Trails play Wednesday 14^th November

This was all a bit last minute. I was speaking to my son on the Monday and he said he had the Wednesday off. So a little grovelling at work and we were all set.

I or maybe I should say we have not been trails riding for a long time. I love trails riding it’s just so relaxing in an un-relaxing way.

You have to think so far ahead, and although you are going slowly when things go wrong, they go wrong fast. It’s mentally draining as well as physically demanding. I haven’t been doing it long and haven’t had much time to practice even the simple things but I enjoy it none the less.

Martin my son was going to be up at 9am, so I got up and started to service my CRF in the garage. I got a little carried away and at 10am I suddenly realised Martin was still fast asleep tucked up in his bed. Woken up, he set about getting the stuff ready for the day whilst I loaded up the car. We were at Nash Mills by 11am, a little later than I wanted. But this had let the morning frost burn off and we were left with a beautiful autumnal day. The sky was that lovely pale blue, the sun was low but bright with that golden glow, and had enough warmth left in it to take the chill away. There was no wind just an occasional breeze that once blown sent the crisp dry autumn leaves dancing gently to the ground. As they finished their elegant dance they landed with a delicate rustle. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.

 

We both hadn’t riding for about six weeks, Martin got straight back on it like a fish to water. I however had lost the knack. I was all over the place and couldn’t even get over the simplest of obstacles. I was completely out of sync. We started with some familiar routes and obstacles but, for me to no avail. It didn’t worry me I was just enjoying the day and the ride.

 

Just after lunch we set out a course. This is good practice because its easy to set a route on your head, make a mistake and convince yourself you’ve done it when in fact you didn’t. With the flags set out it’s easy to see your mistakes and practice to correct them. You can alter your way into or out of the part of the route that was causing you problems, and then put all the pieces together.

 

It’s very satisfying to complete a course but my total lack of ability of getting over even the smallest rock, log or other obstacle plagued me all day. Martin on the other hand was romping along.

 

The day had been glorious, by late afternoon as the sun began to lose its warmth our pace had slowed and silly mistakes were being made. We were both tired and decided to pack up before one of us had an accident. It was one of the best days riding I’d had in a while.