Stainburn forest

Yesterday saw myself, Leo, and the rarely seen, lesser spotted Tezbo make an appearance over by Harrogate/Otley at Stainburn forest. The guys at singletraction.org.uk have been busy, and after reading it up in MBUGay, I decided it was time FO had a look. Good drive over and a sunny, close day guaranteed we'd be sweating like pigs. Met a guy in the car park from singletraction and with some advice, we went over to do the natural loop first, something that reminded me of the days of building the FO course! Similar terrain, soft underfoot, but much longer and a good blast every now and again. I have to say all 3 of us struggled with technical singletrack climbing all day, I for one do not have the power in my pins for it! Despite this, there was the ocassional section where you just let go, and being the kamikaze leader into the unknown, there was a real buzz from yours truly about the unknown!

After a breather in the car park, we headed to the man made, gravel and stone encrusted trails. This proved to be a real eye opener, really technical in sections, and athough you could flow with practice, it was our 1st outing and we gingerly made our way round! It was a real buzz pulling off the slab ride and the 25ft (estimate) decline down the narrow stone pile after the narrow hairpin bend, and once I'd balls-ed out my line choice, I was buzzing! Terry's skills got him through as usual, not sure what Leo was making of it all. After that there was some flowing stuff in the woods, and some mental challenges to get round/over some of the rocks. My bashguard was loving it! As were my pedals judging by the squeels of delight!

We helped out with some building for a bit (gotta do your bit) and I am as intrigued as ever about building, so I got some tips for the political side of things! All in all a good day out, very different, very technical and not the flowing singletrack we perhaps expected, but a real learning experience, and I enjoyed the buzz in any case.

I'll let Leo summarise his bike situation (ask me no more!).