About 18 months ago, I followed a route that Cathy had given me to get to Blackbush using the Bramshill tracks, amongst others. (A ride with Linda and Daphne). I had reversed the route on that occasion, and added an extra few miles, so that the cafe was nearer the end, but was convinced I had gone wrong somewhere getting into Blackbush airport runway area. It was also hard work going uphill from Bramshill Road. So today, I reverted to Cathy's original course, to see if it followed a better route. We would find out!
I suggested doing this today, since all the off road tracks have been beautifully dry, with a heatwave this past week and no rain for ages. That was until 5 o'clock last night when a thunder storm passed over ! 😒
Gill is in Devon, and Martina is "up north". Gill would have loved today's route, so a shame she missed it. Jeanette was on her old bike today. Her Specialise Bike is poorly. Nice to have Andrea join us again today.
We met Louise at Blagrove Lane, and then into Nashgrove Lane, which YESTERDAY was completely dry, and this morning had several big puddles. 😡
Cathy's route started from FBC, but we ignored that bit and joined the route as we crossed from Windsor Ride into the very bumpy Heath Ride, passing Linda's house. Concrete for a good distance until we came to the junction of Hollybush Ride, where the route took us right, passing Heath Pool into Simon's Wood.
We had a look at it....... it looked a mess!
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| Hmmmmm. |
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| I opted for "the high road" |
It was a bit messy, but we survived and emerged near the lake in Simon's Wood, so I had my bearings now. We crossed straight over here, to the area where I filmed my "Cloak" film with some of the ladies a couple of winters ago.
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| Lake just to the right here. |
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| Our left turn towards the car park area was not so easy. Quite a steep uphill. Tree roots and very uneven. Not sure how I managed to stay on. 😂 |
We emerged to cross straight over Wellingtonia Avenue, and into another track, Drift Lane, which I rode many years ago with Breeze, most of which drops downhill steeply to Lower Sandhurst Road. But because of last nights rain, it was "interesting", with piles of gravel everywhere. A few "Wey Heys", as my back wheel lost it. !!!!!
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| Heading off down Drift Lane, all good to start with, but the track got quite "technical". The Olympic BMX cyclists could have practiced here. |
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| Lake View "italian cafe".. They do Pizza. |
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| The track from Monteagle to Blackbush. A little bit messy further up but nothing like as bad as I have seen it before. |
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| I forgot to put the memory card in my camera today, so all mobile phone shots, this one balancing on a bench next to us. Me, Andrea, Louise, Jeanette, Lynne. |
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| A fair bit of activity going on with planes today. |
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| The fire engine suddenly sprung into action driving really fast and a couple of firemen RAN from the smaller firetruck, jumped in, and it sped off with smoke coming out the back! 😅 |
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| Chopper coming into to land. |
Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing, and probably just a drill.
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| Back over the humps, to retrace the route to where we had come in from the Yateley track. |
Cathy's route then took us along one of the old runways, and 3 ladies had a flat race. 😆
The runway loop was optional, since we ended up at the car auction place anyway (which could have been straight on). This was the bit I wanted to investigate..... turns out I was right where I had come through from the opposite direction, but its a bit messy....... especially today!
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| Castle Bottom area on our right. (looking back) |
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| A good path now |
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| Straight over at this gate to continue to Coopers Hill road. The next short section was edged with Broom plants and a few cries of "ouch, ouch, ouch" as they got a bit too close near the next road crossing. A much busier road to cross (the A327), but fortunately a large truck stopped for us to cross. He was turning into the Gravel pit area. Then an ambulance appeared. All a bit chaotic for a minute. Then.... peace as we joined the empty, wide, Bramshill track on The Welsh Drive.  Beautiful light in the forest    The track is really good, just as far as almost the bottom at a T junction, where a LOAD of new 20mm gravel has been dumped. At this point we all got off...... before we fell off, but soon back on and came to the junction of the Bramshill Road.  We crossed here on the Bramshill Road. I had been here just yesterday with my Breeze ride, and knew where to join the track back to Eversley. Our speed was 8.4mph at this point 😂😂😂  We improved our speed to a very respectable 8.6mph after Nash Grove Lane. Louise was very good and climbed Blagrove Lane with us, before turning back to home, even though she had already climbed it to meet us earlier, and didn't have to. Well... it was different to our usual ride. It was an interesting experience, but since I'm not a big fan of off road, not sure how soon it will be before we repeat it. But we could of course use bits of it another time. A few new bits for some ladies today, which is always good. And now, I need to wash my bike. (tomorrow) |