For some strange reason, these last few months have made me start to question my commitment to mountain biking, snowboarding, jackrabbitt, etc. I just seem to have lost the passion that I once had for the sport and surrounding culture, no apparent reason, other than maybe feeling slightly left behind after the whole collar bone incident, maybe because I have just moved on from it all…who knows! Any way, for Uncle Tonys birthday, we were all heading down to the Cwmcarn trails for a wee blast on the downhill track and needless to say I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Using the easter bank holiday to our advantage we set off sleepy eyed at 8am on Friday. 7 from the north 2 from the south and 1 from my home county of Yorkshire. Taking with us 3 irregular people, Coley, Rigby and Napper.
Arriving at 4pm at the fantastic trail centre that is Cwmcarn. In an eager haste we decided to ditch the cars and grab the next uplift to go play in the “freeride” park.
(“freeride” due to the fact that it is now basically just a windy trail with a couple of small features in it, they took away the drops, they took away the wall ride and left us with nothing challenging. I am all for protecting the youngsters and the immature, but it would be nice if the slightly more experienced riders has something to push them selves with! You know the risks before you try these things…there are enough signs everywhere! ok rant over) WOO RAIN!
We did about 4 or 5 runs then headed down the last half of the red loop. From here there are some amazing descents, rooty, rocky, fast and windy, and I will tell you now that these trails are best ridden with your mates on your tail or you on theirs. There are also a few big climbs on the 2nd half, but if you keep a nice steady pace and don’t give up, they are over before you know it.
The two most vivid sections in my head are the last descent and the second to last descent, the second to last being an extremely rocky and fast paced white knuckle ride (trying to keep up with tony‘s back wheel and failing!) and the last being my favourite bit of mountain biking EVER, all the way down the the carpark.
This section just stinks of “faster, faster, faster” and I love it, no matter how fast you ride at the banked corners the berms will hold you…I couldn’t even tell you how long this section is, as it all becomes a blur from all the adrenalin! Safe to say…even with my forks in their current state (see next post for my ramblings about the Marzocchi 55ATA 2008) that this was the highlight of my day.
Onto the Welsh Oak for an awesome evening of food, live music and friends. Click here to see the Picasa Web Album of the whole Wales Trip 2010.