2nd October 2008
Present – Gadge, Coops, Seamus, Bazzar and Bolty
Sinbad was lay up at home with a bad back.
Tonights ride was intened to be a bit of a trail finding exercise. We parked up at the Glen Mona Pub and set off North along the road before ropping of on to a small trails which ran along side the electric railway down towards Ballaglass Glen. After an initial wrong turn thanks to Coops we were back on the trail. We actually found a sweet section of rocky single track that emerges just up the raod from the Cornaa entrance. From here it was back up through Ballaglass on to the road and North again to the Hibernian where we turned left and head out towards Park Lewellyn.
Baz and Seamus took point followed by me, Coops and Bolty; the pace was fairly quick as the wind was on our backs. The weather forecast was not good, gale force winds and driving rain, so we were expecting to get a battering but were pleasantly suprised. As we climbed the rough track in the dark the new lights were coming in to their own, Bolty passing comment that it was like having a lighthouse on my head. The track is little more than a couple of sheep tracks at the best and there were quite a few deep water filled ruts ready to catch us out if we were not careful.
The boys decided that 'Lighthouse Head' should take point and lead the way...this was a big mistake as I managed to lead the rest of the boys through most of the axle deep puddles before getting stuck and having a rather comical SPD moment, much to the amusement of Baz and the others. It wouldn't be long though before the deep water claimed the rest of the group in some form or other; suprisingly the water was warm and not ice cold as you'd expect!
We reached Park Lewellyn, re-grouped and Coops checked the map to see how much further we had to go, not that it was much use as the only distinguishing feature we could see was the old ruin. As this was notthe first time I had ridden this way, previous trail finding ride withSinbad in very poor weather, meant I was again trail leader. So off we set again at a reasonable pace slowly heading up the valley towards the old mines. I knew that a short distance up the track we would reach a wall which we would have to cross and it was at this point we would make our turn and head down the side of the valley to join the track.
After a bit of trailbreaking we joined up with track and rode through the darkness, being careful not to scare the resident sheep. As we traversed the valley we came to a junction, left was up, right was down.....which way now? Non of us had ridden this way before so using my natural trailfinding skills I made the decision that we should head down. We would not be disappointed as what opened up before us was a sweet section of trail straight down the side of the valley. At the bottom of the descent were two hairpins and whilst sat at he bottom waiting for the others to arrive I had visions of Coops barrelling down the hill, not seeing the corners and launching himself and bike over the edge to land in a messy heap at the bottom! Unfortunately not...the only thing he experienced was a rather twitchy rear end and on occasion coming down the hill speedway style!
From here it was a blast along the track and out on to the road at Corrany and back up to the pub car park to load up the van before retiring to the pub for a pint...or two and a chat about the nights ride and discuss where we'd ride next Thursday night.
Gadge