Tag: trail

October 29th – It’s been a long time since I did a proper ride cam, something I’ve been needing to sort for a while. I have lots of footage to edit up, but the software I use has been a bit crabby in recent versions, which has now been ironed out, so hopefully I’ll get some more done.

This is a short film of riding Rainbow Hill on Cannock Chase from the edge of the golf course on the Rugeley Road, over Rainbow Hill and down to Moor’s Gorse, a ride I’ve recorded before but on this bright, sunny autumn afternoon it seemed a good one. I’m riding a mountain bike for a change, and get to speeds of about 30mph. The ride is recorded real time.

The music is ‘All of the Time’ a cult classic by Mason Williams.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

October 29th – A real wet feet moment up on the old Ironstone Road at Bleak House. Time makes you forget where the deep standing water is. 

Note the scraping afterwards – thats wet grit in the brakes – the sound of wearing components!

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

January 13th – I was hoping for more snow. I was mentally prepared for a very cold, icy commute. I awoke to little more than an icing-sugar dusting, and all the main roads clear.

I was interested to note though that other cyclists weren’t deterred. I had the snow tyres on and loved it, but the cycleways and towpaths were lined by tyre tracks, so maybe I’m getting risk-averse in my old age.

A nice journey in cold weather, but it’d be nice to have the real thing before winter ends. A bit of 2013 wouldn’t hurt, would it?

November 17th – It felt a long way from Christmas on this sunny but chilly day, but I found something quite festive in Hortonwood: the holly and the ivy. The holly berries are bright red and plump, this year’s crop, and the holly leaves are so shiny and perfect the look at first glance like they might be made of plastic.

The ivy, creeping up the fence in front, is also rather beautiful.

An odd find on a gorgeous day.

January 28th – In Telford, beside the Hortonwood cycle track, a fine crop of toadstools is growing. I’m n to sure what these beige, delicate little caps are, but they don’t seem bothered by the rain and frost. I assume that they are, like many things, caught out of season and shouldn’t really be growing in January.

They don’t seem troubled by the frost, though… a little bit of perfection on the way to work.

October 3rd – The old railway between Pelsall and Brownhills (actually part of a longer line from Dudley to Lichfield) was grubbed up in the early 1980s. Some of the tracked from Pelsall to Walsall was converted into a cycle trail at the turn of the Millennium, but the section between Ryders Hayes and the old crossing at the back of the Swan Pub on the Pelsall Road seems to have developed a peculiar status. Whilst not an official cycleway, volunteers have been clearing it and keeping it useable, and it’s now a popular route for cyclists and dog walkers alike.

In contrast to the greyness of the Marsh and Mere, this was quite beautiful.

June 16th – I was taken to task on social media the other day for stating that Telford’s cycleways were alive with flowers and fruit; this observation was scoffed at, because it seemed inconceivable that on the byways and fringes of the new town, wildlife could flourish or be beautiful.

Well, it can; and the people who care for these fine tracks, paths and trails really should take a bow – they are a credit to them, their work and their town – a virtue shared, curiously, with Redditch.

There’s beauty in all sorts of places if one is open to find it.

July 14th – Called to Telford mid morning in soft rain, I was struck by how green and tunnel-like the cycleways to Hortonwood have become. The council here cut so far up the hedges, but the upper boroughs overhang and form an almost complete arch. Riding down them in even this grey daylight makes them an emerald delight, but in sunlight, they are magical green pathways, lined with foliage, fruits and flowers.

Beauty in the everyday.

November 1st – Yes, it’s November, and the sun is warm and the landscape still perceptibly green. The weather this year has been nuts. It was very windy, and I was, to be quite frank, knackered. I had some shopping to do so headed out to Pelsall and then up the cycleway and canal to Sainsbury’s at Reedswood. The wind was punishing, but it was a lovely day – and I did get blown home, so it wasn’t all bad.

And yet again, great skies.