Post by kirky72 on Jan 6, 2016 18:21:58 GMT
I had my first proper ride of the new year this morning around rivington.
parking up at the end of the ice cream run, climbed up behind the pike, down towards the dog kennels, climbed up the next footpath. Lim. Up towards the mast service road, up and then down the San Marino. Turned around and climbed San Marino (some pushing on account or the sloppy conditions and massive ruts) down the shooting hut descent.
then I went slightly wrong and instead of taking the single track alongside and down past the quarry I ended up going down walker fold wood. Never been there, some bits were okay but spat me out onto the road for a bit. Climbed back up George lane and dropped down wilder wood, climbed back towards the carpark and then back up the back path past the Chinese gardens and the long way around upto the tower. Descended back down again and down ice cream run to finish.
Just short of 3000ft climbing but felt like a lot more to this turkey laden xmas bloater!
just wanted to point out a few areas to look out for those that may be heading there as the recent rain has caused some small areas of land slip and washed away crucial parts of some of the more famous trails.
San Marino, the ruts have been getting very deep for a while now many are way higher than your cranks and in one or two places, notably around two thirds down, there's no real option as it's just a Matt of which rut too choose and they are all deep and end with a foot or so of mud or clay wall. The bog that I fell into last time is wider and deeper, however I did miss it this time. Parts are very wet and the surface is loose and slippy (felt bad for going down). Tricky getting down but had no real issues just had to lift out of one badly chosen rut. Climbing up was impossible in places.
shooting hut descent. Around half way down there's been a tricky area for a while with a drop into a bomb hole and the only line was to the right of it which is a bigger drop but normally onto a flatter landing area, this as now washed out altogether and is really deep but narrow rut That a small patch of land slip now crosses just handy for grabbing your front wheel and shooting you over the bars. I stopped and tried to put some rocks and stones in the rut to make a ramp down from the drop so may have improved it but expect that it will quickly slip away. A few speedway style sideways skids in parts as if your not on the hard packed line then it's still quite muddy and slippy, good fun but not when it puts your back wheel in one rut and your from wheel heading into another.
Ice cream run, it's been the case for a while that you could choose between a reasonable size drop off into the small boulders or choose a line down at the right hand side corner. However everything from the ledge for the next few feet as washed down and it's seems a foot or two deeper into a bomb hole with some kind of pi page now uncovered, the right hand side is now even trickier as that's all washed out and is not really rollable. The only option now is to carry down a little bit or really commit an dry to jump off the ledge and carry a few metres but you may get unlucky with your landing as it now looks like there's walls crossing at various points as the loser stuff as washed away and left banks of larger boulders. It was kind of dry today so I got up on the left hand banking as soon as I could and all was good until the final drop off which was into thick clay.
overall all though most of the bridle way network around there which had all been running with water are now perfectly dry.
parking up at the end of the ice cream run, climbed up behind the pike, down towards the dog kennels, climbed up the next footpath. Lim. Up towards the mast service road, up and then down the San Marino. Turned around and climbed San Marino (some pushing on account or the sloppy conditions and massive ruts) down the shooting hut descent.
then I went slightly wrong and instead of taking the single track alongside and down past the quarry I ended up going down walker fold wood. Never been there, some bits were okay but spat me out onto the road for a bit. Climbed back up George lane and dropped down wilder wood, climbed back towards the carpark and then back up the back path past the Chinese gardens and the long way around upto the tower. Descended back down again and down ice cream run to finish.
Just short of 3000ft climbing but felt like a lot more to this turkey laden xmas bloater!
just wanted to point out a few areas to look out for those that may be heading there as the recent rain has caused some small areas of land slip and washed away crucial parts of some of the more famous trails.
San Marino, the ruts have been getting very deep for a while now many are way higher than your cranks and in one or two places, notably around two thirds down, there's no real option as it's just a Matt of which rut too choose and they are all deep and end with a foot or so of mud or clay wall. The bog that I fell into last time is wider and deeper, however I did miss it this time. Parts are very wet and the surface is loose and slippy (felt bad for going down). Tricky getting down but had no real issues just had to lift out of one badly chosen rut. Climbing up was impossible in places.
shooting hut descent. Around half way down there's been a tricky area for a while with a drop into a bomb hole and the only line was to the right of it which is a bigger drop but normally onto a flatter landing area, this as now washed out altogether and is really deep but narrow rut That a small patch of land slip now crosses just handy for grabbing your front wheel and shooting you over the bars. I stopped and tried to put some rocks and stones in the rut to make a ramp down from the drop so may have improved it but expect that it will quickly slip away. A few speedway style sideways skids in parts as if your not on the hard packed line then it's still quite muddy and slippy, good fun but not when it puts your back wheel in one rut and your from wheel heading into another.
Ice cream run, it's been the case for a while that you could choose between a reasonable size drop off into the small boulders or choose a line down at the right hand side corner. However everything from the ledge for the next few feet as washed down and it's seems a foot or two deeper into a bomb hole with some kind of pi page now uncovered, the right hand side is now even trickier as that's all washed out and is not really rollable. The only option now is to carry down a little bit or really commit an dry to jump off the ledge and carry a few metres but you may get unlucky with your landing as it now looks like there's walls crossing at various points as the loser stuff as washed away and left banks of larger boulders. It was kind of dry today so I got up on the left hand banking as soon as I could and all was good until the final drop off which was into thick clay.
overall all though most of the bridle way network around there which had all been running with water are now perfectly dry.
