Seven of us hit the trails on the 1st of January 2012, a great way to welcome the Club to the idea of it being 2012.
Pollyanna, one of our staff riders, organised and led the days ride. The ride started from Oakley Park near Frilford Heath at 10:30am.
After the usual meet and greets and jokes about everyone's festive midriff's we ran through a M-bike check and a quick pre-ride briefing!
The route was around 15 miles starting from Oakley Park and taking in local singletrack trails in the Frilford Heath area, in Cothill Woods, up and around Boars Hill and in the Harcourt Hill area before returning back to Oakley Park.
Pollyanna certainly organised a great route, it was a really fun singletrack loop taking in a great mix of fireroads, natural singletrack and technical trails. Various sections of the route were really hard going with the January mud, in particular some of the trails out in the open had suffered particularly badly from the recent rain and were tough going.
Whilst out on the route we also visited a local jump spot which is being transformed into a pump track, this was great fun for half an hour and so and kept us hidden in the woods out of the rain that decided to start early in the afternoon.
On the way back we took in one of the local disused quarries which has been transformed into a nature reserve but features a whole array of tracks including some great singletrack trails and technical drops and descents.
Back at the cars we tidied up, had some cake (tradition again!) and said our Happy New Year farewells and all headed off to catch up with the relatives and other New Year activities people were up to.
A big thank you to everyone who took time out on the first day of the year to join us out on the trails for a great ride, and a big thank you to Pollyanna for organising and leading a great ride.
Happy New Year to you all, and details of our main January XC Group Ride Event coming very soon!
Best Wishes
Scott
BucksMTB Club Chairman & Ride Leader
