The plan of action was to ride up the abandoned railway to Afan Argoed and so to the start of the Penhydd trail, unfortunately I was struck down early by what can only be described as a dog with a bowel problem. Both of my wheels were amply covered in a thick dog deposit, so whilst taking a pit stop by a water pumping station I attempted to remove the offending substances by rubbing the wheels in the thick grass. Now my wheels were covered in dog mess and thick grass, plan two was put into effect. On hindsight, plan two wasn't the best of idea's using my short supply of thirst quenching water to wash my wheels, as Mr.P pointed out, was not the best of ideas.
View from start of Sidewinder.
I didn't take any pictures on the day, so here's one I prepared earlier, much earlier, well, if the BBC can do it so can the BBB - think about it!
The route had changed slightly since the last time I rode Penhydd, the start, as I remember it, now been the finish of the trail. The climb out of the centre was a killer, but the initial single track section was thankfully a lot shorter than I remember. However, this was more than made up for by the forestry road section leading to Desolation which was much longer than I recall. Desolation was enjoyable, but short and suffering from the very wet weather we've had, sadly, Brashy Track, Green Run, Frog Corner and A Ridge To Far were all closed, so we followed the diversion up to Hidden Valley.
Mr.P set off at speed, at first I just about managed to keep pace, but not for long! Making my excuses, I found the surface quite skittish, I blame my tires! Sidewinder is very close to home so I know the area fairly well, with confidence boosted, I threw caution to the wind. Following round one of the small banked hairpins on the track I came face to ground with a tree trunk which was sticking out of the bank. My front wheel hit the stump, which stopped me more effectively than any disc brake could ever manage. When I say me, what I should really say is 'my bike', as I proceeded to travel forward. Despite my ninja like reactions, my graceful Superman like flight was not accompanied by an equally graceful landing, other than a few bruises and grazes I was thankfully uninjured.
Through the trees at the start of Dead Sheep Gully the lack of light was starting to become noticeable, so putting our best foot forward we completed the following sections in good time, and without major incident. The run back down the railway track was a good warm down and gave a chance to use the top gears which (well for me) weren't used during the previous two hours cycling.
I'm certainly feeling the ride and flight this evening, my bike remains unwashed, still it's the weekend soon.... and in case you were wondering, it's Bird Brained Blog.
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