Who knew Mountain Biking in Dorset could be such fun.

charlie    General Outdoor, Trips     alfreds, biking, mountain, tower, XC

Thanks to Webtogs, and the team bonding mountain biking trip to Afan, I have had the MTB bug and so this is where the story starts.

I went out a few months ago and bought a full suspension Specialized Epic which I absolutely love; I actually bought just the frame because it would have been too easy to just buy the whole thing. It was a whimsical purchase, I have to say, but my goodness there is so much fun to be had ploughing through puddles, bog, nettles and thick, dirty mud once I had put the whole bike together. In my mind there isn’t anything more uplifting than going out after work and hammering the trails for a few hours. I think it’s partly to do with our culture and how everyone should always be clean and tidy, so it’s nice to give society a big raspberry, go out, get muddy and then ride back through town to the disgust of all the old biddies. You can just tell they are thinking ‘eugh look at that ruffian. In my day you would have been slung out of the community for being seen in public like that’. The other reason why it’s fantastic to get out after work is to blow any proverbial cobwebs away. Riding gives you a sense of freedom that a sofa and television just can’t give you. There’s no sense of time and the trails don’t end after half an hour, there are no adverts – just like the BBC.

Believe it or not I’m trying not to blow too much hot air about how amazing mountain biking is but it is great fun and EVERYONE should try it at least once.

When I bought the bike just a few months ago I didn’t realise that where I live, Gillingham, Dorset, there are miles and miles of trails, which was a great surprise to me. Mike, our warehouse chappy, has lived here nearly his whole life and so knows all the trails around a monument called King Alfreds Tower. This is on the Stourhead Estate where, believe it or not Stourhead House is situated. A large proportion of the Stourhead estate is forestry land which means there are plenty of fire trails all connecting at various different points making for some spectacular views, steep climbs and rapid descents.

Specialized Epic Comp & Me

Mike is a pretty active guy and trains for triathlons most of the week so when we go on a ride it’s not a slow one. We are both fairly competitive but through much deliberation he has now decided that I’m faster than him on a mountain bike, partly because he’s about a foot shorter than me but mostly because of our age difference. He’ll kill me for that comment.

A while ago my Auntie came over from Las Vegas and she brought over a GoPro HD video camera which I then bought a chest mount (aka booby cam) for so I could video some of my adventures on the trails. It’s a brilliant camera and I’d recommend one to anyone who’s thinking of buying a robust video camera. The chest mount is an awesome addition and I hope you’ll like some of the footage that Gareth has kindly edited. There are only a few minutes of some of the faster downhill sections, but there will more.

You know when you take a camera out and nothing really spectacular happens? Then you say, ‘well if I didn’t bring it something would have happened.’ That happened in it’s truest sense on one ride.

First, Mike and I started our ride near a place called Rock Arch. Last time we rode we threatened to do a bit of downhill which is about a kilometre into the ride and just off the usual trail. This downhill section doesn’t look that steep but it’s pretty butt clenchingly steep.We nailed that, which would have been good viewing with a few wobbly moments and screams – mainly coming from Mike. We did jump off the bikes at one point because there’s a large jump over a fallen tree into what looked more like the entrance to the River Styx. We both arrived back on the trail with a few nettle stings, jelly legs and big smiles. Anyone walking by would have thought there were two feral children roaming the forest on stolen bikes squawking and giggling.
The next bit of footage which was sadly missed came a little after the downhill section where there’s a bomb hole in the side of a hill, it looks like someone has taken a giant egg from the side of the hill, if you can imagine that. After our downhill section we were both buzzing and thought we could try a little more to get our confidence up. In retrospect I think I need to learn to crawl before walking. We scrabbled up to the top of the bomb hole where we moved a few fallen branches out of harms way to then peer over the side and to be honest we were both a little dubious about riding over the edge.

Where we were stood, if you rode to the right you’d almost always fall off, if you were even a tiny bit unsure. So we decided to ride to the left hand side which looked better*. My plan was to ride off the left hand drop, to then shoot across to the other side where there’s a lip to try and grab a bit of air time.

*Better – this definition of better is slightly skewed as the drop was still about a 75 degree angle.

So, we’re at the top and Mike decides to preserve his body so he can’t injure himself before his triathlons. I go first and as I’m relatively new to SPD pedals, the ones you clip into, I clip my left foot in and start to move off and before I know it I’m looking down to my right foot to try and clip that in which of course makes me turn the handlebars right which directs me towards the near sheer drop. Yes, off I go and for a moment it feels like I’m going to conquer it but oh no, panic strikes and I jam both my brakes on which catapults me over the handlebars dragging the bike on top of me. The next thing I know I open my eyes to see Mike peering over the edge at me not knowing whether to laugh or cry. I was so annoyed I missed that on camera – it would have been priceless.

I climbed back on the horse straight away and did the drop off that was in the original plan because if I hadn’t I don’t think downhill would have been on my list again. The damage caused from that incident was minor; a few scratches and lots of bruises plus the next day I couldn’t really walk that well, much to everyone’s pleasure in the office. Sadistic lot they are.

The rest of the ride was rapid. We absolutely flew around the trails because the light was fading quickly. As I didn’t really know where we were going any of the time, it was quite an adventure but at the end of this one we rode in front of Stourhead House which was a pleasant surprise. It was lucky we weren’t arriving back from a ride on a sunny Sunday afternoon because I’m sure at least one person would have turned their nose up at a couple of filthy mountain bikers. And we were filthy.

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