Morning around Moorgreen
Final early morning Summer ride
Another fantastic early morning ride to get my mind into gear before carrying on with the day. I was up at 6 am and out riding 20 minutes later, no faffing this morning. The only difference is the temperature. I started out with my arm warmers on to keep the chill off. Is it really getting to the end of the summer? It seems to have gone so quick. Can’t complain though as the weather has been some of the best I can remember.
I decided to head out of town to the Moorgreen Reservoir. First, I had to get through the farmland between Kirkby and Annesley. I was greeted with an amazing dusty view across the fields with a blue cloudy sky and the sun fighting to break through.
I climbed out to Sherwood Park industrial estate, near to junction 27 of the M1, and had passed through in no time at all. I scooted along the edge of the A608 before dipping into the Felly. The sun was up by now and lovely on my back.
I was riding my new Trek 29inch Xcaliber hardtail. It feels awesome, smooth over the small holes and fast over the harder packed trail. Having only just converted from 26” to the 29” it’s taken a bit of getting used to. Especially when winding through the woods on the single-track, it’s not as responsive, but what you lose in manoeuvrability you certainly gain in speed.
After the steep fast downhill right in the centre of the Felly I ducked through the concealed entrance of the Moorgreen wood which skirts around the edge of the Moorgreen Reservoir. It’s a very undulating flowing track and opens to a long straight packed track with the reservoir to the right and the Felly to the left. I came to an abrupt halt as nearly went head on into a fallen tree fully blocking the path. I thought I was going to have to turn around but after some investigation I found a gap through the tree by jumping over the fence, skirting around the tree in the ferns and then jumping back over the fence onto the trail. A tricky manoeuvre with a bike.
I was soon skirting back along the trail where I came out on the Moorgreen road, the B600, and headed up the hill to the horse and groom pub. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open, so I passed it and took a left back onto the lanes and trails. New Road, as it’s called, goes past the Beauvale priory before sweeping right and then left over a mile. It’s a typical lane, narrow but concrete.
Then it was back onto the rougher lanes heading over the M1 before a nice fast downhill to the back end of a newish housing estate on the outskirts of Hucknall.
The next section was boring road for about a mile to get from one side of Hucknall to the other. It can be tricky as you cross the A611 bypass over quite a busy roundabout. Luckily it wasn’t busy this morning, so the slight downhill let me fly over the road and through the estate quickly. I was soon on the ranges park, an old pit tip which has a very challenging central mound. I didn’t tackle the mound this time and skipped around the base toward Linby. I came out on Wighay Road, over the train crossing and joined route 6 toward Newstead, about 12.5 miles into the ride.
This section of Route 6, or ‘the yellow brick road’ as we call it locally, is a 1.5-mile hard packed trail that on the surface looks very flat. Actually, from Hucknall to Newstead you have to constantly put some power into the ride, indicating a slight uphill gradient. I used to use the trail as part of my commute to and from Nottingham. It was always a draining end on the way home. The final bit of the trail swings right towards the entrance of the Newstead grounds but I took a hairpin left and headed on the lane toward Newstead village with the Newstead recreation ground on the right.
Instead of turning left to cross the railway line and through the old pit village, I carried straight over the road and through the Newstead and Annesley country park car park. The park is a little gem of a place with a little lake come reservoir in the middle. The trail turns to a stony track with loads of potholes and heads uphill towards the wind turbine and the lake. At the top I came out to a beautiful sunny view over the lake. I had a stop to take in the view and grab a few photos.
After the lake is a very exhilarating downhill hill track with a left-hand bend. I loved just letting the brakes go and flying down it, avoiding all the holes in the ground. It wasn’t long before it flattens out and under a bridge, which is normally sodden but today was relatively dry. After about a mile from the lake I came out on the edge of Newstead village with over 15 miles biked.
From here it's an uphill road out of Newstead and then a mixture of road and jitties to get through Annesley and onto the surrounding tracks of Portland Park which was where the route started. After about another mile through the park I was outside the Kirkby-in-Ashfield train station and back to the start. A total of 18.22 miles completed.
A fitting route for the end of a cool summer, going into the Autumn months. I’m still dreaming the actual summer isn’t yet over but let’s see over the next few weeks…
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