Sarah was working today and the weather forecast was for a good morning, with
rain later, so I decided on a trip out to the Chiltern Hills for a bit of a Muni
ride on my own while the weather held.
It was a little chilly when I arrived at Christmas Common (yep - a strange name
for a village) and set off. I soon warmed up as the sun was out and the the
blood started to get moving around my body as I rode. I had two options to get
onto the path I wished to follow, 1) sharply downhill on the road 2) a bit
further, almost as steep, much muddier and rather lumpy off-road. 2 won of
course - downhill is always a great way to start, but it always means that when
you are knackered at the end of the ride you’ll be slogging uphill - oh well.
I continued along the Ridgeway and Swan’s Way which was mostly good riding. Some
patches however had been churned up by 4x4 drivers and were rather impassable
with deep ruts filled with lots of water. There seemed to be some sort of horse
event going on as I came across a Red Cross ambulance in the middle of nowhere
and saw a number of young girls who shrieked `Oh my God!’ in rather plummy tones
when they saw me. A bit further along I started to head for home and went past a
farm with some very happy looking pigs - out in the fields, grunting as they
foraged for food. One was a saddleback - quite unusual to see those nowadays.
The next part of the track was awful to ride - steeply uphill and wet clay on
wet chalk with lots of horse hoof-prints. I walked as I couldn’t get any grip
despite my knobby tyre. A few minutes later, I came across a pair of horse
riders. One was on her horse, but the other had been thrown and his horse was
rather spooked and running free across the fields. I did my best to help them
catch him by blocking off one end of the track with my uni - it worked and they
seemed very grateful.
Once I’d walked up the slippery hill, there was a long downhill (phew) which was
very good fun. Lots of flints, gravel, leaves, mud and all in shade so it was
difficult to pick a line. I came off lots but had great fun on the descent. As I
rode into a nature reserve I met lots of MTBers who where (as usual) shocked
that anyone would ride Muni before another loose uphill that again had too
little traction for me.
The final downhill was through some beech woods. To continue the `wildlife and
Muni’ thread, I startled a young looking fox that was browsing around and was
soon startled myself when I ended up face first in a soft mud patch I just
hadn’t spotted. The rest of the downhill was great though - muddy and rooty with
lots of twisting and turning.
A final 4km uphill (hard work as I was feeling a bit tired now) and I was back
at the car just as the heavens started to open. I’d got the best of the weather
and a great muddy Muni ride with all sorts of interest thrown in for good
measure. Ain’t life great!
–
Paul Selwood paul@vimes.u-net.com