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Freeriding in the Peak District Sunday 12th December 2010 saw a bunch of mountainboard freeride enthusiasts meet up in Macclesfield Forest for a day's shredding... Wilz brings us a report. This was to be the third Annual Macclesfield Forest Freeride Meet, organised by Ade McCordick. Set near the edge of the Peak District, this place is a (largely) pine woodland haven of walking and riding: tracks, gravel roads, paths, and back-country, with beautiful landscape views & vistas. There's even Shutlingsloe- 'The Cheshire Matterhorn' no less. Driving into Macclesfield, the hills loom over and as we headed to the meet-up point near Trentabank Reservoir, it was clear this was going to be a fantastic day... The temperature was low, with ice on the ground in places, although it was before the big pre-xmas dump of white stuff so everything was rideable and nowhere near as cold as the 'Arctic Freeride' last year. And also it was bright, so great winter conditions for mountainboarding all round. Roger & I finished the padding-up and headed over to meet the guys, busy sessioning the bottom section of a long gravel road (or 'firetrack'). Ade, Mark, Phil & Iain had already done a few runs and we did the meet n greet & joined in straight away, warming the legs up with this wide sweeping path. We hit it several times, dropping into it from different starts, carving it up and staight-lining the stoney grey track like F1 cars warming up their tyres before the race starts... Heading upwards, we chatted away (as you do) and over the 25 minute ascent we walked past loads of great sights; views of the lake through tall trees, dark dense mysterious magical-looking pockets of woods, and generally checking our ascent for features as we'd be riding back down this loooong path later. Getting to the top, with a bench for a breather, the woods thin out revealing the next spot to session before heading the long way down. It's a snaking bit of gravel chicane-ery, a sweet elongated S that, if you make it round, drops to a safe run-off, but it's not bermed at all. Doing it from the top straight off would've been slightly mental so Ade & I went with the 'ladder' theory of starting a bit lower... A few of the others hit it from the top and slid out (smiling & cursing) on the last right, but it was one of those runs where you learn pretty quickly and we all had fun sessioning this ace spot. The sun came properly out for a bit, the views were varied and beautiful, and a real sense of riding the moment came good (with extra points to Mark for first blood lol) Phil & Iain had to make a move and disappeared over the brow to descend back to their motors at the bottom, while the rest of us sessioned a bit more, before deciding to definately ride down the way we came. This path we'd trudged up varied from loose large gravel to packed earth with or without leaf cover, much of it with ice patches, the odd walker / fallen tree obstacle, sheer drop to the right, and loads of a irregular inbuilt steps and drainage gulleys that proved pretty challenging, having to ollie over them (sometimes they came thick n fast) as well as the usual spontaneous navigating. It ran long, and there were groups of walkers on the lower half, which we courteously shredded past before hitting the major speed-check for the icy-stepped-drop-to thin-90-left... We all made it (just) and ran off the mellow finish, smiling and sharing the highlight moments... Stopping for a rest & snack is always good and by now was well deserved. Properly catching up, exchanging stories, keeping motivation high, a recharge of the batteries, chat to some mountainbikers, and plan the next descent. Ade also realised he'd lost his hat somewhere along the way... So after another trudge we had a change of riding style and went back-country through some deep beech mulch; it was pretty steep and techy with trees n stumps everywhere, but not that fast considering it's steep gradient... Ade carried on down to have a quick hat-hunt so Rog & I hit a challenging skinny run, heavily rutted with a big banked left-hander halfway down. At the bottom was a fence that would have to be stopped at... Rog went off ahead and i followed shortly after. It was fun desperately trying to keep the speed in check, then hipping round the corner, dropping, speeding up then having to powerslide out in time. As i came down the last bit though, i saw Rog sprawled out to the right so i slid to the left (my heelside), a post appeared out of nowhere and hooked up my back wheel, wrenching me to an abrupt stop! oof. As i got up, Rog was nursing the best mountainboard injury in a long time- he'd hit a stump and slid for miles on his arse, giving himself a collossal wedgie. Hilarious (for us ;) With Ade now back, we hiked up past some mental (closed) mountainbike trails + drops, through the massive pine trees, and up to near-the-top. We hit another short challenging track to mix it up, before making the final ascent up the top section new gravel track through loads of xmas trees to the summit. The view at the top was awesome, the trees framing the peaks under a wintery sky, but alas my camera battery was about to die... We chatted with some friendly, interested families/walkers and breathed in our surroundings before strapping in for the long descent... And what a descent, worth coming for alone; so long, varied, sweeping, sublime. By now we were getting a bit of fatigue but couldn't waste the remaining hour of light, hitting a tight tech path that made us laugh or we'd have cried, before sessioning one of the most fun tracks of the day: a run that starts with a mellow descent, hopping over rain gulleys, before getting steeper and more snaking tightly through trees with a tasty sharp chicane that challenged us all. The run off then went sweeping down through the woods to the bottom of the hill. This run proved pretty addictive and i wish my camera hadn't died... However it did mean i got to concentrate on riding it! With light dwindling, another great freeride meet was almost complete. De-padding & bantering, we all agreed there would be more meets like this, so keep your eyes out in 2011 and take yourself off to ride somewhere big, somewhere beautiful, somewhere new. Thanks to Rog, Ade, Mark, Iain, Phil, and the festive cheerleaders ;) Words & Pics by Dan Wilson |
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