This morning saw five miles on the Brompton for eggs and a bit of hoopery.
Felt generally hot and restless for the rest of the day, so eventually went out earlier on the Ragley. Tried a new route that encompassed the nearest stretch of tow path, with mixed results..
The beginning of the route was familiar to the MTB and very much a known quantity..
The final section of this path before it meets the road runs through tall hedges, which seem to attract a horrendous amount of flies. Every time I've ridden it this summer it's been swarming with the vile creatures.. I've long-learned to don my sunglasses and shut my mouth, but that doesn't stop them getting caught, wriggling in my hair and beard as I blast through clouds of them 😖
Once out onto the road it was half a mile of tarmac to get onto the tow path, which began nicely enough with some reasonably surfaced singletrack and a few nice folks out on their boats / with their dogs.
The quality of the surface decayed however as I pushed further south; getting rougher with the odd patch of off-camber stuff dropping towards the water. Some parts were a little overgrown too; requiring a bit of alertness to miss the stuff hanging in the way.
While feeling far safer and somewhat more comfortable than last time I came this way on the gravel bike, a good portion of the tow path remained unpleasant for the above factors.
Mercifully off the tow path a village or two down and back onto the road.. reassured by the knowledge that the defences were occupied and ready to go should the bloody jerries try it on again..
After maybe a mile it was off onto a reasonably decent tarmac-surfaced track with one sketchy moment courtesy of the oncoming sun blinding me to a deepish patch of loose sand, which caused a bit of a slide but it was all good.
Beyond this point however things went decidely downhill - first entering a field that had evidently housed cattle in very wet weather; the deep ruts proving uncomfortable, slow and tiring to drag the bike over.
Glad to escape this misery I was greeted by smoother terrain but shoulder-height grass since the landowner evidently couldn't be arsed to keep the paths cleared. The route of least resistance was mostly along the edge of the field where the crop met the grass. Eventually reaching a point where there should be a path cut through the crops to an adjacent stile revealed that this bit hadn't been cleared either; so I just defiantly ploughed through it to meet one of the existing tractor paths and followed this up the not-insubstantial hill to the edge of the field.. feeling less bad about trashing the small amount of crops I did after being reminded of the big, road-facing banner promoting our local tory councellor..
Finally I made it to the gravel track at the top and then home.
Only about an hour and 8 miles; didn't enjoy it as much as previous outings on the MTB due to the crappy surfaces, insect bites, nettle stings and general pollen coverage. As always however a ride is better than no ride and I do feel nice and chilled for a shower and entire co-op stuffed crust pizza, but don't think I'll be doing that route again in a hurry..
So after saying our good byes I went to a beer garden and met a random cyclist there and had a proper social.
