28th September 2008
Present –Sinbad, Gadge, Seamus and Bazzar
Today we decided to head up over Cronk Breck, towards Lhargee Ruy then drop down to Glion Gill where we were planning on meeting up with Skippy and Tim who were heading out from Peel via Brandywell Cottage.
The climb from the cottage was a good warm up for the steady slog up the road before hitting the fields. Bazzar and Seamus were on form and climbing well whilst myself and Sinbad were a little way behind, I was suffering with a crakcing headache and wasn't really up for the ride and Sinbad had recently changed both sets of brake pads, I tell you that boy certainly likes to punish himself on these climbs! By the time I reached the gate that marked the end of the road climb Baz and Seamus were stood admiring the clear views across the hills and valley.
Sinbad arrived a couple of minutes later, clearly struggling, not only with the new pads but I think Friday nights dinner party/drinking session had caught up with him and was taking it's toll. Never the less we plodded on up through the fields passing a walker at one of the gates. Today there were quite a few inquisitive cows in the fields, one in particular was feeling rather brave and refused to move out of the track and made the rest of us ride round. As we climbed Seamus and Baz took the lead followed by me then Sinbad. The sun was out and on our backs which was really nice considering the awful weather we have been having of late; more like winter than late summer.
Baz and Seamus continued to climb and were starting to pull out a bit of distance between me and Sinbad. We reached the top of the climb at the fence where we re-grouped and Baz and I took the opportunity to fire up the camera's for the rest of the ride and Sinbad made a call to Tim to see where they were so we could meet up with them; they were at the top of the zig zags just before the gate at the top of the Beary Mountain climb. Sinbad took point as he is now famous for his 'mystery tours' although this wasn't one for the two of us as we had ridden this section of the trail on a previous trail finding ride. Seamus set off next followed by Baz then me; it wasn't long before the first action of the afternoon was caught on camera...Baz managed to find the smallest hole to get his front wheel stuck in and performed a rather undignified dismount over the bars (video will be added at a later date). Seamus gingerly rode passed and only a few yards further down the trail somehow managed to whack his wedding tackle on the back of his saddle which brought him to an abrupt halt right in front of Baz who narrowly avoided yet another unplanned dismount.
I checked they were both ok and made a move as by this time Sinbad was putting some distance between us, not that much though as when I turned to set off after Baz and Seamus' episode of off's I noticed Sinbad picking himself up of the ground, obviously he'd found a hole to drop in as well. I caught Sinbad up by the time he reached the bottom of the descent and the turn to follow the edge of the plantation down towards Glion Gill. This is where Sinbad's skills as 'tour guide' come in to play as we carve our way through virgin ground ever mindful of the last time we rode this way...Sinbad finding a rather large hole to fall in! We reached the fire road and waited for Seamus and Baz to arrive, expecting them to follow suit and cut across virgin territory, but no, they decided to carry on round the edge of the plantation and join the fire road further up and came blasting passed us down to the bridge. As we continued to climb the sun was now starting it's descent over the hills and the views out to the West of the island were amazing, crystal clear and you could see Ireland on the horizon.
We arrived at the gate at the top of the zig zags and no sign of Skippy or Tim so after firing up Sinbad's camera we set off across the quad trail towards the Beary transmitter mast, following this years End2End course. At the top of the Douse Seamus set of first as he wanted to get gong while we waited for Sinbad to call Tim again and see where they were......no answer so it was off down the douse. Sinbad took pont followed by me then Baz, all camera's running so we should be guaranteed some good footage. A short distance down the Douse we passed Seamus, Sinbad was pulling away from us here, obviously wanting to heat up his pads as quickly as possible to help bed them in. It wasn't long though before myself and Baz caught Sinbad up when he stopped at the side of the trail,not sure why, and we passed him givingit beans as we headed down towards the section known as 'The Babies Heads'.
I managed to find a sweet line down through this section and was able to maintain a decent pace which was good as I could sense Baz was hot on my tail.....no room of error here or it could turn out rather messy. I held my line and we ploughed on down, carving up the trail and gaining speed as we neared the hairpin right which marked the end of the fast run down. This is where on a previous ride Seamus tried to play Superman and test the durability of his helmet......end result was a dinged lid and a loss of confidence. Not to worry Seamus, you'll be back on form soon.
From here it was decided we would head out and climb up through Kennaa to Archallagan then down Eairy Kelly ancback to the van which was parked by Eyreton Cottages. The ride back was fairly uneventful with both Baz and I setting off at a fairly fast pace whilst Sinbad and Seamus took a more leisurely pace. We re-grouped at the car park in Archallagan then headed down Eairy Kelly where Sinbad and I split from Baz and Seamus to get the van and Baz and Seamus carried on down past Ellerslie Farm on to the railway line and back home. I think all in all it was a good afternoons ride, the weather couldn't have been better for us!
Gadge