best. ride. ever.

clodhoppa74

wow.

went to gisburn forest yesterday for the red oute (some of it at least), and despite the slight cold and RUDE RUDE people (on bikes) who had no regard for other cylists (especially on tracks where i was cycling up hill, having to stop for people coming down the hill... quite irksome, especially when they don't acknowledge you, but i digress...) had the best ride of my life.

i hadn't been out for a month due to family stuff, but was on it. berms hit right, drop offs, er, dropped off comfortably, singeltrack railed. i was riding to the best of my ability, doing well (by my standards)... i was feeling pretty good then....

on a fire road, coasting downhill i come round a corner to meet a sika deer (bit like red deer) stag. who looks at me then turns to run off. for one brief moment we were side by side on the path, eye to eye travelling in the same direction, at the same speed, before he leapt gazelle like in to the brush and off into the forest.

amazing. gobsmacking. apologies to the people i nearly poleaxed ( i was the one with my gob dragging on the floor) as i came round the next corner.

i can't walk you see, but i can ride a bike, and this is one of those moments that won't ever be repeated, and has nothing to do with my disability. if one thing will keep me getting on my bike over this winter it's that moment. something primeval went on. brilliant.

i'll stop gushing now, except to say that without a) mountain biking, b)crc fast winter kit delivery and c) not least importantly the work done by the folk at gisburn, that moment would never have happened.

mountain biking is brilliant. the end.

.blitz

clodhoppa74 wrote:

i can't walk you see, but i can ride a bike

Kudos to you, fella. 'Scuse my ignorance, but how are you able to ride a bike but not walk? What happens when you stop :?

clodhoppa74

it's a boe weakness due to being mashed on the front of a car doing 70mph.

can stand a bit, walk a little, but anything outside the house i need a stick. if i got my pack i take it with me, but i can stop and put the other leg down for balance or use the bike as a walking aid just can't walk on rough ground or any distance. biking is the only way i can get out amongst it.

.blitz

Most excellent that you can still ride. I never imagined a situation where I could ride but not walk.

Swinnos at Birches Valley have an MTB trike that they hire out. The fella rocks up in his wheelchair, they lift him onto the trike and he's off. I keep meaning to ask how he does it but it seems rude.

jayson

.blitz wrote:

Most excellent that you can still ride. I never imagined a situation where I could ride but not walk.

Swinnos at Birches Valley have an MTB trike that they hire out. The fella rocks up in his wheelchair, they lift him onto the trike and he's off. I keep meaning to ask how he does it but it seems rude.

Its not rude, treat them man as u would any other person u meet out and about on the trails, he's just another person out enjoying the outdoors the same as urself at the end of the day.

grumsta

went to gisburn forest yesterday for the red oute (some of it at least), and despite the slight cold and RUDE RUDE people (on bikes) who had no regard for other cylists (especially on tracks where i was cycling up hill, having to stop for people coming down the hill... quite irksome, especially when they don't acknowledge you, but i digress...) had the best ride of my life.

Great that you enjoyed the ride but doesn't that mean that one of you was going the wrong way? It's all waymarked in a particular direction apart from the fire roads innit?

largephil

Great that you enjoyed the ride but doesn't that mean that one of you was going the wrong way? It's all waymarked in a particular direction apart from the fire roads innit?

I know some people like to head directly for the beginning of the new red section by the quarry, this takes you via fire roads against the flow of the suggested route in one area. I bet thats what has happened here. Nothing wrong with that, the fire roads are plenty wide enough to have riders going both ways, even if some are going fast down the hill.

clodhoppa74

grumsta wrote:

went to gisburn forest yesterday for the red oute (some of it at least), and despite the slight cold and RUDE RUDE people (on bikes) who had no regard for other cylists (especially on tracks where i was cycling up hill, having to stop for people coming down the hill... quite irksome, especially when they don't acknowledge you, but i digress...) had the best ride of my life.

Great that you enjoyed the ride but doesn't that mean that one of you was going the wrong way? It's all waymarked in a particular direction apart from the fire roads innit?

maybe it's changed since last time i ws there then, cos i went the way i've been a fair few times before.... out of cocklett car park, turn downhill at the bottom, then head for the farm (where the start of the new blue bit with the woodwork, short climb and berms back tot he start is) and round.. up the hill, then carry on up the hill towards where the pub is, then left before the pub, past the new red bits/quarry and down to the singletracky technical bits then back into the woods and down to the reservoir.... it's the bit after the reservoir on the way back to the carpark that got hairy...

so does this mean my favourite route has to be done backwards now? oh well, that's another weekend of working out where my trails gone then... i definitiely wasn't going the wrong way round for 3/4 of it, maybe they just linked new bits up differently.

bugger.

largephil

Deleted, double post

largephil

Thats the old red route clodhoppa74, the new 'official' way round is where you head for the lake first and make your way up to the top by the quarry from there (we usually head straight for the quarry though because thats the best part). If you turn off right at the quarry, this takes you through the main 'new part' of the trails and is well worth a visit. Also when you have done that bit, you drop down the hill through some nice flowing berms to a t-junction fire road. Left takes you back to the old red but right takes you to the new black section with 25 foot berms... amazing is the only word for it. They take your breath away . There is a map on this forum somewhere if you do a search for Gisburn Development.

clodhoppa74

thanks fella.

i'm really confused now though, because i know i did half of it the right way round!

i'll need to check the 'purple' route if it still exists, as my wife is starting to ride and was just getting confidence on the old purple trail, as she knew where it went and what to expect, how to benchmark how she's doing etc. i hope it still exists in the same 'easy' state, as she really likes it up there.

i will read up before i head up again (not this weekend unfortunately )