My, how it's changed!!

I'm finally back in the woods!! Whoop!

Took a run up Penhydd (Afan Argoed) on Thursday. It was a real pleasure/pain thing. By the time I reached "To the Top 2" I had to check someone hadn't performed open heart surgery on me!! Somehow, by the time I reached "Desolation" I'd recovered a little and was able to enjoy my first experience of Afan's man made downhill singletrack. It was a real blast! In my day 80% of the riding we did in Afan was on fire roads. Singletrack was just footpaths that happened to be there, they weren't built for us MTBers. I've got to say it's a huge improvement on a fab MTBing environment.

Of course, when I took the photo I was already enjoying myself, I had no idea the best was yet to come! "Side Winder" and "Hidden Valley" are particularly awesome. Hidden Valley not least because it has those lairy drops to the side. I should have enjoyed "Argoed" and "Dead Sheep Gultch" but by then I was starting to hang on for dear life because I was tiring!! I nearly came a right SPD induced cropper on "Rocky Rebellion" nearly falling headlong down a 6 foot drop onto rocks when I came to sudden stop and didn't get my appropriate foot out quick enough.

Argoed finally killed my ailing Panaracer Smoke - the inner tube's bulging out the side like a pregnant cow!!

I feel re-born! Drove home on a cloud!