Today, Good Friday, I had earmarked for a ride round Llyn Brenig.
This was to be my first MUNi ride round a 'real' mountain bike track. I
had downloaded the map and it was supposed to take 15 km/1 hour.
Hubby and son came with me and a couple of son's friends. They were
going to play around the visitors centre while I went cycling.
First mistake - we left the map behind. I thought that would be Ok
because there was a lake and I was going to cycle round it. Easy. Using
a popluar and well used mountain biking trail. Simple.
Before I went I bought a couple of chocolate bars - one for before I
set off and another for emergencies (it was round about lunch time).
So off I set, calculating that if the route was supposed to take an
hour on a bike, it would probably take me two on the uni. So I said
(joking), if I'm not back in 3 hours, come and look for me. Hubby said,
if I wasn't back in 3 hours he would be going home.
Straight away I realised that it wasn't quite what I expected a
mountain bike trail to be. In fact it was along the road. A single
track road which, most of the time wasn't wide enough for me and a car.
Nearly every time a car came I had to get off and stand to the side.
And I'm not very good at freemounting the 29er.
So there I was - cycle along happily, car comes, dismount, spend 10
minutes trying to freemount, cycle along happily. When eventually the
road narrowed and happily I road along the track (another big mistake).
At some point I neglected to get on to the double track road that I was
supposed to be cycling along. Instead I ended up on a boggy sheeps path
that went around the lake that no one had a hope of riding. I staggered
around it for about 2 miles, getting very wet feet and probably
sunburnt. I was totally isolated (except for a couple of fishermen) and
had no phone reception. If something had happened I don't know how
hubby would have ever found me.
Anyway, 2 miles off the track and conscious that I had now been gone 2
hours, I eventually found the road again.
I was so tired from the trapsing around in the boggy fields that when I
got phone reception I phoned hubby to come and pick me up - one of the
advantages of the trail being along a road.
Lessons learnt:
1. If I'm going somewhere new, always take a map and give a map to the
back up. Even if I think the track is going to be really straight
forward.
2. If I'm going somewhere new, find out as much as I can about the
track and not go on one track roads.
3. It's better not to ride alone (at times I felt very isolated whilst
in the boggy field) but since this is probably my only option most of
the time, try not to pick somewhere that there is no phone reception.
4. Leave plenty of time. If I had not felt pressured to get back within
the two hours I could have taken it easy and slow with lots of rests
and would easily have actually made it round the lake. I had gone 3/4
of the way - 8 miles.
5. Don't ride round Llyn Brening again.
I wont let this put me off though.
Cathy
--
cathwood
Say no to unicycle genre discrimination! - MrBoogiejuice
http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
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