19^th April 2008

A good turn out (as you can see from the photo’s) with eleven of us making the journey into North Wales. (No Mick again) We had a new addition to the squad with Scott joining us, riding his dads full suspension bike which demoted Dave to his hard-tail which ended up giving him a sore a**e at the end. It was also good to see the Yorkshire lads Darryl, Nigel & Nick plus we were also joined by two blasts from the past Rory & Nigel (Team Umpalumpa).

A long steady climb from the Visitors centre started us off, (a good warm up because the weather was cool) which brought us to the first of the black route options, a series of large ‘tabletops’ with smaller ones on the red route, then off we went on the single track with ‘steep descents’, ‘drop-offs’, ‘singles’ & ‘doubles’ with ‘switch-backs’ & ‘berms’. We stopped for a ‘photo’ & not one of us didn’t have a big smile on our faces. Around half way round we came to a raised piece of ‘north shore’ that is called ‘Drop Shore’ that as a steep descent off it, which if you haven’t ridden it before can catch you out, as it did with one unsuspecting female who fell off & used her face as a brake, (ouch) fortunately for her face her breasts took a lot of the impact, a lot can be said for having a nice ‘pair’!! But to be fair to her, after dusting herself down and stopping her lip bleeding she got back on her bike & carried on, but not before Ash showed everybody how it should be done on one wheel. (Check out the video on you-tube)

The ride including all the black route sections is 13 miles. (Not too short & not too far) After a quick change we went into the visitor centre for a butty (long wait because it was busy) and a look around the shop where you can also hire bikes.

Was it worth the 200 miles round trip? Well we certainly thought so, & we will probably visit again later in the year. (A date when Screw can go)