Sunday 10th January

The snow is back - in a major way! Not to be put off by this, four of us; Chris, Steve, Fran and Simon headed out for an off-road excursion on the mountain bikes. Pete made what was probably a sensible decision to opt for the warmth of the gym but missed out on a fun time with lots of thrills and spills!

We met up at the Carpenters Arms in Burghclere, it was still nearly dark at 9am. After a brief ride on icy roads we were soon off onto hard packed, snowy tracks making for the Wayfarers Way. Trying to cope with the rutted snow was difficult and everyone slipped and fell over at some point.

The route twisted and turned with on and off road sections to Old Burghclere and then there was the major ascent up onto the Wayfarers ridge. This was along a tricky and narrow path which was very slippy in places. As the path levelled off it opened up onto an exposed field, snow flurries blew across and it looked really bleak. We picked our way over to the ridge itself and then followed the Wayfarers Way towards the A34. At times the depth of the drifted snow made cycling impossible but all the time fun was had as our bike handling skills were tested to the limit.

We came across another group of mountain bikers just before we crossed the A34, they were carrying out some major running repairs and we wobbled past with a brief "Hello".

Then it was up towards the West and into the Highclere Estate. This involved a long walk up along a badly rutted and snowy track which gave way to an open field section. Everyone spilt up and rode the best they could with regular stops to regain composure after numerous wipe outs.

The bikes were easily supported in the deep snow as seen in the photograph. At the highest point of the ride we followed a good track with firm snow although rutted in parts. Then Simon and Fran carried straight on to descend back down towards Whitway and home and Steve and Chris took the meandering track down to Highclere Street, back past the Red House pub and home.

14 miles in just over 2 hours. But a good work-out in the difficult conditions.