I have about 8 or 9 photos to post, so please don’t reply until I’ve posted the one of me riding The Cursed Earth.
I went to my usual starting place at Sherwood Pines only to find a mountain bike race in progress. It was more of an “alleged race” really, because most of the riders I saw were poddling around at half speed on over-designed bikes. I don’t think there was any part of the “mountain bike race course” I wouldn’t have attempted on my single speed road bike.
It was a frustrating start to my ride as I had to dodge and weave through the forest to avoid interfering with the race. On the plus side, I found some new tracks.
The next couple of pictures are fairly typical of this area.
Eventually I found my way to the bridge over the disused railway cutting. This used to be blocked off at one end with big boulders. Now it’s blocked off with metal plates which are painted with anti vandal paint. A large part of the deck has been ripped up. This is a safety feature to stop people using the dangerous bridge.
Now you have to clamber down the side of the cutting, cross the old railway, clamber up the other side and squeeze through a gap - not easy carrying a unicycle. No doubt Kris Holm would ride it.
I climbed up onto the railway embankment where the track bed is badly subsided. This has featured in many previous write ups. Today it was dry, so less fun than usual. The first picture is at a funny angle as I had to balance the camera on a tree branch.
Looking down to a lower railway. Someone has spray painted “Sex Pistols” on the bridge. Whatever is the world coming too when even punks are being anti social?
The disadvantage of a 10 second timer is that sometimes you fluff the freemount, you think the 10 seconds are up, and you walk back towards the camera before it goes off!
And of course that makes it obvious how unspontaneous the pictures are. here’s me riding part of the Cursed Earth.
An excellent day out with about two hours of really tough riding. I’ll add a couple more photos from my phone later. The battery ran out on my camera ran out. A message on the screen said “battery exhausted”. I thought, “The bloody battery hasn’t had to pedal cross country to get here.”
There is a long tradition of me writing up my rides, although not usually with pictures. Also, I didn’t want to swamp someone else’s thread with a large number of pictures…
Here’s the last two: this is one of the riskiest descents I’ve ever done, with several steep sections, and changes in surface from soft sand to hard mud to loose rocks.
I Googled it. In Sanskrit it means “Gap toothed wheel monkey”, and in Mediaeval Icelandic it means “He who is hung like a donkey and goes like a train.” Please clarify.
Wow…looks like another great day you had.
Thanks for letting me know the details, I’ll definately be ging it a go soon. In fact as I regulary go to Lincoln (dropping daughter off at Uni) I reckon it’s a good way to make the trip more worthwhile.
