Winter is upon us

On saturday the forecast for sunday said rain during the night then showers in the day so plans were made to do walna scar and possibly parkamoor. In the morning I packed the car in heavy rain, Johnnie called with reservations, we decided on a course of MTFU. Before I set off I had a quick recheck of the forecast, it now said heavy/torrential rain....ah, change of plan. Probably a lucky escape there, I had visions of mountain marathon video footage from the other year, monsoon, mountain rescue, news crews calling the participants idiots. Anyway we met up at rivi later for a more tame ride. Took the SS, not ridden it for a while and it showed, my slow speed thrutch technique needs a bit of a brush up. The rain was on hold but there was a river running down AICR, riding wasn't too bad, we stuck to decent surfaced trails and my clothing was doing a good job of keeping me warm and dry, when I mentioned this Si and Johnnie threatened to throw me in a reservoir. Rivi, wildes matchmoor, winterhill, not a bad short route, finished with 2 lads and wildes. I hit 2lads pretty quick, was making decent time down it, got to the drop offs and was doing OK, until the last, biggest one, went a little squirelly on the landing, veered right, into the side of the gully, a tank slapper moment concluded with a proper OTB at speed. Jumped up quick and got going before the lads caught up but at the bottom owned up to the crash, think both of them had had "moments" too. 2nd big crash on this bike in 12months, got to remember this bike is not as forgiving at speed as my others. We got back to cars wet through, a paltry 11miles, good laugh tho. Plenty of people out despite the weather, good to see.