Surrey Hills in the snow
I’m still trying to get a ride in each weekend at the moment and drag myself out of bed on a Sunday. It’s obviously even harder when it’s snowing as it was this last weekend. However there’s something quite nice about riding in the forest when all around is white. It kind of feels a little silly too.
It wasn’t too bad on the roads when I left but I did have to chisel the ice off the van at first. My water bottle was frozen in the van too which kind of ruined my theory to Emma that it’s “warm enough to sleep in”, maybe some insulation in there first. By the time I’d got to Matt’s in Streatham it had started snowing harder and the side roads were all white and un-touched by car tracks.
Having made it safely to Peaslake I proceeded to make a brew, after spinning the van around on the empty icy car park first of course. I made a nice big pot of coffee and some hot milk to warm us up. The only problem was the lack of mugs, so we went French style and drank from bowls.
We were entertained by two Spaniels running around enjoying the snow whilst we finished our coffee and sorted the bikes. We then headed out along the usual route to find a few trails and were greeted with this wonderful scene.
Trying to get the hang of riding in the snow was a little harder than it looked at first. Some areas just sapped your strength and others were simply a cover for the boggy mess that lay beneath. I fell off a fair few times and also spent a large portion of the ride trying to clear ice from my cleats and clip back in.
Steep little roll ins that we’d normally pop down no problem suddenly became something to think about with this little one providing plenty of entertainment. There’s just no way to see the little ruts and roots that you’d normally avoid. Best course of action seem to be point it down hill and see what happens.
Even though it was freezing and we had snow in our eyes there was still time for a group shot. Unfortunately no view to be had though. The ride to the top of the reservoir on the road was nicer than usual as they’d closed the road. It was quite pleasant without all the 4x4s trying to squeeze past.
After this we headed down to Yog and Dog and then nipped back to ride down Barrys and back to the van. Barrys wasn’t exactly fast but it was rideable although I did have a few sketchy moments in the corners.
And a rare shot of me on the bike was also taken. The rest of Matt’s shots are on his Flickr.
On the way back one of the roads was really icy. I tried to turn the corner at about 20mph but just started sliding, fortunately I could turn into it and drive straight on where there was another road. Another guy wasn’t so lucky as he’d been going a little faster and had clipped a sign and ended up in the verge. We pulled him out with a rope and carried on back to London.
Superb ride and although we didn’t cover much ground in the end, about 12 miles, it was great to be out in the snow and with also hardly a soul around. Hopefully more of the same next year.