The other day we went for an unorchestrated spin in the woods.
We had a plan, it went out the window. Our mate had actual written instructions, also rolled into a ball and binned.
We followed our noses, if the not the path of least resistance, and ended up doing a lap of some old-school trails.
After the ride we commented on how a mountain bike patch full of the trails we enjoy around here can lead to some being bypassed more often than not.
The list of trails we rode included some that are hugely popular, and some that many people may never have seen.
Just out curiosity, I researched the lists, and was amazed to find that the youngest has been carrying bikes for ten years. One is a rebuild of the one that started everything (thanks, Fred) about three decades ago.
Most were older than many of the kids who frequent the woods these days.
Check it out: up the road and into Dipper for a couple of hundred metres. That trail is a quarter-century old. Mad If You Don’t has been rattling fillings for thirteen years. Puarenga, a decade. YellowBrick: not as old as Murray the Wizard who built it, but twelve years is not a bad innings. Pondy New, same wizard, and a year older. Parts of RollerCoaster go back twenty-three years, I recall being led there by the late Andy Duff and the late James Moore on a particularly memorable summer evening long, long ago. I worked on Old Chevy when we started the build thirteen years back. And was amazed to discover the beginnings of Be Rude Not 2 fourteen years ago. The late Dodzy built Lion Trail fourteen years ago, Tokorangi is the newbie at seven years. Turkish is eleven, Arepa follows some of the original trail in the forest, created almost thirty years ago. RockDrop is twenty, Rosebank is twenty two.
Of course, we love the trails that have come later, and look forward to the trails that we may yet be blessed with.
But it’s a real treat to find those old faves are still bloody good fun, and well worth having a roll through.