A Summer's Evening in March

The clocks went back at the weekend, or was it forward? Anyhow, there is more daylight in the evenings now. I couldn’t ride this weekend because we had visitors and pissing off out on my bike would have been considered rude (although there is a good chance they’d be glad to see me go…but that’s another story). I decided to sneak a few hours out on Monday evening.

My 5 year old wanted me to stay in and play with him, giving me some good pangs of guilt, but MrsShonky told me to get out on my bike, so I did what I was told.

It was clear, sunny and windy cool. The trails had virtually dried into their summer state, the boggy trudge sections had turned into springy peat and turf and the rocky stuff had got nice and gravely and crunchy with lots of stones spitting out from under your tyres. I saw a hare, he loped along in front of me for a bit before giving me a backward look and stepping aside to watch me go past. I think he was enjoying the early summer too.

The shooting cabin descent was a blast, I am getting used to the capabilities of the Rocky Ridge so I hooned it down the rocky singletrack. You have to pull your weight over the front to make the Marzocchi AM2 forks do their stuff, it’s not intuitive for me, but it really works. I only needed the lights for the last half hour. Lovely, long may it last. There is snow forecast for the weekend though…