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Amelia's Anecdotes #1

Sunday 10th Jul 2011

Hamsterley Forest - NMBC Girls in Action!

Cheryl

Patti

Sophie

Amelia

The girls headed out to Hamsterley Forest for the first ‘Ladies Day’ ride! We left from Jesmond just after nine managing to squeeze Terry’s Decathlon and Amelia’s Cube plus herself and Sophie in Amelia’s tiny car. Cheryl put the other two bikes on her bike carrier and followed with Patti.

Arriving in Hamsterley at about 10.30, we headed off on the red route. We didn’t have a map as the shop was closed but Patti managed to talk someone into donating one a bit later on. The signs were easy enough to follow. After a long climb we decided to continue up and do the section 13 trail with jumps and bumps. This little track was a lot of fun; quick with lots of nicely angled corners and jumps at just above our confidence level. It was enough to push us but not terrify us.

An excellent descent took us back on to the red route and we carried on along some single track through the woods and eventually back on to the forest track. We crossed over the river and headed back up on the other side. Long climbs again but the next descent by the telephone pylon made it all worthwhile. This took us right back down again and just left a speedy section back to the car park. The red route took us about 2 hours.

We stopped for lunch and even grabbed a hot drink! Following a girly chat, we headed off to the skills loop. We just went round twice as our legs were pretty shot from the climbs earlier on (and also, biking after hot chocolate is not the best plan). Never the less, it gave us the chance to have a bit of technical practice. Amelia worked on getting her front wheel in the air a bit and Cheryl, Sophie and Patti had a go on the planks. At about 2.45 we headed home.

All in all, a good day out and I will email around the next date in August (likely to be Kielder Forest), the more, the merrier!