The heavy rainfall of the past week has turned many trails into impassable swamps, so our plan for this ride was to stay on high ground and avoid the mud.
We began on the South Downs Way and headed from Whiteways to Cocking; however at this point our curiosity and nose for singletrack overcame our best intentions. The fire-roads were relatively dry but surprisingly so were the twisty sections of singletrack. Due to the winter die-back of greenery we were able to spot a number of singletrack trails disappearing through the trees. We marked them on GPS and continued on our way. In fact we found so many new trails that we have already planned the return visit to ride and link them together into what will be a great singletrack blast. A little off-piste riding through Eartham Wood and we were then heading back. We arrived just as it began to rain and slurped down hot coffee from the cafe while relating to each other our trail heroics.
A couple of my personal highlights: 1) the drop down from Tegleaze wood into the Droke carpark which was very greasy and I had a couple of heart in mouth moments on the wet chalk, although it must be said that the others had no problems at all!, and 2) the climb up through Selhurstpark woods which was steeper and longer than we remembered, we were all panting by the time we reached the top.
A great 22 miles that has set us up for a return trip to link the narrow twisty bits together.
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