A play in Woburn

Last night we had a thoroughly enjoyable blat around Aspley Heath with plenty of new bits for the boys to try, along with a few sections that I'd not ridden in a couple of years of more. Our plan was to start and finish alongside the jump area and cut out the ride from my pad, allowing us more time to play and explore :D

The trails are now getting quite overgrown but a few unexpected "diversions" were pleasant enough. Most of the standing water has drained away now although there are still a few patches of gloop to entertain. Which brings me neatly onto an early bath in a deceptively deep pool that nearly caught me out but did manage to drag Rob off his steed and into it's murky depths. No injury's were sustained and it was reminiscent of Uphilla's tumble at Cannock last year which also occurred within the first mile or so.

We looped around a to the jump area a couple of times and found a few new routes from top to bottom. I'm sure that the DH boys had a good chuckle at us XC guys tippy-toeing around in there but we all enjoyed it. There were a few lads there to entertain us with their big air and somehow making it all look so easy :X

Heading over to the hardly ridden south west corner, behind the golf course where Rob gallantly cleared the chest high nettles in his full length leggings with his Flux come threshing machine. Around the corner, we found some big (fairly) downs and ups along with more gloop, where Farq's clumsily misjudged a line and slithered to a premature halt. It was on the return leg that Dozer misjudged a trough, steep rise, steeper drop and final trough and all Rob and I clocked was his handle bars slamming into his chest and kinda breaking his fall. Again no nasty injuries were acquired but I did find it funny that he'd just seen me struggle to clear it, yet still got caught out. But that's why we ride off road right ? - for the challenge.

It wasn't a mega mileage ride but the ol'legs were still tested, especially having cranked out my normal commute.

A good evening with good weather, good company, good trails - what more could you ask for ? "When's the next one ?"

A Tracklogs version of the route can be downloaded here.

Posse: Dozer, Rob, Farq's
Mechanicals: Rob suffered a dragging rear brake (not that it slowed him down much), his fork settings were skewed along with wearing far too many clothes on such a sticky night. Farq's has a mysterious creak which prob'ly means a strip and regrease of the cranks.
Weather: Dry, warm, still and very clear evening - perfect.