Post by Mary on April 29, 2021
At the risk of repeating myself, it’s another post about mountain biking in lockdown! Third time around. Life is certainly getting very repetitive during these Covid times. Fortunately we have a radius of 10km from our house to explore this time so it’s not nearly as bad as the previous two lockdowns. And it looks like it will be a much shorter confinement of 4 weeks duration. Hopefully we have less than a week to go!
During the school holidays we finally finished our “Through the Mill” trail in our local woods. A project that we began in the first lockdown last year. The lower section included some very steep worn sections of trail that we have managed to bypass. Mostly with the muscle and trail vision of Jamie and Cameron. We now have a fantastic flowing trail, utilizing the full width of the hillside. You get a lot more descent for your climb and it’s not so intimidating for kids to ride. There are some techy sections, a few steep sections and some optional jumps so it’s not too easy. You do need mountain biking experience to ride it but it’s fun and flowing for everyone.
Jamie and I have managed to get out mountain biking a couple of times on our own without the kids. We have a new favourite trail we’ve named “Dingle Dell”, which gives you a great mixture of fast flowing singletrack and technical rocky riding for only about 150m of height gain. We also rode some trails within our 10km that we have never explored before. Unfortunately we won’t be riding them again but you don’t know until you try! We have discovered more trails on foot that we have yet to try on the bikes but they look promising. It’s amazing how many new routes are out there, just waiting to be found. Sometimes, it’s not so bad to be forced to focus on what lies unexplored on your doorstep.
Looking ahead to the biking holiday season, we understand that some of you are worried about the infection rate in France and the logistics of international travel this summer. Our daily numbers of infections are now falling and the number of vaccinations is increasing significantly. It’s happening more slowly than in some countries but we are definitely moving in the right direction. We are hopeful that by early summer the infection rate will be low enough and the percentage of the population vaccinated will be high enough to allow relatively unrestricted travel to and from countries of a similar status. At the moment it’s a waiting game, which we’ve all become very good at. By the end of May I think we will have a much clearer picture of how international travel will function this summer. We are ready to run trips as soon as you are ready and able to travel. We very much hope we’ll be out riding the singletrack together this season. Until then, keep on pedaling wherever you are.
