one on the right).
PhilG bought us all a coffee, good man! Thanks.
Thanks to all that turned up, great bunch of guys, good fun.
The weather was great, the insects stayed away, nobody was hurt too badly.
Some pics:
Here are the Magnificent Seven that started.
From the left: @Ontherail , @Davvee , @DaveDog , @PhilG , @myapes , @Rahr85 (I'm hiding behind the photographer).
In the pic below, Davvee has just climbed over the ridge behind him and is dropping down into some very soft and loose loam, about to carve left before climbing back up onto the ridge and doing it again.
This is Rahr85 willing his motor to cool down and work!
We crossed over the old railbed into the National Coal Board area where the emtb trail will be when Forest England get the funds. We did one circuit and that is where Rahr85 and Davvee left us. We did a second different circuit that required a long climb and to pass by a water feature. The area is crossed with 4x4 trails and some have left deep wallows. This one was full to the top last week, but at least we know how deep it is now. The photograph has done what all photos do and made the land look flat, but it wasn't.
Here is Ontherail trying his best not to discover how deep the mud is.
And here is Davedog (front) and Myapes making a better fist of it. I think I prefer it muddy like that, when it was full of water it looked like it might contain something very nasty.
Here is PhilG dropping down from the NCB area into the old railbed. The dry and dusty nature of the trail was unforgiving and gave everyone a small flutter of panic.
And here is Davedog about to hit the photographer! His shoulder gave way and he lost his line. The new line was where I was crouched. His head hit my left thigh square on and gave me a dead leg. Lucky really, as the alternative was the hard rail bed. I may be imagining it, but I think you can just about see the realisation beginning to dawn on Davedog that he was about to go down, hard. Where was my shutter delay when I really needed it?
Myapes was due to follow immediately after Davedog but decided to lower his bike down ( I think he did, I didn't see because I was covered in Dave). I also believe that he was not laughing at Davedog's misfortune, but either at his lucky escape or at me hopping about with a dead leg.
It was at this point that DaveDog wisely decided to count his blessings at surviving a nasty fall unscathed and call it a day. I escorted him to a safe route back to the carpark and rejoined the group. Now down to four hardy souls.
We headed for some fast flowing gravity assisted singletrack at the far end of the desert and did a couple of circuits of that before making our way back via the old blue trail where we attacked the trenches area and then finishing off on a section of the 5km run. This is fast and flowing and at one section diverts onto a deep rut made by one of the forest clearance machines. The rut is deep, wide, winding, up and down a lot, bumpy and littered with roots. Great fun!
And here are the survivors, the Fantastic Four! (I'm the one on the right).
PhilG bought us all a coffee, good man! Thanks.
Thanks to all that turned up, great bunch of guys, good fun.
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