Winterfold Wood, south-west of Pitch Hill is one of the areas we sometimes ride where my trail knowledge starts to run out. I'd like to correct that situation, so armed with a small map and some tips from Roger at Head for the Hills, Tom, Dunnie and I arrived at Hurtwood CP4 on sunday morning. We met Simon, Richard (who joined us on our xmas ride) and another new rider Mark 3(!), a neighbour of theirs fielding a rather tasty new Boardman hardtail. A clear cold morning meant the remaining snow and slush in the car park had become a skating rink and we had to carefully walk to the first bridleway. The longish climb to the summit of pitch was made more challenging than usual by the snow, punctuated by mud and streams of meltwater.
As we got to the plateau I took us on a minor detour to a couple of jumps which we often tackle. It was all going so well until Simon hit the 2nd, slightly larger double....planting his front wheel solidly into the gap he was thrown forward into a spectacular half sommersault, landing hard on his back with the bike following in a similar arc. I have to say it looked bad but thankfully he was only winded and soon able to carry on (jumping was over for him though). Sadly not caught on film as it ranked with some of Dunnie's best efforts.
We reached the top of Pitch and then headed down a techy bridleway to a Car Park near the Windmill. A climb through a stream up to the Windmill followed and we than found "Judges Seat", an infamous feature with several challenging drop offs. We all decided that today wasn't the day to hit these first time and after speaking to another group of riders took a long, flowing bridleway down to Jellies' Hollow, a steep and fairly spectacular gulley. We messed around on this for about half an hour, trying various lines and jump options, a lot of fun and I have a feeling we'll be back there before too long.
Taking the bridleways back towards Pitch we came across a bomb hole trail we've ridden before and sessioned the bombs and a nice berm before we made the long climb back to the Winterfold car park. From here it was an easy roll back to the cars at Peaslake.
A really good ride and some new routes mentally mapped for the future. I'm still trying to locate "I Should Coco, 2 Headed Dog and Christmas Pudding!" so plenty more exploring to do over there - watch this space....
A quick ride through the Surrey Hills with a group of 40 something mtbers who really should know better!
Monday 18 January 2010
Monday 11 January 2010
The shortest route to the bike shop, please....
As mentioned below, I did indeed turn back on Saturday's ride. Lack of any form of enjoyment being the main cause, however I also stopped in Dorking to leave my bike in the shop again - my front forks are off to the fork doctor to remedy their complete lack of pressure (luckily within the warranty period). This means that my bike has now been in for 3rd party attendance 5 times in 9 months.... Perhaps I should cut out the middle man and just drop my bike into the shop every Saturday and go to the pub.....
Saturday 9 January 2010
There's snow use moaning about it!
Date : 9th January 2010
Riders : Rich, Mark2, Dave2, Wilf, Dunnie, XC Tom, Andy
Area : Leith Hill
Given the weather conditions, we pushed back our usual meeting time to 0900, and decided to park at Milton Heath Car Park – the lowest point we could achieve. No way was Coldharbour going to be sensibly accessible today! Big turn out today, we congregated trying to keep warm, while Dunnie arrived and proceeded to put his bike together!!
We set off in the snowy conditions to head towards the tower. Making our way across the back of the houses at Westcott, it quickly became apparent that riding in snow this deep, was not going to be a walk in the park!! The snow afforded little traction in the snow, causing us to push our bikes on a number of occasions. We arrived at the bottom of the Rookery, fingers numb with cold and started the ascent. Hitting deep snow, the riding became too diffficult, and most of us dismounted. It was this point that Dunnie had just had enough... and called it a day – heading back to the car on his own. The rest of us ploughed on, up the rookery – which basically became the big push for all of us! Having completed the push up the rookery, we mounted again to try Wolverns Lane. This was a lot better – two nice ruts either side of the track gave adequate traction and allowed us to make quicker progress up the hill.
Arriving at the top of summer lightening, again through deep snow, XC Tom started to reduce pressure in his rear wheel for extra traction. We all followed suit, after he explained that an Austrian couple had died from not reducing their rear wheel tyre pressure enough!!!! (There is a story there... but for another day ;-) ).
Combination of riding and pushing saw us reach the bomb holes, and what a different riding experience that was! Most of us took some sort of tumble, and no-one made it to the top of the last rise. I can confirm that flattie 510s provide no grip in snow whatsoever, resulting in a number of hill climbing on all fours for those of us wearing them (Me, Rich and Mark2). A quick look at deliverance (and a look was all it was!), and onto the cricket pitch. A group photo with artistic placing of bikes, and Mark2 and Dave2 departed, for work and dad duties respectively.
This left Wilf, Rich, XC Tom and myself to continue to the tower. Sticking to the fire roads, the going was reasonable and we arrived at the bottom of “the hill” in on piece.
Wilf made a good attempt at the hill, but frankly the whole climb was never on the cards!!! Wilf and I pushed to the top, with Tom and Rich taking the longer, less steep route. The tower tea shop was open (thankfully), so a cup of tea and a slice of cake was on the cards. Huddled in the steps of the tower to stay out of what was a bitterly cold wind, we took a wee snifter from Rich's “bike drawer hip flask”.
It had taken us a good 2 hours to get to the top – so we decided that heading back to the car is all the riding we could achieve. Personal Hygiene beckoned, and we all made it with wheels a wobbling – Rich having to take a sliding fall to avoid continuing over the rise onto the trail!!
Back to the cricket pitch we took the road down to Coldharbour, as the easy option, and then left onto Wolverns lane. The ride down Wolverns lane was probably the best bit of riding all morning. Some speed was achieved, and the route flowed nicely. The came the rookery... a different story. Thick snow meant a constant fight with the front wheel, no matter how far you were sitting back on the bike!! Arriving at the main A25, we stuck to the road to get back to the car park – the sensible choice!
Snow way were any records being broken today!
Riders : Rich, Mark2, Dave2, Wilf, Dunnie, XC Tom, Andy
Area : Leith Hill
Given the weather conditions, we pushed back our usual meeting time to 0900, and decided to park at Milton Heath Car Park – the lowest point we could achieve. No way was Coldharbour going to be sensibly accessible today! Big turn out today, we congregated trying to keep warm, while Dunnie arrived and proceeded to put his bike together!!
We set off in the snowy conditions to head towards the tower. Making our way across the back of the houses at Westcott, it quickly became apparent that riding in snow this deep, was not going to be a walk in the park!! The snow afforded little traction in the snow, causing us to push our bikes on a number of occasions. We arrived at the bottom of the Rookery, fingers numb with cold and started the ascent. Hitting deep snow, the riding became too diffficult, and most of us dismounted. It was this point that Dunnie had just had enough... and called it a day – heading back to the car on his own. The rest of us ploughed on, up the rookery – which basically became the big push for all of us! Having completed the push up the rookery, we mounted again to try Wolverns Lane. This was a lot better – two nice ruts either side of the track gave adequate traction and allowed us to make quicker progress up the hill.
Arriving at the top of summer lightening, again through deep snow, XC Tom started to reduce pressure in his rear wheel for extra traction. We all followed suit, after he explained that an Austrian couple had died from not reducing their rear wheel tyre pressure enough!!!! (There is a story there... but for another day ;-) ).
Combination of riding and pushing saw us reach the bomb holes, and what a different riding experience that was! Most of us took some sort of tumble, and no-one made it to the top of the last rise. I can confirm that flattie 510s provide no grip in snow whatsoever, resulting in a number of hill climbing on all fours for those of us wearing them (Me, Rich and Mark2). A quick look at deliverance (and a look was all it was!), and onto the cricket pitch. A group photo with artistic placing of bikes, and Mark2 and Dave2 departed, for work and dad duties respectively.
This left Wilf, Rich, XC Tom and myself to continue to the tower. Sticking to the fire roads, the going was reasonable and we arrived at the bottom of “the hill” in on piece.Wilf made a good attempt at the hill, but frankly the whole climb was never on the cards!!! Wilf and I pushed to the top, with Tom and Rich taking the longer, less steep route. The tower tea shop was open (thankfully), so a cup of tea and a slice of cake was on the cards. Huddled in the steps of the tower to stay out of what was a bitterly cold wind, we took a wee snifter from Rich's “bike drawer hip flask”.
It had taken us a good 2 hours to get to the top – so we decided that heading back to the car is all the riding we could achieve. Personal Hygiene beckoned, and we all made it with wheels a wobbling – Rich having to take a sliding fall to avoid continuing over the rise onto the trail!!
Back to the cricket pitch we took the road down to Coldharbour, as the easy option, and then left onto Wolverns lane. The ride down Wolverns lane was probably the best bit of riding all morning. Some speed was achieved, and the route flowed nicely. The came the rookery... a different story. Thick snow meant a constant fight with the front wheel, no matter how far you were sitting back on the bike!! Arriving at the main A25, we stuck to the road to get back to the car park – the sensible choice!
Snow way were any records being broken today!
Sunday 3 January 2010
2010 - The First Ride
The plan was to try and organise a ride for Saturday 2nd but unfortunately due to the New Year Celebrations a number of the riders were away or too tired due to a late night on the 31st. Well they do say as you get older it takes longer to recover. So Saturday was given up as a lost cause.
All was not lost as Roy was available Sunday so it was agreed we would get out for a few hours in the morning. We decided to ride locally so the first ride of 2010 for two of the Over the Hill bikers was not through the hills of the Surrey countryside but through the trails of Swinley Forrest in Berkshire.
08:30 was the agreed start time and we both arrived a little early so by we had a prompt start on a cold (-3) but beautiful morning. Roy was familiar with the area, all be it mostly at night, but we were soon experiencing the delights of the Crown Estate. The forest is a labyrinth of single track with some interesting features which just appear to feed into each other really well so very little time is spent riding on the fire roads.
The main difference between Swinely and the Surrey rides is the hills, Swinley has a lot of climbs but most are short lived and many are incorporated in the single track so you do not seem to be spending lots of time just climbing hills, the down side of this is of course there are no really long downhill descents. Some of the trails are very similar to “Yogurt Pots” , “Telegraph” with some smaller versions of “BKB” but without the great berm, but it also hosts some of it’s own individual and very interesting trails.
Roy - many thanks for the real introduction into Swinley Forest.
All was not lost as Roy was available Sunday so it was agreed we would get out for a few hours in the morning. We decided to ride locally so the first ride of 2010 for two of the Over the Hill bikers was not through the hills of the Surrey countryside but through the trails of Swinley Forrest in Berkshire.
08:30 was the agreed start time and we both arrived a little early so by we had a prompt start on a cold (-3) but beautiful morning. Roy was familiar with the area, all be it mostly at night, but we were soon experiencing the delights of the Crown Estate. The forest is a labyrinth of single track with some interesting features which just appear to feed into each other really well so very little time is spent riding on the fire roads.
The main difference between Swinely and the Surrey rides is the hills, Swinley has a lot of climbs but most are short lived and many are incorporated in the single track so you do not seem to be spending lots of time just climbing hills, the down side of this is of course there are no really long downhill descents. Some of the trails are very similar to “Yogurt Pots” , “Telegraph” with some smaller versions of “BKB” but without the great berm, but it also hosts some of it’s own individual and very interesting trails.
Roy - many thanks for the real introduction into Swinley Forest.
And Then There Were 2
On Sunday 3rd January 2010, at the start of the new decade, two of the lesser known guys met for an early morning ride around a very cold Swinley Forest. Roy and Simon rendezvouzed at the Look Out Car Park at 0830 breaking the icy puddles on the way in. There were a few other idiots in the car park but the -3 degrees kept most in their cars or beds if they were really switched on.
Simon removed his pristine and recently serviced Lapiere off his roof rack. I pulled the old faithful Specialized Hardtail out of the cavernous rear of the C5 and squirted it with lube in order to get it moving. We donned lots of clothing and set off, neither of us really knowing where we were going. Simon hadn't been before, despite living down the road. I had only been in the dark with poor lights. So, off we set on our adventure.
After warning Simon of the dreaded Swinley Roots we quickly found a single track route through the trees. Gradually climbing up to the top of the forest, I found most of the trails we were looking for. The ground was frozen on the crust but would break through to claggy mud or water. Swinley has lots of twisting and turning single track that nicely undulates for miles. Mo long drag up for a short trip down.
We went round and about for about two and a half hours before succumbing to the call of hot tea from the cafe at the car park. No major incidents apart from the odd close shave with the roots. We have found areas we would like to explore further. On return to the hot tea we found that the front mech was frozen solid with mud and ice.
So, if anyone fancies a trip somewhere different give Simon a call. Not next week as he's off 'up North' to check out their tracks. Good Luck
Simon removed his pristine and recently serviced Lapiere off his roof rack. I pulled the old faithful Specialized Hardtail out of the cavernous rear of the C5 and squirted it with lube in order to get it moving. We donned lots of clothing and set off, neither of us really knowing where we were going. Simon hadn't been before, despite living down the road. I had only been in the dark with poor lights. So, off we set on our adventure.
After warning Simon of the dreaded Swinley Roots we quickly found a single track route through the trees. Gradually climbing up to the top of the forest, I found most of the trails we were looking for. The ground was frozen on the crust but would break through to claggy mud or water. Swinley has lots of twisting and turning single track that nicely undulates for miles. Mo long drag up for a short trip down.
We went round and about for about two and a half hours before succumbing to the call of hot tea from the cafe at the car park. No major incidents apart from the odd close shave with the roots. We have found areas we would like to explore further. On return to the hot tea we found that the front mech was frozen solid with mud and ice.
So, if anyone fancies a trip somewhere different give Simon a call. Not next week as he's off 'up North' to check out their tracks. Good Luck
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