“A foggy start which soon cleared: however, the day remained grey, dry and cool. Perfect for the climbing in store!
Twenty turn up at Milton Heath car park, a good turn out considering the unpromising start and competition from the Welsh trip. Rob and Jason were out on their new 29ers and very enthusiastic about their bike’s performance – obviously the way to go.
Greg’s early puncture didn’t dampen spirits despite most of us held up in the middle of a muddy field. There were a couple of climbs to Leith Hill with the Summer Lightning trail slipped in between. The second was a long walk for most of us. My reward of a cup of tea to anyone who could make it to the top really should have been made beforehand, I admit!
It was then a plunge down the southern flanks of the Hill to the Lucky Chickens (yeeha!) and another climb up Holmbury Hill to BKB and a Peaslake teastop. Both single track trails seem to have had some attention of late and BKB in particular was fast and smooth. Lance had an incident with his steel framed glasses on the way down which skimmed his nose. Nasty! (Note to self...)
Full of tea and goodies from the shop (their offerings seem to get better and better), we headed for the Volunteer bridleway via Hoe Lane and the sandy rutted drop to the A25. Moji’s (self-inflicted!) puncture on the climb to Abinger Roughs held us up for only a few minutes.
There was another ‘incident’ with a collapsing fence for Lance and Sue to Park Farm, but no harm done. Here Super Evans broke off with Rob and Greg for a quick get away, whilst the rest of us turned up the hill to take the leeside trail along the valley. We slid along this – literally as the clay had turned to a wet paste – and up the shallow climb past trees brilliant with autumn colour. Then there was the short plunge (another yeeha!) to the railway line, a paddle to Unum and a short woody wander back to the Milton Heath car park.
Many thanks to Colin who took the picture, Mike Tyrell who back-marked us to Peaslake and Robert who did the honours on the way back.
And finally for those who asked the question, Wikipedia says: The only difference between mist and fog is visibility. The phenomenon is called fog if the visibility is one kilometre (1,100 yards) or less (in the UK for driving purposes the definition of fog is visibility less than 200 metres, for pilots the distance is 1 kilometre). Otherwise it is known as mist. Seen from a distance, mist is bluish, and haze is more brownish. So now you know!”
Fran