Opening the back door to the garden, still half asleep I realise that it’s the perfect day for a ride and for me, the perfect temperature. A clear blue sky, low sun in the sky casting some long shadows over the hard frosty ground.
I’ve had a stinking cold, a sore throat and a cough all week, so I haven’t ridden properly since last weekend, but today was too good to miss. I was up early anyway, so at 9am, bored of UK Gold I wrap up warm and head off with a flask of filter coffee in my backpack. I wasn’t going to go mad, just a leisurely ‘ride and explore’ with maybe a bit of single track thown in. More fresh air than exercise. What better way to spend a Sunday morning?
For a mountain biker, this is a great place to live. A few minutes on the road in virtually any direction and I’m off road and can spend hours and hours riding without going anywhere near another road. Today though, I left the house, cycled around around the block and made my way across the A325 towards Farnborough North Station, across the rail track and around the fishing lake in to Frimley Green.
From here I have a few options. Head down to the Canal Centre along the Mytchett Road. In and across Frimly Lodge Park and pick up the Canal tow path to the Canal Centre, but this can get busy with walkers, dogs and so on, so it’s difficult to get a good run sometimes. The tow path is great if you get in really early when it’s quiet and you can ride for miles and miles in either direction past locks and under any number of bridges with plenty of opportunity to come off and expore around.
Today, I plumped to head up Guildford road over the railway bridge past the Kings Head Harvester.
A minute later and I’m off the road again, following a public bridleway in to the MOD area. This is what I enjoy. No cars and suprisingly few people about, just the odd dog walker to say hello to and some interesting things to look at. I’m taking the camera out every few minutes to take pictures, so I’m not exactly breaking in to a sweat at this stage. There are some nice climbs further in, so I’ll make up for it later, but for now I’m content just ambling along.
About 50 or so metres along the bridleway, I pass some sort of abandoned house on the left. This has been here for as long as I can remember and nothing really changes. I have no idea what they’re planning to do with it (who ever ‘they’ are).
The ground is still covered in a layer of frost and where it’s been pretty wet lately, the standing water which hasn’t had time to drain away has a thin layer of ice on the top. Too thin to take the weight of me and my bike, but I had to try.
At the end of the bridleway, it opens up in to the forest. From here you can go anywhere really as various tracks go off in every direction, but I sort of bear left and just follow the beaten track.
Soon enough I’m climbing, nothing too bad, just short sharp climbs, so at least I’m warming up and feel as though I’m getting a bit of exercise. As I reach the top of the track, head down, I look up to see a bench, which seems kind of random. But as you approach it, you see why someone went to the trouble of putting it there. The view is awesome.
The pictures don’t do it justice, but on such a clear day, you can see for miles, and after riding through the forest area the way it opens up to this view is quite breathtaking. I was tempted to get the flask out and sit here for a while and take it all in, but I haven’t been out long enough to deserve a coffee break, so after a few minutes I head on.
I don’t really know where I’m going, but i don’t really mind. Before too long I’d come across something I recognise and there’s always the phone’s GPS if I get too lost, but that’s not going to happen around here. If you cycle in one direction for more than about half an hour, you’re going to hit a road. The whole area is contained within a triangle of two roads and the canal.
Down some more tracks and about 20 minutes later I find my landmark and one side of the triangle. I’m on the canal.
From here I ride along a track which runs along side the canal in the direction of the Canal Centre. It’s not a fast track at all, but it’s a good ride and it’s quiet. Before long I stop and decide to get off the bike to navigate the next section. There is a bridge made up of small trees layed across a very boggy area. Either side there is water. Frozen water. It didn’t look too inviting, and I didn’t really fancy falling in. If it had been a hot summers day, I would have gone for it. Maybe.
I walk the bike across and reassure myself that this was the right thing to do. Picking up the track on the other side I head back towards the centre. After a while it opens up again and you leave the forest area.
I spend a while in this area, picking up tracks around the perimeter of the tree line. I can see a few groups of riders out now for the first time. This is a pretty popular area for mountain bikers. I end up heading north and cross over the Old Guildford Road, which is not much more than a track itself. This is where a lot of the single track is.
More steep climbs and you reach the top. I go along a nice bit of track, kind of following some other riders in the distance. It turns out to be a nice run, and if you know where you’re going (which I don’t) you can probably spend ages up here. Eventually the only way is down. Lots of steep tracks going in all directions, all down hill now along some quite technical routes. I make a decision and head down, again not really knowing where I’m going, but roughtly in the diection of the perimeter road.
Thirty seconds later I’m in a heap on the gound, with the bike on top of me. I could almost see it coming, but I still don’t know really what happened. My shoulder is hurting a lot, and I worry that I may have broken my collar bone or something, I think I must have put out my arm to break my fall and it’s killing me. I pick my self up and hobble off the track and compose myself. The handle bars look as it they rotated 360 degrees as all the brake lines are twisted round. I sort it out and it’s not damaged. I’m OK I think, but I’m not sure I can get back on the tracks.
After about 10 minutes and half a dozen riders offering help, I decide to limp back the 5 or 6 miles home on the road. Which was OK, but cut my ride short a bit. Which was a shame. I think I could spend at least a couple more hours exploring round.
The ride home is uneventful, and doesn’t really seem to take long at all. At home I open the flask that I’d made, but never got around to drinking and pour myself a coffee and then stuggle to take off my jacket. I’ll chalk this one down to expericance.
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I’m sitting at home now, about 6 hours later and dosed up on Neurofen, and typing this one handed. My shoulder feels fine as long as I don’t move it. Not sure what I’ve done to it, maybe damaged the ligaments or something. So after just about shaking off the cold, sore throat and cough and looking forward to riding to work again, I’m hoping it will feel better tomorrow.
What better way to spend a Sunday Morning?
Jon
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