Words & Photos by Pete
Crew :
3sheds – Troll- Butty – Chris – PTD – Coley – Pete
Pub: – Adrian, Dunc is a no show
Weather: about 4c all evening, thankfully fairly dry with little wind.
Notes :
What a cracking ride and gathering for the first ride of the year for me. I know there was a ride on the 2nd January but I could not make it.
With Coley and 3sheds riding, together with PTD, El Presidente , Butty , Troll and yours truly there was a definite feeling of “getting the band back together” .
Paul takes control of route choice. Silently, with his assured style. No debate, we just follow his lead. We are blessed.
A Teggs rear entry , and then at the top the crew splits into two briefly and we lose 3sheds . Thankfully he reappeared quickly , and then he does the full , dentist approved left hand off piste descent …and tops it with the concrete steps to the reservoir dam. His Mojo has returned.
Right at the Leathers and we climb to Nessit . Then the (lower half of ) downhill course , then a new short, sweet and loamy piece of single track . I love the way that even after almost 20 years of riding this forest PTD can show us new bits of track.
Then the footpath to the right for a while. Then some tarmac, the rezzies and onto the pub .
Paul is once again quietly in charge …ensuring all beer orders are getting sorted out 🙂 .
Here the beer choices gets a little weird and a tad ribald – Ginger Tinge and Chocolate Porter ! Much giggling. Thank goodness for the certainty for the Hoegaarden.
And El Presidente was also back to his normal cheeky self …finishing his pint before me and cajoling me to “Get The Beers In” …
To top it all we had a Sutton Hall surprise voucher from Xmas ….it turnabout to be a 50% one !!.
Which spawned a small but beautifully formed AOE . The Inner Sanctum.