23/04/2010 by Missus Toast.

The Monkey Trail has been opened, but there’s still plenty of work to be done!  There’s still sections yet to be opened, not to mention the ongoing mainenance needed to keep it and Follow the Dog in tip-top shape - so remember that there’s weekly trailbuilding/fixing sessions every Sunday!  The trails are maintained by volunteers, so the more the merrier!  If you struggle to attend the trailbuilding sessions, you can still show your support by becoming a member of Chase Trails.  You get a car sticker and everything!

Speaking of car stickers, we’ll be picking up the Fantastic Mr Vaux this weekend.  Sadly there wasn’t time to get a towbar fitted (that’s next week), so there’ll be no Monkey for us for the next couple of weeks - we’re off to the Peak District the following weekend!

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22/02/2010 by Missus Toast.

…you’ve had your fun, now bugger off!

Finding it a bit hard to get out at the moment - it’s not so much the biking in the cold that bothers me, it’s the two and a half hour round trip to get anywhere with decent riding.  We actually went out for a ride last weekend, just around the local lanes and the one ridable bridleway.  It was nice to get out, but the wind left me with a stabbing pain in my ears (even buffed up!), and road riding is just grey and depressing in winter, even in the countryside.  I’d bloody kill for some decent offroad riding near us!

Still, we’ve got to get ourselves out next weekend for the final big push to get Phase II finished - it’ll mainly be focusing on surfacing, so everyone’s been asked to bring along a wheelbarrow if they can.  We don’t own a wheelbarrow, but we’ll still be going along, I’m sure there’s something we can do!

In celebration, I made the MOST HIDEOUS poster ever.  Initially it was going to be quite classy and arty, but I was a bit pressed for time, so settled for MBUK early 90s garishness.   Eww…

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06/01/2010 by Missus Toast.

So, our trail building adventures got off to a less than punctual start this decade.  We were supposed to be meeting at Swinnertons at 10am, and I woke up…10.15am.  Oh dear.

Checked the Chase Trails forum for details where the digging would be taking place, and somebody had handily provided a postcode for the nearest parking.  So, off we went, GPS at the ready.

Our GPS is occasionally set to ‘Lucien’, normally when Mr Toast likes to torment me.  Lucien delivers directions in the style of an over-enthusiastic American gameshow host, and insists on calling roundabouts and ring roads ‘traffic circles’. In fact, watch that episode of Red Dwarf, where Holly restores her IQ at the expense of her lifespan. The Talkie Toaster and Lucien went to the same finishing school.

So generally, the GPS is set to Simon.  Simon sounds like a slightly snide butler, but at least he doesn’t sound obnoxiously cheery.  Unfortunately, on Sunday, the ever reliable Simon failed us.

The GPS directed us through Upper Longdon, then up through Stile Cop.  He said we had two miles to go…then, rather unexpectedly, demanded “In nine hundred yards, make a U-Turn”.  Er, excuse me?  “In two hundred yards, make a U-Turn.  Make a U-Turn”.

Slightly bemused, we found somewhere to turn, and headed back up.  Simon, bless him, was then quite insistent that we should take the bridleway through the Special Events Area.  Ignoring his increasingly demented demands - honestly, I swear he was starting to get a bit Skynet - we looked at the GPS map, and figured out how to make it there ourselves.  As we got onto the A460, Simon suddenly realised his mistake, and calculated a route that didn’t involve off-roading a Nissan Micra through the forest.  BIT LATE NOW, MATEY.

So, we arrived late, missing lunch (D’OH), and started on our Big Build…afternoon.  I was thoroughly impressed with the turnout - given that it was a) below freezing, and b) just after New Year, I expected the turnout to be a bit sparse.  But no, over 60 people were there, braving the cold, and had already dug a sizeable length of trail.

After a quick venture up and down the track to find some tools, we starting digging near the trail exit.  Here, Martin had found the best tool - the chainsaw.

Conditions weren’t actually too bad - the ground wasn’t as hard as we were expecting, despite the freezing cold, and it didn’t take too much digging to get to the good stuff.

I became distracted by an exceptionally good dog - Leo, a black collie cross…wearing a coat. He looked very dapper.  He was trotting around with a disc in his mouth, looking for someone to play with him.  How could I not.  I threw the disc and VOOM!  Off he went!  And came back, dropping the disc in front of me and looking at me.  This was repeated over and over again, making it rapidly clear that I do indeed throw like a girl, and that border collies never, ever, ever get tired.

Despite his energy, he was exceptionally well trained.  His Grimey Lymie Level 80 Resto Shammy (don’t ask, you’ll get an answer!) owner proudly demonstrated Leo’s repertoire of tricks, and also explained how his was the perfect trail dog…apart from the time he left his riders behind and joined two other riders instead.  Sounds a bit like Mr Toast!

More pictures and information about Sunday’s Big Build Day can be seen on Chase Trail’s blog.

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19/12/2009 by Missus Toast.

Oh dear, I went biking last weekend and have only just got around to making a post!  Christmas tends to make everything sparkly, but slightly hectic!

Last Sunday I did a couple of sections of FtD, and the green loop.  It was a freezing but entertaining ride, although I do sometimes wonder if going out at the moment does me more harm than good. :s  Started with sections 1 & 2, rode a little shakily, and couldn’t do the exit - I haven’t ridden it since the ‘ribs’ incident last month, and certainly couldn’t ride it with Mr  Toast and Ovide standing at the end, looking at me!

Did the green loop, and my knees were giving me grief.  They weren’t really hurting (not at the start, anyway…), just felt very tight, and I struggled to put any pressure on them on the climbs. Once I’d warmed up, I could absolutely fly down the flat sections and had no trouble keeping up, but I fell behind on any climbs.  I’m just incapable of giving them any welly at the moment without my knees going on strike.

Naturally on the green you have to slow down a lot for walkers and horse riders, and Sunday was no different.  And, I’m pleased to report, there were some EXCEPTIONALLY good (if slightly dim) dogs about!  We approached a family with some sort of mid-sized dog that looked like a mini-lurcher and a black poodley-terrier thing.   Slowed right down, naturally, but we were still expecting the dogs to move as we got near - most do it automatically.  Mr Mini-Lurcher just stood his ground however, like a smaller, hairer Gandalf.  “You shall not pass”, indeed!  Instead of having a bit of a scuffle and pulling him into the fiery depths of a Dwarven mine, I came to a complete stop waited for him to move.  And waited.  Gandalf just looked at me, looked around, and ignored his owners slightly bemused calls, and I eventually had to shuffle around him.

As we slowly set off, Gandalf’s smaller poodley friend decided that this would be a good time to launch himself in front of Ovide’s wheel.  As I said, we were going slowly, so Ovide stopped with no incident, except that his slightly shonky v-brakes sound like something dying.   This noise seemed to be slightly more effective at getting dogs (and pedestrians!) to shift…

We also saw the world’s happiest whippet.  Now, I’m a huge fan of whippets, I think they’re adorable.  But there’s no denying that both whippets and their larger cousin, the greyhound, generally look a bit…folorn.  Not this chappy though!  It’s the first time I’ve seen a grinning whippet, but he was loving his life, bounding all over the place.  Like Gandalf and his poodley friend, he wasn’t the most obidient of dogs, with his exasperated owners trying to call him back.  But no, he was flying up the hills, down the hills, all over the shop!  Shortly after we saw him, we saw our first frost on the trail - not sure why we hadn’t seen any up to that point, whether it was down to shelter or height of the route at that point.  Regardless, we decided that the Whippet brought the winter.  The Whippet Of Winter!

Just before the big climb at the end, my iPod died (my own fault, haven’t recharged it in weeks), so I climbed up with nothing except the sound of my own wheezing.  Found the big climb quite hard - not only were my knees protesting, but my lungs and throat decided to join in, and the steady production of phlegm that I’d been suffering throughout the ride kicked into overdrive.  Bit hard to explain (and possibly too much information), but it felt like my throat was completely slimed up, and every time I coughed, my noise was exploding as well.  My face was a slime factory, which was making breathing a bit tricky.  Got to the top (all in middle ring, it’s not all bad news!), had a coughing fit, and was slightly sick.  Epic!

Carried on over the top and through the Tackeroo, then back to the start of 13.  Seemed a bit rude to ignore it, so I rode 13 and it was ace.  Given Toast’s recent reports I was a bit worried what it would be like, but it was reasonably smooth and well drained, and rode really well.  It was evident that the trail pixies had been about!  I didn’t join Toast and Ovide on 14 onwards, as I really didn’t feel too sparky by that point, but they said that the rest of the sections had been given some TLC as well, with 14 riding as well as it does during the summer.  Had a look at the Chase Trails blog when we got back, and it’s certainly impressive how they can make trail mashed by bad weather and make it rideable again in the space of a week.  Good work, Chase Trails!

Got backed to the cafe, nearly passed out.  Feasted on a scone, because there’s nothing like good nutrition to speed recovery!

I’ve got a blood test on Monday to see how I can get rid of this cough, as after a few months, it’s getting to be a bit annoying.  It’s been six weeks since the antibiotics, so…meh.  Modern science 0, virus/bacteria 1.  On the plus side, I’ll be humanity’s salvation if Martians ever invade.  In other news, Chase Trails have another Big Build Day coming up!  The first build day of 2010 will be on Sunday 3rd January - what better way to welcome in the new year!  And what better way to welcome a Big  Build Day than a new poster!  Possibly my most self-indulgent and nerdy BBD poster yet!

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22/11/2009 by Missus Toast.

OK, going to be a bit of a mammoth update, this one - got two weeks of babbling to catch up on!

Right, so I’d booked off the 9^th November as holiday.  I’d not done any biking the previous weekend, as I was trying to rest up and get rid of my cold (which was an epic fail plan, still feeling rough now!).  But I felt a bit stir crazy, so after dropping off Mr Toast at work, I headed to the Chase, Professor in tow.

It was interesting for several reasons.  Firstly, I’m fairly certain this is the first time I’ve been to the FtD on a weekday.  Secondly…well, normally on a weekend I’m not out of bed by 10am, never mind on my bike.  It didn’t get off to the most auspicious start – somehow during the journey I’d managed to get my iPod headphones threaded through the base rail of my car seat.  No idea how that came to pass, yet even though it had got mysteriously - and firmly – stuck, it couldn’t be freed.  Tried threading it back both ways, but it was lodged solid.  Eventually I lost my temper, started tugging at it and pulled the earbud clean off the wire.  No Slayer for me on the trails…

First lap was fantastic.  The sky was a beautiful clear blue, with sunbeams shining onto the trail through the trees – chilly, but sunny and still.  The trail was still very wet and slippy, and I’m still very, very cautious when faced with such conditions.  Despite going quite…OK, very slowly, I managed just over an hour by only stopping for five minutes.  Some of the trail was quite churned up on the later sections, with section 15 being particularly muddy.  Still, as I’ve said before, if you’re adverse to a bit of mud you should probably find another sport!

Went to the cafe, had some cake and a cup of tea, then got back on the bike.  Pootled around the greens for a bit, then hit FtD for my second lap.  The cunning plan was to ride FtD up until 13, do the full green loop, return to 13, and finish off the Dog.  It would be quite an epic day of riding for me, as I’ve not done that since the summer - normally because by the time we arrive at Cannock Chase in the winter we only have a few hours of daylight left!

Alas, the cunning plan didn’t quite work out.  Rode section 2 quite fast, and before I knew it, I was on the rocky exit.  Ah.  I think we all know where this is going…

There were numerous thoughts that hit me at the same time.  “Ooh, I’m here already”, “Ah, I’m approaching this at a slightly tight angle”, and “I haven’t got my weight back enough”.  Unfortunately, my reflex “BRAKE!” reaction kicked in, and I stopped dead with the front wheel down and the back wheel still on the top step.  Went to put my right foot down, couldn’t reach, got monstrous cramp in my calf, and toppled right.

It was quite impressive, really.  Somehow, I managed to smash my ribs on the wooden fence and ended up hanging over it like washing put out to dry, and my legs still entangled in my bike.  A bit like an upturned beetle, but with wheels.  I managed to disentangle myself and set myself upright.  There was no-one around, and I think it’s a testament to my vanity that instead of thinking, “Oooh, that could have been nasty if I’d hurt myself proper, there’s no-one around!”, I thought, “Thank god, I don’t think anyone saw that…”

I pondered trying to carry on, but I was worried that I’d get halfway over Sherbrook Valley and the adrenaline of having a tumble would wear off and I’d realise I was actually a bit battered.   Sat around for a bit, and realised that breathing was actually a bit painful, coughing even more so.  Decided to give it up as a bad job, and went home sulking.  I try and remember how much fun the first lap was, but my ribs still sting a bit even now!

On the 15th it was the last Big Build Day of the year, and despite the dire warnings of heavy showers, the weather was fairly reasonable.  There was a good turnout of people, letting us build a good chunk of track.  Toast and I turned up fashionably late, and had to locate the trail builders by ear - listening out for stomping, shovelling and sawing!  Dale and Sharon provided the food again, with delicious chilli and cheese jacket potatoes.

Progress was so good that we managed to finish off the bit of the trail that had been scheduled for the day, and move onto the next!  Hopefully Phase II will be on schedule for its Easter opening, but it will need people to make it happen - next Big Build Day is on January 4th (I think), and obviously there’s the standard build days every Sunday.

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08/11/2009 by Missus Toast.

This lurgy’s still knocking me around a bit, so I’ve spent most of today sleeping, eating, starting to write a guide to Follow the Dog, and working on a new poster for the next Big Build Day.

Quality’s a bit iffy, did the main image in Photoshop, but all of the text in InDesign.  Unfortunately, I’ve yet to figure out a way to save an InDesign document as an image rather than a PDF or .idd file, so I had to open the exported PDF in Photoshop, then save it out as a PNG - lost a bit of the text clarity, but it’s not too bad.Computer was chugging with the effort though, managed to get lots of one-minute Bejewelled bouts in on Facebook…

Not sure how coherent my FtD guide is either, I’ve been a bit spaced out today.  Nothing a nice cup of tea won’t solve though!

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30/09/2009 by Missus Toast.

Yes!  I finally got a full lap in under 60 minutes.  OK, so last year I was doing 45 minute laps, but that was with a good few of the sections closed, so probably counts as cheating…

The main key to the much abbreviated lap time was the reduced stop time.  Previously I’ve been taking quite a long break (usually 10-20 minutes!) at the end of 2/start of six trying to get the courage to ride the rockery.  If there’s anybody about, I wait until they’re gone.  Given how busy the Chase is, this normally takes some time…

This ride, however, I just rode the exit to 2, shuffled straight into position for 6, and set off straight away.  I say shuffled into position, as I have the turning circle and skills of a rusty piano, particularly when rocks are involved. Still, a massive improvement on last week, and the more I ride it the more confident I get.  Got a bit cross on 6 as there was a large family walking on the second bridge – I give up, I really do.  I wonder if more signs are needed, if there are notable areas where walkers accidentally wander onto the trail (I’m sure there’s one mid-section on one of the sections), or whether people just wilfully ignore the signs and decide to go ahead anyway.  I’m not particularly maternal, but I’m fairly certain if I was in possession of a small child, putting them in the path of a fast moving mountain bike would be fairly low down on my ‘lists of things to do with the kids’.

Took a short break before and after the fireroad hill up to 8 – actually felt more knackered than usual due to racing through 1, 2, 6 and 7.  Rode 8, fluffed the last set of drops as I lost too much speed on the preceding turn.  Well, when I say fluffed, I rolled them but it was a bit clunky.  Didn’t ride the end of 8 again as there was a large family sitting at the end who all turned around and started at me as I approached it.  Meh.  The plus side of not riding the end of 8 (which is normally whenever there’s an audience) is that I’m normally too embarrassed to stop for a  break.

Rode straight through 9, 10, 11 and 12 (apart from Evil Root Number 2).  Hit section 13 with much gusto, but had to walk up the slope to the start of 14 as I completely lost traction and momentum trying to avoid some animal poop.  Had a short break at the start of 14, which is currently very sandy – I think it’s one of the few sections I prefer if there’s been a little rain.  Had another very brief break at the start of 15 to allow people who were already there to go on ahead, then went straight into 16.  Unlike last week, I rode it pretty well.  Not particularly fast or gracefully, but a lot more confidently, and no stupid clipping the handlebars on trees this week.

So, this is what I‘ve got to keep aiming for, along with actually tackling the stuff I keep bottling!

On a different note, I only got to ride the Sunday as the Professor was in for his (long overdue!) free service on Saturday.   The annoying creaking that I’ve been noticing over the past couple of weeks has been eliminated, although it seems to have been replaced by an equally annoying squeaking (brakes, I think).  Hopefully that’ll settle soon.  I still love the Professor though, he’s great.

We’ll be down the Chase again this weekend, biking on the Saturday, and building on the Sunday.  Yes!  Building!  It’s time for…BIG BUILD DAY!

Might have to do a movie style poster too soon…

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19/08/2009 by Missus Toast.

It was the sixth (I think?) Big Build Day at the weekend.  The plan was to continue working on the links between the Red Monkey to the Black Monkey.  Fortunately, the weather was great, there was a good turnout of volunteers, and a good bulk of the work got done.

Either I’m getting better at trailbuilding, or the conditions were slightly more favourable than the previous two Big Build Days.  I didn’t hit any persistant black patches, anyway.  Mr Toast had a slightly trickier job, as he had a tree stump that needed removing.  There was quite a bit of digging, lots of manly grunting, and, at one point, three men wiggling the stump.  Which sounds like a euphemism, but it’s not.

There were a few roots that were so evil they actually had to be removed.  Ian took to the roots with a pickaxe type thing - I think it’s called a Mattock? He seemed to quite enjoy it, particularly once it was suggested that the same technique could be used on people who ride closed trails.

As we went down to lunch, Rob walked us down the original Monkey, which is going to be graded black.  Sweet.  Merciful.  Zeus.  The drops were mildly disconcerting, but I think it was the fat pointy root crossing the trail diagonally on a corner that did it for me.  Unfortunately I’d left my Holy Water in my other trail building trousers, so the Evil Root remains.

After partaking in the most excellent barbecue and cake (thanks Dale and Sharon!), we went back and worked on another link near the exit of the Monkey.  I mainly helped with keeping the existing Monkey clear of the debris being created by the new trail - due to the good turnout, digging spots were at a premium!  There was some extreme brashing as it was decided that a couple of trees needed to come down - somehow people managed to restrain themselves from singing, “I’m a Lumberjack”.

So, another successful build day under the belt - the next one is planned for October, I think.  The recent and upcoming work does mean that the Monkey (which never existed) is now closed, so please - don’t ride it.  As with FtD, and the rest of Phase II, the more people that ride closed trails, the longer trails stay shut for, and the harder they are to maintain.

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09/08/2009 by Missus Toast.

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25/07/2009 by Missus Toast.

In celebration of the forthcoming Big Build Day on August 16th, I’ve brushed off the old Wacom tablet and Photoshop. At the last Big Build Day (which we missed due to being in Scotland), the red version of the Monkey trail was started.  It got me thinking - red monkey.

Communist monkey.

Communist propaganda.

Communist trail building poster to recruit more trail builders! \o/

And yes, I’m quite aware that I’ve slapped a cycle helmet on a chimp, and a chimp is an ape, not a monkey.  ARTISTIC LICENCE, COMRADES.   So yeah, Big Build Day, Sunday August 16th.  BBQ, raffle, communist monkeys.

In other news, I’m pondering getting some Maxxis High Rollers for The Professor.  I don’t hate the Captains, but they can be a bit sidewaysy if the weather’s been a bit iffy.

Also pondering getting some shin and knee armour, as I’d like to wear skirts once in a while.  As in I want to get armour stop my shins getting banged up so I can wear skirts without subjecting people to my bruised, scratched and scabby legs, not that I can only wear skirts with armour as some sort of fashion statement…

Honest

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