View from the bars Wyre Forest edition

View from the bars Wyre Forest edition, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

i stayed up til 0430 last night watching the Superbowl, It was a great game. I usually take the next day off work to recover and today was no exception, so after a lie in it was time to take advantage of the daylight and get out on the bike. My first plan was to use the train for a proper adventure but reported delays and the high winds postponed that trip for another day, so i popped the Single speed into the car and went to ride the Wyre Forest. I know that the forest retains moisture like a sponge but i wasn't expecting it to be quite so bad in places than it was, i literally went over the bars about 10 metres after leaving the car, down a bank and the usually not to deep puddle sucked the front wheel down to the hub and over i went. This side of the forest was horrendous, very deep sticky and a lot of effort was needed to actually move, including down hill. steering wasn't a million miles away from how it was in the deep snow, lots of under steer and hardly any control, after two of these gloop filled trails i decided to stick to the fire roads mainly and see what the other side of the forest was like as it's a bit higher. Of course this involved a slice of cake at the cafe. The higher trails were a little better and i was able to actually ride down some of them! Thank goodness for SSFeb (singlespeed February) as i think a geared bike would have given up by this point. I got back to the car with a lower mileage than i had planned but about twice the effort spent than would have been used if the trails had been dry. So a frustrating but weirdly enjoyable ride.
ride 11
14 miles
total 223