Day 4 of the kids 100-mile biking challenge. The Easter weekend is over, and we have had a couple of days to recoup. The kids are eager to carry on after the rest. I've been trying to think of the most interesting places to bike as they liked the Monsal trail ride and the Rother valley ride. Not so much Kingsmill reservoir, but that could have been due to the weather.

We decided to head to the start of the Skegby trail. There is a nice 5-mile loop we can do twice. It’s very slightly up hill along the trail until you cross the lane about 2 miles in. The views are great, with random trees and views across the fields, plenty of horses for the kids to spot. The only downside is, understandably it is a popular trail for dog walkers and with it being narrow some days there can be a lot of stopping and starting. That’s not a problem when there is no speed goal and we hit trail at what seemed just the right time.

After unloading the bikes at the small car park we negotiated the small gate to get onto the trail. Just after going under the bridge there is a fork in the road. Left takes you to the Teversal Grange which is the returning route and right is on the Skegby trailin the direction of Pleasley village. We slickly headed right onto the lovely easy, but slightly uphill scenic Skegby trail. Luckily there weren’t many people around, so we cruised along the trail at a decent pace until we reached the lane crossing.

The trail suddenly dips into a deep downhill section that crosses the lane and then heads up a steep hill back onto the trail. My youngest tends to walk the steep section as it is slightly technical and there is a turnstile barrier at the bottom which would hurt if your braking isn’t sufficient. The lane is very quiet but do cross with care as there has been plenty of times I’ve had to wait for a car to pass. Then the steep hill back to the trail is short and challenging. It’s a low gear hill which often catches the kids out. They walked up this time, conserving energy.

Once back on the trail it’s a slight climb up to another barrier to pass through on to another lane. I can honestly say I’ve never come across a car on this lane as it doesn’t go anywhere, but you never know. There are multiple routes you can take here. Pleasley is straight on, right is back toward Mansfield. We take the tarmac lane left. Almost instantly is a right bend and then another crossroads of paths. Go left through metal gates and back onto the trail. This is now the Teversal trail.After the initial fast downhill, the trail is flat for the next mile.

Appreciate the fresh air until you come to a mini double switch back that leads up to another quiet lane. This is a great point for a rest as you can take a moment on the bridge which is about halfway around the loop. We had a little break for a drink and a little snack. Then headed across the lane and over the bridge to the other side. Go through the gate back on the trail. There is another set of switch backs to head down and then its flat all the way.

It’s around another mile until you reach the crossroad of trails at the Teversal Grange. Straight over and you can head to the Teversal Trails Visitor centre, left is back along a link trail joining the Skegby trail to start the loop again. There are two trails that go right, the first (4 o’clock) takes you through to the Silverhill reformed pit tip and the second (2 o’clock) is the Silverhill trail which joins the ‘Five Pits’ trail taking you all the way to Chesterfield. At this point I had a thought, instead of doing the same loop again (left) we could head along the Silverhill trail as far as the M1 bridge overhead and then turn around and come back. The kids have never been that way before so could keep them motivated. After a quick chat we decided that was the way we would go. We headed right (2 o’clock) onto the Silverhill trail.

As we were pedalling away, I was thinking how amazing the network of trails around the area are. From here I could get to chesterfield, join the canal route to Poolsbrook where I could join the Pennine trail to head to Rother Valley or if I was really adventurous keep riding until I reached Leeds or a little further to York. All off-road. Back the other way I could get off road through Mansfield to join Route 6 which could take me North through Sherwood Pines, Sherwood Forest, Clumber Park, Worksop to Sheffield or I could head south into Nottingham…amazing really.

Back to the present time and we had just passed Brierly Forest which is another network of paths to walk around with a lake and coffee shop to draw in the visitors. I could sense the kids were getting a little tired, so I was conscious I didn’t want to push them to far as we had to turn around and retrace our steps. After about 2 miles we reached the motorway bridge over head. We went under the bridge, stopped, had a drink, turned around and headed back.

If I’m honest I don’t like re-tracing pedal strokes on the same ride. If you are full of energy, it can be good as you know how far it is, but if you are tired ‘you know how far it is’ which can often demoralise you. The kids were tired and ‘knew how far it is’, also I didn’t notice a slight decline when we rode the other way, which meant a slight incline this way. I found a count down of distance was useful. Every 0.1 of a mile I called it out which kept them motivated and before we knew it we ticked off the 2 miles and were back at the Teversal Grange cross roads.

We went straight over to join the link trail back to the skegby trail.I know this trail well, and it has a nice trend slightly downhill, which means you can pick up the speed easily. We rocked through the final mile and was back on the Skegby trailheading to the van before we knew it. The last few hundred metres can be horrible if it is wet, lucky for us it wasn’t and the car park appeared. The kids dropped their kit behind the van and slinked to the door to rest inside whilst I packed up the bikes. Another successful ride to add to the total mileage.

With 13.95 miles at Monsal trail, 11.38 miles to Rother Valley, 5.4 miles round Kingsmill reservoirand this trail ride of 9.62 miles, that’s a great total of 40.35 miles in four rides. One more and we should be half way.

Check out the what happened on other 100-Challenge biking days:

Kids 100-mile Challenge: https://www.mickc.co.uk/kids-100-mile-challenge

Day 1 (Monsal Trail): https://www.mickc.co.uk/day-1-100-mile-challenge

Day 2 (Rother Valley): https://www.mickc.co.uk/day-2-100-mile-challenge

Day 3 (Kingsmill): https://www.mickc.co.uk/day-3-100-mile-challenge