Who else out there does proper long muni rides?
I’m meaning not the sort of riding you can do on a 29er, obviously loads of us have done 50-60 miles offroad on a 29er. Proper muni, with technical trails, big hills and big downhills? Done on a 26 or a 24.
What’s your longest proper muni ride?
Todays ride was I think my longest ever continuous proper muni ride* -
51km (31.7 miles)
1360 metres of ascent (4365 feet)
1330 metres of descent (4461 feet)
Was nice - I got up at 8:30 and got the train out to the hills, and set off at 10:30am, with a massive hangover thanks to Spencer (semach the monkey) forcing me to drink ridiculous amounts at his house last night.
The ride started off with a 170m in 1.5km road ascent, a good way to cure a hangover for sure. Then I hit the proper muni a bit too literally - round the first corner, past some gawping walkers, then hit a wet muddy rock, slid out, and landed face down in stinging nettles (ouch). Fortunately on my pride was hurt, and I got to continue through the woods, through a gently uphill singletrack, littered with wet rocks and roots, and interspersed with 1.5 foot deep waterbars that took quite a bit of power to get through. This ended with a slidy mud downhill to a river bridge, then an enforced short walk up a stupid steep slidy mud hill. Through a farmyard, then out onto a super rocky super steep 4wd track, winding up a hill, taking all my power to stay on. I got a new record on this section, only falling off 4 times, and riding 95% of the track. A few of us have ridden this, and no one has cleared this section on a unicycle yet, but I reckon it’s only a matter of time now.
At the end of the track, I’m suddenly out on the high moor, and a quick easy fire road takes me across to another wood - this has a steep and surprisingly technical little downhill in it - that if you’re not careful, lands you going full speed into a mud pool. Inevitably, I’m not careful enough, and I’m soon covered in mud. Out of the woods, and back on the moors again - this time an easy bridleway, through a whole load of cows and through a gate, at which point it plunges downwards and suddenly turns into tight singletrack, heading down and then rollercoastering up and down round the hillside. I come out onto a road, and decide to explore an unknown track that is marked on the map, higher up than the trail I usually ride. 150 metres higher up it turns out - it’s an okay track, but some sheep seem to have strayed onto it - I try to get them to go past me, but in the end it turns out the only way to pass sheep without them running down the trail in front (to come out in the town below - which I didn’t want) is literally to power up and overtake them, at which point they peel off backwards.
At this point, a brief steep downhill over a bumpy previously ploughed meadow takes me down to the valley, and I head across on the road to the other side of the valley, only pausing a a level crossing to watch a steam engine driver take the ‘token’ from the signal man, which lets him go through a single-track section. There is something reminiscent of a Ride the Lobster changeover in the way the train goes past the signal box without stopping and the fireman grabs the token using a big loop attached to it.
Now, I’m in Snitterton, possibly one of the the best named places in the world, (with the exception of F*cking in Austria, Dildo in Canada and Blubberhouses in the UK), and I have to head up another silly steep uphill, this time off road. Unfortunately some cows have decided to get in the way, and I have to ride much of this. Having said that, I’ve never made it before, it’s probably too steep to ride. At the top, I wolf down a cake, and headed into Bonsall, and then down a steep and rather scary descent next to a quarry that takes me into Cromford.
After a quick visit to the sweetshop, I check the train times home, and head off up the hill out of Cromford - another rocky track, going past a biker who seems someone put out by being overtaken. I’m aiming for some woods where I know there are decent trails - unfortunately the direct route is down a footpath that is too much hassle (and illegal) on a unicycle, so I take a road detour which turns out to involve 150 metres of descent and coming back up the same amount, up a really steep road. I really should remember to check the contour lines.
Coming down to the woods, I notice something odd, the stile seems to have been knocked down. After 20 metres, I see a whole bunch of cows completely blocking the trail, who have obviously knocked down the stile, and appear to be somewhat pissed off. So, instead of heading straight down the footpath to the train station, I have to head up through the woods, on a new to me track, which turns out to be a super-duper, narrow, rooty singletrack, first going steeply uphill, and then contouring round. I narrowly avoid losing the unicycle or myself down the cliffs here, which is always good, and whoosh down past some houses suddenly finding myself popping out of the singletrack onto a trail I know. At a junction here, there’s an uphill I’ve been meaning to explore for ages, I head up that, and find a satisfyingly steep and scary downhill coming off it, full of roots, little drops and steps, which is a great way to end a ride.
Phew. I hadn’t noticed until I wrote it down, how many cow and sheep encounters were involved in this ride!
Joe
*I’m counting a ‘ride’ as being a single unicycle journey, without any shuttles / ski lifts etc. in the middle of the journey - ie. I’m not counting big ass purely downhill rides I’ve done in the Alps, or lazy American & New Zealand shuttled downhilling that I’ve done.
