chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
Another ride today, this time on my own. I'd found a Mountain bike route on kamoot and with some tweaking in ridewithgps, I'd turned it into an interesting loop. I'd also found an interesting lost place not far from the route. So with grey skies and low temperatures I set out past the pig farm and over the glider school runway before turning into the forest. So far all on familiar and oft travelled trails.
Then after a few hundred metres I turned east and onto smaller trails. Before long I'd reached the area where the hunt for my lost place was to begin. Not far from the path an innocuous tree covered mound gave up its secret.
This area used to be a munitions factory and storage area in the war. Most of the remains lie in the military area to the East, but a number of large bunkers lie out here in the public forest. British troops blew up the bunkers in the 60's, but the remains are quite substantial and spread out over a large area.
After nosing around for a while, I headed off West on the bike. Before long I came to the end of the forest and crossed the road, swinging back North on the Western side of the road. The forest here felt fresh and the trail under my wheels was firm and dry.
Several kilometres flew by in complete solitude, there was no one to be seen or heard out here. Overhead the screech of a Buzzard provide the only noise to break the silence. The trail wound it's way its way steadily North before swing round West again.
At one point the Garmin throws a fit and wants to send me round in ever decreasing circles and I have to resort to the ridewithgps app on my phone to re-orientate myself. Turns out the open street maps I'm using have misplaced a track, that oddly Google maps knows about. Re-orientated, I head down to the banks of the Ortze river where a sculpture watches over the trail.
From here, it's South through the forest, a gravel track runs parallel to the rutted and muddy main track and I make fast progress through the trees.Then it's South East running parallel to the road on wonderful forest tracks, all the while in complete solitude. After several kilometres, a few turns here and there bring me out onto a network of single track trails.
I have great fun flying along twisting and turning between the trees on this delightful single track, made even more fun by the fact I'm on a gravel bike. Too soon the trail ends in a small town and once across it's on to larger tracks again for the last few kilometres home. In total we traversed 42 kilometres of mostly new forest tracks, exploring some fascinating ruins and having a great old time on some fun trails. In all, with my ride with my son yesterday and exploring today, it's been a lovely weekends cycling.
Then after a few hundred metres I turned east and onto smaller trails. Before long I'd reached the area where the hunt for my lost place was to begin. Not far from the path an innocuous tree covered mound gave up its secret.
This area used to be a munitions factory and storage area in the war. Most of the remains lie in the military area to the East, but a number of large bunkers lie out here in the public forest. British troops blew up the bunkers in the 60's, but the remains are quite substantial and spread out over a large area.
After nosing around for a while, I headed off West on the bike. Before long I came to the end of the forest and crossed the road, swinging back North on the Western side of the road. The forest here felt fresh and the trail under my wheels was firm and dry.
Several kilometres flew by in complete solitude, there was no one to be seen or heard out here. Overhead the screech of a Buzzard provide the only noise to break the silence. The trail wound it's way its way steadily North before swing round West again.
At one point the Garmin throws a fit and wants to send me round in ever decreasing circles and I have to resort to the ridewithgps app on my phone to re-orientate myself. Turns out the open street maps I'm using have misplaced a track, that oddly Google maps knows about. Re-orientated, I head down to the banks of the Ortze river where a sculpture watches over the trail.
From here, it's South through the forest, a gravel track runs parallel to the rutted and muddy main track and I make fast progress through the trees.Then it's South East running parallel to the road on wonderful forest tracks, all the while in complete solitude. After several kilometres, a few turns here and there bring me out onto a network of single track trails.
I have great fun flying along twisting and turning between the trees on this delightful single track, made even more fun by the fact I'm on a gravel bike. Too soon the trail ends in a small town and once across it's on to larger tracks again for the last few kilometres home. In total we traversed 42 kilometres of mostly new forest tracks, exploring some fascinating ruins and having a great old time on some fun trails. In all, with my ride with my son yesterday and exploring today, it's been a lovely weekends cycling.
. the placee was very busy and sections of the trail were very wet and muddy ,karon was not impressed.
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