Blog Post

A Wet Kitchener Trail - Section Two

Mick C • 17 April 2021

Mountain Biking Sherwood Pines

On a cold, wet and muddy Friday evening I headed over to Sherwood Pinesin 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 two’s video. Check it out above.

From the first section of the trail, named ‘between the lines’, you cross the Sherwood Pinesentrance road to start section two ‘Flying Pig’. The first few metres run parallel with the entrance road before you dip left into the trees. Like section one it generally flows downhill starting with snaking singletrack through the surrounding bramble and trees. The end of the section is near when you hit a straight section and the Forest path appears on the left.

It is double the length of section one but still under 1km long. The rain had taken its toll here as the track has deeper divots to collect water in creating bigger puddles to avoid or trudge through. As it isn’t particularly fast my glasses started to mist from the cold rain and mud on the outside and my hot forehead on the inside.

Section two is nothing to shout home about. After the flow of section one it doesn’t feel as exciting, but I’m sure on a long Sunday ride you would jump at it being part of the route.

The sections ends as you switchback left onto the Forest track ready to enter section three ‘over the top’.

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