I spent some time on Strava the night before, working out a route that contained enough singletrack to keep us happy. Believe it or not, I even managed to find a few pieces that I have not ridden before!
We started our ride with a cup of delicious coffee from our favorite café, Ride In, after which we pedalled to Jonkershoek and started the great ascend to the Edge of Glory - the upper most part of Never Ending story. We followed this trail all the way to where it linked into the circle route. If you do this without stopping (unlike us) it could be one massive descend of more than 10 minutes! I was really excited to try out the lowest part of the Never Ending trail. Unlike a certain blasé team mate of mine, I didn't have the privilege of riding this trail before it got destroyed in the fire a few years ago. This is actually a good thing as I have nothing to compare it with. At the moment it is obvious that the trail has just been hacked open and Bennet is still working on it, so it was fairly flat and not very exciting, BUT a lot more interesting than riding jeep track!
From there we linked into the Valley trail, which is a small flat xc-like trail. I have done that route once a few years ago and my memory of it was that it was very rocky and pedally and not fun at all. Despite these memories, we decided to try it and lo and behold, we actually enjoyed it. It is amazing how your skill level improves your enjoyment of the trails.
After a short jeep track climb and a stop at the river, we headed up to the "Specialized Epic" trail that would put us on our way to the Groen Huisie. It was the first time that I have used this trail for climbing and it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be: a smooth easy gradual climb.
Running out of time, we were torn between doing all the Firehut trails, or just the bottom two. Having come this far, we however decided that it would be wrong not to attempt all three. This was Madeleine's first time up to the Groen Huisie, and we took the contour path quite easy. Heraclitus said that you cannot step into the same river twice, and I think that quote can be made applicable to mtb trails as well. Especially this top contour path. Every time I ride there the path looks different, more rocks, less rocks, more water, less water, more branches, less branches, you get the idea. This makes it a fun trail to ride as there's always the element of the unexpected.
Just as we started descending on the top Firehut trail, we encountered a snake! My reaction and fear was unfortunately not justified by the size of the snake and just as I started taking out my camera (to Instagram a photo of the snake - obviously), it sailed away. Madeleine went after it with a stick, but it seems that it was more scared of us and we could not find it again. I do not think I have ever gone as fast on that top part as yesterday as I did not want to risk encountering it again!
Madeleine's skills on the switchbacks inspired me to take more risks and trust my riding more and I ended up really enjoying the Firehut trails - even on my hardtail! With arms aching and a hungry tummy, our adventure had come to an end.
What an awesome day spent on the bikes!
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