Monday 1 September 2014

soft adventuring


I love reading about adventures by bicycle, be it an expedition to ride to one of the poles by fat bike, a race along the great divide of the USA or a 250 mile self supported epic around the Scottish highlands. The risks, the mental toughness, the will of one rider who triumphs or fails against the odds is both entertaining and inspiring, I'd love to do something similar, be self sufficient, be the Tom and Barbara of the less travelled trails.
However, I've got a job, responsibilities and live about as far from wilderness or coastline as one can in the UK, so although I'm sure with some organisation, money and luck all the above could be attempted we have to make do with what we have and the chance to make it all a bit more civilised or soft depending on your point of view.
Dan and I went for a little adventure to the Wyre Forest, our nearest area of "primeval rain forest", I mean, most of the trails aren't way marked!! oh the horror! it was muddy, we were on single speeds, I fell over and bruised my knee and bottom, it was adventure, were were battling the elements, it rained for about 5 minutes! the terrain was tough, we had but one gear to master the climbs with, huge clouds of flies marauded around us, we were literally minutes from civilisation at one point. Gigantic ants forced us to have our lunch up a tree and Dan only ventured down to use the Aeropress to make a proper cup of coffee (we are not primitives after all).
And do you know what, we may not have made the headlines with our achievements or inspired anyone but bloody hell it was good fun, we were knackered, we were covered in mud and dripping with sweat but never felt more privileged to be able to do things like this and step away from reality for a few hours
Ride 127
12 miles
Total 2552
commute 574

No comments: