Kitchener Trail - Section Thirteen
Mountain Biking Sherwood Pines ‘Marchin’ not fightin’
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.
During this section I had the unfortunate pleasure of getting splattered by mud which covered the camera making half of the section not viewable. So, a year on I re-visited the trail and this time it was blazing sun. The trail had changed in that small timeframe with the first half shut and under construction.
Over the last few weeks, I've been breaking the root down section by section so you can see how the trail fares in the rain. Three more sections to go over the coming weeks.
This week is the release of section thirteen video. Half in the rain and half in the sun. Check it out above.
Section thirteen named ‘Marchin’ not Fightin’ is (or was) one of the longest sections of the trail at just over 1km. The first half is uphill with the second half mainly downhill apart from a peak around 0.8km. On the map the whole section was an L shape, a straight run from the transition of ‘Lewis Gun Range’ with a curve left and then a straight run to ‘Fifth Avenue’. However, over the last year the transition from ‘Lewis Gun Range’ has disappeared, replaced with diversion signs and so the first straight run is missing.
On the ground when entering the section, the straight run isn’t so straight, there are several long sweeping lefts and right turns with a slight uphill gradient as you hit the third or fourth bend. This then opens out into what looks like a clearing but is in fact a fire road to cross. After dipping back into the forest, it is a straight run lined with leafless dark trees. This migrates into greener bushy tress along the trail and starts to get into a narrow twisting track. It’s here where the camera’s lens is covered in mud, so we jump a year on. From a wet sluggish, puddle ridden trail to a nice hard packed faster trail.
The next bit of this section has a slight downhill gradient so you can enjoy the twists and turns between the lush pine trees and ground ferns. With the sun flicking through the trees it looks slightly mesmerising. The track crosses an opening and the trail turns straighter again. This leads to another fire road crossing to enter the final short slight downhill section and before you realise you see the sign for section fourteen.
Looking at the footage makes me realise what a difference the rain can make. The surface water makes this section sluggish with some deeper pits to collect the water making it a little unpleasant, but when the sun is shining the uphill doesn’t seem up hill and the trail flows so much better. This section isn’t one of the best sections of the trail but it does lead into a couple of better sections so maybe it is doing the hard work so the next sections can take the credit.
Keep an eye out for next week’s look at the Kitchener trail section fourteen.
For other related articles showing the different sections of
the Kitchener Trail please click below:
wet Kitchener Trail – Section One
wet Kitchener Trail – Section Two
wet Kitchener Trail – Section Three
wet Kitchener Trail – Section Four
wet Kitchener Trail – Section Five
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 Fourteen
Kitchener Trail – Section Fifteen
