Saturday Ride - 21st November 2009

Not than anyone really minded as half of us seemed to be suffering

from post Friday night heads, but somewhat late, Lynn, Sze, Fiona,

Harriet, Paul, Omar, Keith, Glenn, Duncan, Ollie, Ben & Myself headed

up Pole Hill to start another fun filled outing in our wonderful,

boggy, leaf strewn, forest.



Last weeks ride was memorable for all the deep puddles and standing

water that we had to negotiate and all that water had, over the course

of the week, soaked in to give us our first proper winter conditions

ride. There was loads of thick gloopy mud and slippery roots to cope

with and although I might not have been capable of saying so due to my

bad head, I thought it was great fun.



We continued down through The Graveyard, The Stream and up to No Name

Corner, heading up to High Beech via the climb up Lippets Hill. Not

really sure why, maybe it was the conditions, but this bit of the ride

seemed to me to take ages. At this point, Ollie, who is doing great

even to be out after his trials in the summer, made the first of his

three group changes on the day, and headed off to join The Mods.



After a quick loo stop and a discussion on where to go we headed out

past Carl’s towards Mecca and across Woodridden Hill to pick up the

bridal down to The Avenue. Not fancying the climb up the road to

Copped Hall we did a bit of cross country before finally arriving at

the gates to the estate which were conveniently open to allow a car

in. After a quick nod of thanks and a blind eye to the No Cycling

sign, we took the first left onto the footpath and headed downhill.

The bottom of the downhill before the right turn towards the tunnel

was like a ploughed field and took some real effort to power through,

whilst the next stretch was quite firm and lulled you into going a bit

too fast into a few of the corners after the tunnel. It was mayhem,

but judging by the grins on everyone’s faces, it was really good fun

and we all survived, just.



We continued through the estate and headed uphill past Rod’s and

around the Cricket Ground to the Forest Gate for a fairly early but

welcome lunch stop, once again occupying our private room. I finally

think they like us!



The Mods arrived just as we were finishing so us lot headed south on

the usual trail before turning left down towards the bridal up to Four

Corners. Our plan was to head down towards Theydon and through the

Deer Park to Debden Camp Site. In trying to find a new route down we

headed into an axle deep bog. Glenn’s chain on his singlespeed didn’t

seem to appreciate it too well and snapped requiring some neat work

from Omar on the chain tool and a little while later a rebuild of the

tensioner. We abandoned our original plan, realising that time and

light was running out and headed up to Jack’s Hill via the nice trail

through the ferns that climbs up to the car park.



Onto The Ridges momentarily, we dropped down onto the nice long trail

that has all sorts of traps hidden in the leaves that eventually leads

down to the bridal below Goldings Hill. Loads of concentration is

required all along this trail as well as a good memory for where it

was safe to ride only a few weeks ago. We eventually made our way up

to Golding’s Hill Ponds with Lynn and Harriet shaming a load of the

blokes with there climb up the final steep slope beside the big fallen

tree. With Paul leading we then headed onto the long unnamed downhill

that eventually takes you down Allen’s Hill and across the bridge.

Paul did offer to crash on the trail just to give it a name but, being

on his new bike, decided against it.



We climbed up the hill to Lost Pond and out through the Bomb Holes to

cross ENR and back up to High Beech from where we headed around the

church to cross the road and head down past Andy’s log to The Hump.

With the gloom gathering we hit the final trails around Connaught

Waters, past Tranny Corner and home to the car park to bring the ride

to a close after about 21 miles.



Nice debrief after at the CC where we were joined by The Mods, Dave,

Jane, Pat, Howard & Dean.



Won’t see you next week as a few of us are of to Afan for some sheep

worrying, hope you have a good one.