China Pig Reprise

Having been a poor week for rain, we were hoping that Thursday might prove a bit of a respite, to allow a quick ride out at night. I'm still using my old halogen light with max burn time of about 45mins, so I'm still heavily relying on everyone elses lights!! Still, I do have shipping confirmation for my deal extreme light, so fingers crossed.

I was delayed leaving work, and the M25 threw up a 22mile queue.... great!! I was going to be late, or even miss altogether!! Gutted – especially as this was Simon's first venture out with the old crowd again, and I'd miss seeing his pristine Lapiere Zesty. Given the traffic and the delay, I nobly fell on my sword and phoned Rich to tell him and Simon to crack on – I was stuck and was still probably another 30mins away. Rich suggested I meet them on Box Hill instead, as it would take them about 30mins to get up to the top from Dorking anyway. Having formulated a plan, I made it through the Dorking traffic a little quicker than anticipated, and bumped into the guys just as they were about to embark on the run up to the top of Box Hill.

Rather than drive to the top of Box Hill, I sneaked into the local hotel car park at the bottom, and quickly got myself ready, joining the boys at the bottom of Box Hill, ready for the climb to the top. 9mins 30secs was the time to beat from Rich's last attempt. The 3 of us set of together. 9mins 30secs Rich arrives at the top (spooky!!), with me about a minute behind. Simon arrived at around 12mins. Taking a short rest we set off, ignoring the views, to find China Pig.

All the previous comments on the route proved to be accurate. Lots of off camber roots. With the rain from the previous days, these proved to be particularly slippery tonight. I took a tumble! The route was nice and long, but slow, given the dark and the wet. We arrived at Juniper bottom, to be greeted with rain!! That wasn't part of the weather forecast!! Another climb and then picked up a nice downhill trail which Rich knew from days gone by. It was faster than China Pig, less rooty, but more rocky, and needed a little more focus, to avoid the left hand drop!!

Down the steps by the pub, which some of us tackled and one us got off, we arrived at the A24. A quick ride back along the A24 route to the hotel car park to pack the bike away. We then met up at the Star pub for our customary after ride pint.

Short but sweet!