Loads of us descended on Llandegla yesterday for a Christmas ride / catch up with mates kind of thing. We finally all arrived and did some “off-piste” riding on a recommendation by some Singletrack forumites, up to the mast, down the rocky trail to the road, back up to the forest on the railway sleeper boardwalk. This is a really nice diversion, a gradual climb then becomes a fast, narrow, rocky downhill that then becomes a slippery, muddy slope that’s obviously going to be much better in the summer.

The climb back to the forest on the sleepers is good too – just narrow enough to have you holding your breath once or twice (especially with ice all over them).

Michael was recovering from a cold, which was bad enough for him, and then he crashed on some ice at the first fast, jumpy bit of the Llandegla trail. He went down hard. Unusually for him, he was quite shaken but we persevered. It was getting more and more obvious that we just needed to get back to the car as he was in a fair amount of pain despite Andy’s kind donation of 2 Ibuprofen. We left the others to complete the ride and off we both went, down the fireroad back to the car. Except we were not headed for the car park. Despite asking for directions, we found ourselves at the same point we were at an hour ago, obviously getting a bit frustrated by this point.  We re-joined the red route and allowed it to lead us back to the car. I felt sorry for the lad. I hope it’s not put him off.

Thanks to all our mates for waiting for us (although Simon had no choice cos we were giving him a lift).

Merry Christmas to everyone!