Blog Post

A Wet Kitchener Trail - Section Twelve

Mick C • 27 April 2021

Mountain Biking Sherwood Pines ‘Lewis Gun Range’

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 twelve video. Check it out above.

Section twelve named ‘Lewis Gun Range’ is average length for the Kitchener Trail of around 800 metres. The start takes you through an open area of Sherwood pines where a fire hit many moons ago. It is re-growing and is covered in floor fern. The trail heads up hill through the open plain until there is a little left turn back into the trees. Then it’s a short snaking downhill before weaving through the forest to the start of a 150-meter climb. At the top it’s a right and then left on to a Forest track to transition to the next section. The track is fast for a few hundred meters and then it darts right. It becomes narrower but still generally straight until crossing the fire road and onto ‘Marchin’ not fightin’.

As you will see on the video the weather had made this section extremely wet with some deep puddles to further grind away the brake pads. It isn’t the most favourable of sections but a good transition to the last few interesting sections of the Kitchener trail.

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