tardree

I'd often heard that Tardree is the place to go for mountain biking. Jed mentioned it when I was talking to him too, so I decided to head up there to get some technical practice in. I went with some trepidation - I don't consider myself particularly skilled, and from all the talk I expected the place to be teeming with semi-professionals laughing at my bumbling efforts, and then demonstrating the sort of skills I should really have. As it turned out, I arrived and the place was deserted.

I started off trying the southern forest, Carnearny mountain, but it was ridiculously steep. I rode as much as I could but there was a fair proportion of pushing. I've been finding that it takes me a while to get into the swing of things at the start of a ride, and after an hour or so, I can tackle sections that earlier looked impossible. My ride on Carnearny was cut short because the forestry commission have thoughtlessly cut down big sections of trees right across the track.

I headed back across the road to Tardree mountain, and investigated. I've been walking there many times, but this time I was alert, looking for tyre tracks leaving the main path off into the tres. Dozens of them, most of them terrifying, and I always seemed to be going up a trail that was designed for coming down at 70mph. You have to look closely at the picture, but there's a trail in there between the trees, with manmade jumps and dropoffs. I took a break after an hour to chat to a couple of bikers who arrived in a van. "We've never been here before so we're here to take a look"
That was supposed to be my line.
After a five minute break I rode on, and the impossible ascents were becoming doable. Then, I was turning off the path onto a trail, when my foot slipped off the pedal. The pedal banged into my calf and scratched it - at least I assumed it was a scratch until I looked down a couple of minutes later. My skin must have been at full tension when the pedal caught it, because it looked like it had exploded (the photo's from over a week later). It wasn't very sore, so I covered it and taped it, and kept riding. I usually do carry a first aid kit, but that's the first time I've needed it. Then I met up with another biker. I was trying to ride up a hideous ascent and he came up behind me. I stopped to let him past, and he said
"Oh, no don't wait for me, this is my first time here and I was following you because you looked like you knew where you were going"
That was supposed to be my line.

So with him watching me, the hideous ascent was definitely no match for my superior skills.

The cuts on my leg got infected and the doctor put me on antibiotics - which have some ... side effects - but it wasn't painful, I think I don't have very good pain receptors, so didn't stop me riding to work later in the week.