Blog Post

A Wet Kitchener Trail - Section Ten

Mick C • 25 April 2021

Mountain Biking Sherwood Pines 'Hellfire Alley'

On a cold, wet and muddy Friday evening I headed over to Sherwood Pines in Nottinghamshire to sample its only red route, the Kitchener Trail.

What a difference a bit of rain makes. Normally a flat fast flowing trail with berms and rollers, and a nice mix of rocks and roots. This time a muddy, gritty energy sapping water filled trail. The 13km took over an hour to complete and my brake pads well and truly ruined.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be breaking the root down section by section so you can see how the trail fares in the rain.

This week is the release of section ten video. Check it out above.

Section ten named ‘Hellfire Alley’ begins with a nice flowing section out of the trees through a clearing, followed by a slight up hill back into the forest. Not a steep hill but at the top of the incline you head into a slight straight decline heading back into the denser forest. Then it’s a sweeping left and a straight run through the trees, followed by a couple of sweeping right handers through the trees. The final part is a slightly downhill trail with shimmering turns left and right until you reach the fire road to cross over heading into section eleven.

This evening ‘Hellfire Alley’ was very wet. The straight sections are bumpy, so the water had gathered into many puddles, some as deep as up to the hub. By this time, my brakes were struggling to stop at all and screeching like a cat be strangled. It was getting less fun, but I knew It would get better as the next section is my favourite of all.

Keep an eye out for next week’s look at the Kitchener trail section eleven.