Wow, what a fantastic weekend that was. Great company, weather and riding all combined to make a classic club weekend. For me the weekend really started looking out the office window at the bikes already loaded on the car on Friday morning and wishing it was 5:30. By the time Jordan and I arrived , the Reeds, Jennings had already set up camp and Harvey was busy getting the fire lit setting the tone of the weekend. The Rothmans followed shortly afterwards, Linda bringing with her a fantastic birthday cake for Claudia, Hannah, Danni and Jordan.
The Birthday Crew!
A great evening was spent eating Fish and chips, the adults sneaking a glass of wine whilst the kids played manhunt in the dark.
Saturday morning started with the enevitable two trips to the bike shop for parts, bikes being made ready as the Murphys, Stewards, Pitts, Salmons and Lowries arrived and set camp. The more enterprising club members set about manufacturing some improvised jumps from the huge amounst of wood around the camp followed by a session.
We then had a short morning ride exploring some of the bridleways and single track close to the campsite and managed to make our way back without getting lost!
Getting ready before riding with Roger
After lunch, we met up with Roger, Ian Salmons uncle and a regular rider in the forest. Roger took all the club for a tour of the forest taking in a variety of trails on offer from surfaced bridleways, fantastic for taking in the forest under the sun to some flowing single track and interspersed with stories about various places on route including view points, the tudor hunting lodge and the oldest oak in the forest, none of which we would have found without his experience.
After another excellent evening of barbecues around an ever larger campfire, Sunday morning arrived all too soon. After breakfast, Kurt and Ian took out a group to retrace some of the trails ridden the day before. A second goup consisting of Joe Pitt, Harvey Jennings, Ollie Ford and Jordan Beighton, accompanied byJohn, Steve, Linda and myself were taken out by downhill racer Taylor, an old friend of the Beighton family. It soon became clear from the pace of the first hill that Taylor meant to put the boys through their paces. Over the next three and a half hours, we were taken at a fast pace through a maze of single track through the forest ending up at a viewpoint over the city of London. After a quick bite to eat, we turned around back through more amazing track, none of which you would imagine could be found within the M25. Throughout Tayler impressed the boys with his bike handling skills whether climbing over stacks of logs or simply pointing his Lapiere downhill. True to all good routes, a couple of the best downhill sections were saved to the last before returning to the campsite feeling shattered. The boys all put up a great performance keeping with the pace throughout the 22 miles.
On behalf of the club, a big thank you to those who made the camp possible, John Ford for organising the weekend, Roger and Taylor for giving up their time and knowledge to take us all out and not forgetting Linda for the cake and all the non riding parents who made the effort getting the children to Epping and joining in with the weekend. Looking forward to the next one already.
