We ventured Ooop North to visit Mr Toast’s parents over the Bank Holiday.  Dalby was either closed or restricted for most of the time due to a rally being held there, so we hit the moors with Jaggy in tow.*  We’d been meaning to ride over the moors for a while, so it was nice to actually get there.

The original cunning plan was to follow a route that Mr Toast found on one of those new-fangled interwebs sites.  It promised great scenery and fun singletrack, but even with maps in hand and a print out of the written description, we couldn’t actually find it.  We found a bridleway instead – it was a long climb, but the scenery was still great.  And on the plus side, I did see lots of tiny ponies and a goat in a field, and a black grouse.

In true Yorkshire fashion, it was quite bleak, but amazing.  Grey skies, vivid purple and green heathland, random piles of rocks, and a long climb.  We did see the odd nice bit of singletrack along the way, but unfortunately by that time it was a bit late for risky exploration.

The return trip was miles faster, screaming back down the hill.  I hope the next time we go up there we get to explore more, because it looks amazing.

* I say we had Jaggy in tow, it was actually more him and Toast miles in front trying to out-manly each other whilst I pootled slowly up the hill behind them.  I more than kept up on the way down though! :p

Meh!  Meh, I say!

I rode like absolute crap yesterday.  Put a turd in a jersey, pop it on a bike, and there you would have a visual representation of my performance!

It had all started out so well – the sun was shining, the trail was slightly drier, and I was in a good mood.  This lasted for about 2 minutes into section two.  I was actually zipping through at a decent pace when I didn’t quite manage to get through two trees as I’d planned.  I clipped the handlebars on a tree to the right, and off I came.  I brushed myself down, got back on the Professor, and, slightly bemused, set back off again.

I managed to regain my flow pretty well, but lost it again on the last switchback.  As I went into the turn I heard the squeal of brakes of someone on my tail and panicked.  Result – I fell off.  Again.  Picked myself up, got back on the bike.

I got to the end of section two, and could I ride the exit?  Could I hell.  Well, I probably could have done, but I kept hitting the brakes on the first step and putting my feet down.  I’d already began to worry about those particular rocks due to the dark mutterings on t’internet about rear mech destruction – given that I’m fairly lacking in skills, I’d be a likely victim. This already slightly negative mindset was amplified by the fact I’d fallen off more on one section than I normally do on a normal lap.  Hell, I usually manage to do the entire thing without incident.

I was determined to do it, but after fifteen or so attempts, I had to concede defeat.  I rode the entry into six fine, slightly fumbled the turn from the rocks onto the bridge, and carried on.  Rode the rest of six fine, followed the diversion, and had a grumble as I passed the end of section 7 – the orange netting that closed it off was in a bush, presumably ripped down.  I put it back in place using McGuyver like-skills, and hoped that it was actually ripped down by nefarious means, and that I hadn’t accidentally closed in some innocent trailbuilders.

On section 8 I’d lost my mojo – whereas on my last ride I felt that I’d ridden steadily but in control, this time I felt I was riding slowly and likely to fall off at any given moment.  Walked half of the jumps on eight, walked the exit ramp, and by this point was severely tempted to write off the day as a bad ‘un, and just pootle around the greens.

But I persevered, and went on to nine.  I fell off again, this time with an audience of five people, as I turned into the trail.  Again, I heard the familar sound of someone approaching fast behind me, and I looked around to see how close they were.  The answer was ‘very close’, and I also found out that looking over your shoulder whilst taking a very tight corner leads to weighting distaster.   Bike slid out to the right again, and I was on the floor, swearing loudly.  After apologising to the family for the language and letting the bloke know that I was OK, I got back on the bike and carried on.

I actually did the next couple of sections OK, managing to catch up with and overtake someone that had overtaken me on a previous section.  I was still in a foul mood, however, so Evil Root Number Two was obviously a no-go.  I rode section 13 a lot slower than I’d normally do, which gave me time to ponder how well it had dried out.

Mr Toast caught up with me on section 14 – he was on his second lap.  This section was notable for its awesome wildlife.  After stopping to safely move a rather large, green, hairy caterpillar off the trail and into the foliage, we got to the top…and there were lizards!

I believe the cheeky chappies were male common lizards.  The second lizard had a stumpy tail – common lizards can detatch their tails when grabbed by a predator, leaving the predator confused whilst the now tailess lizard can make good his escape.  The tail grows back eventually.

Suddenly the day was all worthwhile!

Did 15 without incident, still pretty slowly though, and decided to leave 16.  I was feeling pretty miserable, so I decided that it’d be far more productive to sulk in the café over a cookie.  Meh!

So, a pretty bad day for me.  I hate days like these, as I end up panicking that I’ll be stuck like that, that suddenly I’ll get worse instead of better.  Mr Toast tried to console me – apparently everytime you fall off, it makes you a better rider, therefore after yesterday’s ride I should now be awesome…

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog (excluding section 7, which is closed for maintenance, and 16)

Highlights: Lizards!

Bad bits:  Being fairly rubbish for the entire ride

Post ride food snaffled: Tea, ham sandwich and a cookie.

Good dogs seen:  A Jack Russell, two border terriers and a boxer dog.

Yesterday was a bit of an odd’un.  I was feeling a bit rundown and lacking in energy, possibly due to a combination of work stress and crappy diet.  Despite that, I had an awesome day – slow as hell, but feeling in complete control of the Professor.

The ride started off well, with heady overtones of smugness.  I’d reached the start of section two to find two groups of blokes getting ready to go.  I let them and another chap go first, not wanting to hold them up.  As it turned out, I didn’t have to worry – they were trundling quite slowly, to the point that the last chap that went eventually asked them if he could pass.  I followed him, and he zoomed off ahead, but the guys behind never caught me up. Despite not being hugely competitive, it is comforting to know I’m not the worst person on the trail.

Nearly had an accident with a walker, who had stepped to one side to let the guy in front by, then nearly stepped in front of me as she fiddled with her headphones.  Not sure why she was walking a mountain biking trail on her own, I probably should have asked, but I was eager to crack on.

Now, you may recall a few weeks back my experiences of Scottish red routes, and their fondness of rockery.  Before I’d set off, I’d seen Rob from Chase Trails at Swinnertons, and he’d mentioned that some rocks had been put in on FtD.  I was surprised, but not nearly as surprised as when I actually saw them.

Yes, this is the new exit to section two – gone are the root steps, in with the rocks!  I fluffed these particular rocks as I caught my pedal on the turn, and ending up edging the bike down whilst Rob watched, grinning slightly.  Even though I’d been told about them, they were still…surprising.  Rocks on FtD?  It’s like being mugged by a squirrel with a flickknife!

I managed to redeem myself slightly with section 6, which has also been blessed with rocks.  I was eyeing it suspiciously – it was the fact it’s rockery into a turn that was unnerving me.  However with some encouragement from Rob, and the knowledge that I’d ridden similar in Scotland, I rode it…fine, actually.

But wait!  There’s more!  A good stretch of rock armoured trail leading to the first boardwalk.  Again, I managed to fluff this one just as the Forestry Commission chap took a picture – there now very well be photographic evidence on that knocking about somewhere…

Rode the rest of it without issue, although the bottom of the boardwalk is getting a bit soft and squishy.  Probably needs some rocks…

Went back and rode it again, much better the second time around.  There was a lot of encouragement, and it was awesome to see my old bike, the Trekadee, also being put through its paces – Charlotte, its new owner, was repeatedly riding the rocky sections.  Especially when there were people nervously looking at them, or walking their bikes down…

It was surprising to see how people tackled them, who chickened out, and who didn’t.  Possibly the oddest sight was a slightly Posh Spice-esque woman with no helmet, wearing massive sunglasses, tiny shorts, a vest top and flip-flops rolling down the rockery on her GT hardtail without issue. Very surreal.

I’m quite glad that I’d experienced mental rockery in Scotland, because I think I would have just utterly chickened out otherwise.  As with a lot of the stuff in Dalbeattie, the FtD rockery is actually fairly easy to ride as long as you don’t let it intimidate you with its slabby goodness.  The rocks definitely add a bit of oomph and variety to FtD though, and are really well done.  I’m really looking forward to getting properly confident on them, and hopefully getting rid of my ‘Rockery Face’, which looks a bit like this:

End of section six has now been smoothed out, losing the huge eroded pits and puddles that had plagued it for a fair while now.

Realising that I was feeling a bit lethargic, I took everything at a very steady pace, although I took fewer and shorter breaks.  I took the end of section 8 with no hesitation whatsoever, which is a first – normally I either stop to pluck up courage, or *cough* chicken out *cough*.  Still need to work on the jumps on section 8 – the first two I’m fine with, but I take the last three a bit heavily – it’d probably help if I learnt how to jump…

Evil Root Two was nearly conquered, but alas, nearly wasn’t good enough.  First attempt I got the front wheel over, but not the back.  This might have something to do with my technique of slamming the brakes on when it hits the root, instead of keeping on pedalling.  Second time I bottled it before the front wheel hit the root.  Bah!  I don’t think the fact ‘Under Pressure’ was playing on my iPod at the time helped much.  Rest of the trail was fairly uneventful – 13 was a bit damp, looking forward to it drying out, but 14 and 15 were riding particularly well.   16 was better than expected, not nearly as churned up as I was expecting, and…well, say it quitely, but I’m getting quite fond of it.

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog (excluding section 7, which is closed for maintenance)

Highlights:  Rockery!

Bad bits:  Not defeating Evil Root Number Two, feeling a bit lethargic

Post ride food snaffled: Tea and a cookie.

Good dogs seen:  Loads – stubby legged Jack Russells, Westies biting their owner’s wheels, and black wirehaired terrier tethered to a traffic cone…

Today we took Jaggy to our ‘local’, Cannock Chase.  Fortunately he had a much better day, infinitely preferring Follow the Dog to Llandegla red, even with a few sections closed.

I did a little helping out with building the new exit for section 7, but unfortunately was eager to get some riding done – after a couple of weeks without FtD, I’d actually gotten a bit ‘homesick’, and also wanted to see if my new found confidence in Scotland would make any difference.

The answer was kind of  ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.  There were some bits that I rode pretty fast, picking fairly good lines.  I hit a lot of the rougher stuff with more gusto than I used to, and also found winding through the trees at speed less worrying.  Unfortunately I lost my flow a bit as I encountered a screaming child frozen on the jumps on section 8, and chickened out of riding the end.  Not sure why.

Evil Root Number Two defeated me again.  I got a lot closer this time, but still stopped the bike before my front wheel had touched it.  It’s stupid – I’ve ridden stuff I’d consider to be more tricky and technical, but I’ve just got a mental block.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have named it ‘Evil Root Number Two’.  It’s just a bloody root.

Jaggy and Mr Toast were apparently zipping around FtD at speed, being manly and over-competitive for a change.  On the first lap, Jaggy assured Mr Toast that he could have gone faster on section 13.  On the second lap, he proved it.  He went faster.  He also fell off on a corner.  Hilarity (and bleeding) ensued.

All in all, a good day.  I rode pretty well, but I do find riding in crap weather really knackering.  Must tackle roots soon, it’s getting stupid now…

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog

Highlights:  Being back on mah home turf

Bad bits: Crap weather, unnecessary cowardice

Post ride food snaffled: Cookie and bacon sandwich, the classic combo

Good dogs seen:  Huskies sniffing each others arses.