Post by manuel6b2 on Nov 28, 2008 1:10:31 GMT 1
Tonight saw the first of our 'grand nights out'. We had discussed at the start of the year to set aside one Thursday night a month to go somewhere else apart from the tow path.
Last week we had arranged to meet in Ballynahinch for 7pm althought there was some slight confusion as to where exactly in Ballynahinch we were meant to be. We eventually all met up and headed off at 7:15. Leading the way was Ronnie who had planned tonight's expedition. Following Ronnie was BL, Alan, Dennis, Stephen Heasley and then me.
Don't ask me which roads which took, all I know is that they went up!!!
Stephen retired early after the very brisk pace that Ronnie was setting right from the start. Smart man to know when to call it quits. Stephen, it just got more difficult from that point onwards
We ended up in the forest for some nice off road action. Why o why didn't we just park the cars at the forest !!!
The forest inself had a good range of riding conditions with some very tight single track action dodging xmas trees to wide open fire break roads. Ronnie and BL were doing all the leading around here. The routes have grown up quite a bit in recent years and were now full of soft, pillow like undergrowth. I say soft, pillow like because a few of the group decided to lie down in this undergrowth just to feel how soft it was
Dennis even got excited at one point and thought he had seen some truffles growing. He lept straight over the handle bars and got his nose down onto the ground to check. Turned out it was just truffle shaped mud ! Hard luck Dennis 
After a big loop of the forest it was back onto the road where the 5 were exposed to some pretty cold winds. At some junction? BL split off to head home. And then there were four. We charged back towards Ballynahinch before Ronnie slowed to head up towards the windmill. Dennis headed on home leaving just Ronnie, Alan and I to tackle the climb. Nice ascent with a slippery descent. Back to the car for 9:10. Excellent night. Almost 19 miles done. Exhausted. Next week we are back to the tow path again.
Last week we had arranged to meet in Ballynahinch for 7pm althought there was some slight confusion as to where exactly in Ballynahinch we were meant to be. We eventually all met up and headed off at 7:15. Leading the way was Ronnie who had planned tonight's expedition. Following Ronnie was BL, Alan, Dennis, Stephen Heasley and then me.
Don't ask me which roads which took, all I know is that they went up!!!
Stephen retired early after the very brisk pace that Ronnie was setting right from the start. Smart man to know when to call it quits. Stephen, it just got more difficult from that point onwards
We ended up in the forest for some nice off road action. Why o why didn't we just park the cars at the forest !!!
The forest inself had a good range of riding conditions with some very tight single track action dodging xmas trees to wide open fire break roads. Ronnie and BL were doing all the leading around here. The routes have grown up quite a bit in recent years and were now full of soft, pillow like undergrowth. I say soft, pillow like because a few of the group decided to lie down in this undergrowth just to feel how soft it was
Dennis even got excited at one point and thought he had seen some truffles growing. He lept straight over the handle bars and got his nose down onto the ground to check. Turned out it was just truffle shaped mud ! Hard luck Dennis 
After a big loop of the forest it was back onto the road where the 5 were exposed to some pretty cold winds. At some junction? BL split off to head home. And then there were four. We charged back towards Ballynahinch before Ronnie slowed to head up towards the windmill. Dennis headed on home leaving just Ronnie, Alan and I to tackle the climb. Nice ascent with a slippery descent. Back to the car for 9:10. Excellent night. Almost 19 miles done. Exhausted. Next week we are back to the tow path again.