On a cold, wet and muddy Friday evening I headed over to Sherwood Pinesin Nottinghamshire to sample its only red route, the Kitchener Trail.

What a difference a bit of rain makes. Normally a flat fast flowing trail with berms and rollers, and a nice mix of rocks and roots. This time a muddy, gritty energy sapping water filled trail. The 13km took over an hour to complete and my brake pads well and truly ruined.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be breaking the root down section by section so you can see how the trail fares in the rain.

This week is the release of section five video. Check it out above.

Section five named ‘Sanctuary Wood’ is a long section in comparison to the rest of the Kitchener trailsections, around 2km of the total 14km. It is undulating through out trending uphill for the first 1.5km and then down hill for the remaining 0.5km. However, there are several short downhill sections throughout so don’t think it is a slog of a section.

The whole section is nestled nicely in the deep forest which means hard packed forest floor and trees roots for the basis of the track. With the heavy rain this made it slippery, muddy and full of puddles where the water collected in the worn trail.

Sanctuary wood begins with a short transition from section four via a fire road. Then its forest singletrack all the way only crossing one fire road. The exit from Sanctuary wood is on to another fire road for a quick breather before hitting section six…

Keep an eye out for next week’s look at the Kitchener trail section six.

For other related articles showing the different sections of the Kitchener Trail please click below:

Kitchener Trail in the Rain

wet Kitchener Trail – Section One

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Two

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Three

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Four

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Six

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Seven

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Eight

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Nine

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Ten

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Eleven

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Twelve

Kitchener Trail – Section Thirteen

Kitchener Trail – Section Fourteen

Kitchener Trail – Section Fifteen

wet Kitchener Trail – Section Sixteen

Mountain Biking The Kitchener Trail - Sherwood Pines