speeding through the ferns

speeding through the ferns, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

todays ride was to the Wyre Forest and conditions were perfect, very dry and dusty even the "stream of eternal stench" was dry and completely rideable without the penalty of a cloud of flies following you around from that point. we decided to circumvent "camber" as there were loads of riders on it and so did an old trail not much visited, a great buttery smooth ribbon of singletrack through a sea of ferns, great fun at speed. we kept to trails around "goldilocks cottage" and "caravan" and on this latter trail Matt took a trip over the bars on a steep rocky off camber drop between two trees, he landed heavily on his shoulder and hip, ripping his knees and shins on his handlebars as he went over. i was ahead of him but heard the crash, turning back he looked quite stunned and i was worried he had hit his head or done more damage, but after a rest and a drink he was able to continue albeit very gingerly and stiffly. Matt was struggling and doing more technical trails when you aren't 100% is a recipe for disaster so we made our way back to the car and an early finish. it does make you think how vulnerable you'dbe if you had an accident in some of the more remote parts of the woods, even though there were two of us today it would have been dificult for me to extract Matt on my own and there was no phone signal. so go careful people!
ride 100
8 miles
total 1626
commute 809
total+commute 2435
total