If you’re in any of the photos and are desperately mortified about being on t’internet, let me know and I’ll take down the picture.  Or Photoshop a kitten’s head onto your shoulders, one of the two!

Unfortunately we didn’t actually get out on the bikes this weekend.  On Saturday we both felt pretty rough (hooray for summer colds!), and the weather was utterly miserable…yet again.  Ended up staying at home playing videogames all day.  Only the plus side, I hit Revered with the Sons of Hodir in World of Warcraft.  Bet you’re jealous.

Sunday was more productive – we helped marshall the Midlands XC race over at Cannock Chase.  The weather was actually fairly decent, with some sunny spells, but fortunately it had been raining heavily for the past couple of weeks, so the track kept to tradition and was nice and muddy.  We were based by ‘The Berm of Death’ in the morning, which has a steep descent into it – that, combined with the mud, led to a fair few people sliding off sideways or walking down!  Massive respect to all of the riders though.  I’ll post up some pictures tonight!

Realised I had some more pictures from the Peak District on my phone.

Isn’t he lovely?

Less lovely is my bobbins car, which has burnt through yet another starter motor.  It’s a five year old car, and has burnt through three starter motors in two years – two over the last month.  So at the moment I’m driving a hire car, which means no biking over Cannock Chase this weekend. 🙁  I really want this stupidity with my car to end – all I want is a reliable car, but noooo, I had to get a Nissan Micra that gradually self-destructs after three years.

Slightly better news, the Chase Trails chaps have started a blog, so if you ever want a break from my whining about my shite closet-French car and Evil Roots, head on over here.  You can keep up to date with the trail building progress, find out how you can get involved, and learn when and why sections are closed.

I’ve just spent the last week with my mother, the last five days of which were spent in the Peak District, with no net connect or reliable phone signal.  Despite this, we’re both still alive.  This is good.

My mom’s not hugely active, so my rides were mainly brief evening excursions whilst the soaps were on.  Now, I’d been given a few pointers by some people on Bike Radar as to good routes, but of course, I didn’t think to write these down.  Or print them out.  So, for the first couple of evenings, I just explored a bit.

On that first evening, I learnt a couple of things.  Firstly, I learnt that Winnats Pass is indeed a bloody hard slog on a bike – I gave up fairly early.  Made it past the first cattle grid though… Secondly, I learnt that trying to ride up an incredibly steep road when your local roads are flatter than Keira Knightley’s chest is a bad idea when you’ve just eaten a steak, followed by a treacle pudding the size of your head. The following evening was only marginally more successful.  I’d spent the day with mom at Chatsworth House, and was determined to find some bridleways.

Unfortunately, I’m the consumate trail centre numpty – if it’s not signposted in neon lights (or at least a little blue arrow on a yellow circle), I assume it’s either private land or a footpath, and give it a wide berth. I cycled to Hope to try and find18 Bikes.  It was past their closing time, but I’d been told they were a good source of local knowledge, so  I would have liked to have known for future reference.  Alas, I was as bad as finding the shop as I was at finding off-road routes.  I headed back to Winnats Pass to give it another bost.  Got a bit further, then gave up.  Found a bit of a trail, but realised it was an Open Access path – walkers only.  Ooops.  Rather shiftily beat a hasty exit to the road.  Not before pictures though…*cough*

Third day was more successful.  I convinced my mom to join me on a specially adapted hire bike – it basically has a wheelchair attached to the front.  It’s a bloody good idea – I got to get some extra miles in whilst still spending time with t’mother, and she got to see a lot more of the countryside than normal.  Bizarrely, she kept on likening it to Top Gun, insisting that I was Maverick.  I pointed out that if I was Maverick, she was Goose, and should therefore avoid ejecting…

We hired it from the Parsley Hay hire centre, and went for a pootle down the High Peak and Tissington trails.  It was only 11 miles in total, and it was actually fairly easy going, but I don’t think I would have wanted to tackle any real inclines with my mother strapped to the front… There were still some fantastic views to be had, and tea to be supped.  Might try the Derwent centre next time – it’s a little more hilly, but apparently the wheelchair bikes have special gearing to compensate.

In the afternoon we went to the Chestnut Centre, which is a sanctuary for various animals…but mainly otters.  I like otters, even though Mr Toast says that they sound like disabled children.

When we got back, I realised that my shoulders were quite badly burnt from wearing a sleevless top.  Nevertheless, I got on my biking gear and headed out.  First I went to the Castleton Visitor Centre, and picked up ‘Cycling in the Peak District’, written by the same guy who wrote ‘Dark Peak Mountain Biking: True Grit Trails’.  I decided to go for the more sedate option as I’d be riding on my own in an unfamiliar area, plus I only had a short amount of time. Fortunately the instructions and maps in the book are pretty up-to-date and very clear, even for me.  I soon found myself at the base of Mam Tor.

The book described the path up Mam Tor as ‘a broken tarmac road’.  It’s not kidding – it used to be the A625, until a massive landslide in the late seventies forced its eventually closure.  I rode up most of it, although I did walk over some of the bigger broken sections – being on my own with a mother to look after, I didn’t want to do owt too risky.  Cowardice is the better part of valour, or something…

Amazing views though, and I’m thoroughly envious of anyone who lives in that area. Hills? Bridleways that last more than 1/4 of a mile?  Mini-moos?

I definitely want to head back to the Peak District soon to get some lengthier rides in, although I’ll need to ease myself into it before hitting any of the tougher stuff.  I mean…hills.  No-one told me that this mountain biking malarky would involve hills.

Should have mentioned this earlier, but Merlin sent me the white MG1s as replacement for the incorrectly ordered black MG1s.  The whole process of getting the pedals, returning them and getting replacements actually took less time than it’s taken Wiggle to process my last few orders from scratch (even ones where I’d paid for priority dispatch).  The cost of the product was lower, and postage (even the replacement!) was free.

Merlin!  All is forgiven!

I’ll get some decent pics of my bike at the weekend, as I’ll be taking my SLR out.  Hopefully it’ll be a bit more capable of coping with the sheer gleaming glory of the Professor!

We attended a trail building session today.  It’s been something we’ve been planning to do since last year, but between my knee op and my inability to get out of bed before 7.30am, never quite managed to achieve.

Our main task was to do some maintenance on Follow the Dog, namely section 2.  Section 2 has sadly been closed for a while due to forestry works, which has taken quite a toll on quite a few parts of the trail.  Some parts had been quite heavily mashed, and today’s job was to fill in the parts that had been demolished by the logging vehicles and prepare it for resurfacing.   It felt good to give something back to the trail, we got to meet new people, and it certainly gives you an insight to how much work the Chase Trails folk put in.

It’s also slightly depressing how selfish some riders can be though – there was evidence that people had been riding the closed section, most obviously in the form of the destroyed fencing.  I mean, seriously…it’s bright orange.  It has a giant ‘No Entry’ sign on it. If a trail is closed, then it’s normally for a good reason, and riding it before it’s repaired/ready is just going to damage it further, and increase the time and effort required to bring it back to a fully sustainable, ridable state.

So seriously, if anyone even thinks about riding over the partly repaired section that I lovingly raked before it’s ready…well, I will kill you in your sleep.

Post trail building, we went to the café before going off for an afternoon ride.  Mr Toast had a rather ill-advised banquet of a bacon baguette (following the bacon and mushroom sandwich he had for breakfast), a sausage roll and a cookie.  He then went for a ride with Rob from Chase Trails, and rode trails far harder than he was expecting whilst feeling quite, quite ill.  He enjoyed it, because it pushed him outside his comfort zone (that’s the ride, not the café pork frenzy – although I think he enjoyed it at the time…).

As I’d done FtD the day before, I hit the green again.  I think either my fitness or my common sense is improving – I finished quite a bit faster than I was expecting, but I didn’t go quite as fast at the start, mainly due to the sheer number of people out walking.  Inappropriate iPod music of the day: Iron Maiden’s ‘Be Quick or be Dead’ as I climbed a hill in the granny ring.  I think Mr Dickinson would be bagging and tagging me…

I didn’t get lost this time, and ended up at the top of section 13.  Did 13, 14 and 15, and headed back to Swinnertons.  Top day all round!

And now, I shall take a moment to promote the next big build day:

Chase Trails Big Build Day – Sunday 19th April
Swinnerton Cycles Forest Centre 10am
BBQ & Refreshments Provided
Prize Draw for all volunteers including exclusive Chase Trails prizes
Tools Supplied (If you have a spade you can bring that would be good)
Bring Sturdy Footwear & Outdoor Clothes

I don’t think you need to bring veg though…

Remember, the more people that help out, the better maintained the current trails will be, and the faster the new ones will be constructed. Yes, I know that’s a bit rich coming from someone who’s only been to one trail building session so far, but I live 60 miles away.  What’s your excuse?!

And besides, they have prizes.  Prizes!

Ride: Cannock

Trail: Green loop, sections 13, 14 and 15

Highlights:My awesome zen raking skills

Bad bits: Er, none really.  I need to get faster and fitter, but that’s about it.  Oooh no, wait!  Midges!  MIDGES THAT GO STRAIGHT FOR YOUR EYES!

Post ride food snaffled: Had a pre-ride cookie.

Good dogs seen:  The shar-pei and the St Bernard were out again.  There was also a HUGE bear dog thing.  I think it might have been a Pyrenean Mountain Dog. Again, it’s all a bit exotic. Lots of russells and spaniels too.