Blog Post

Kitchener Trail in the Rain

Mick C • 15 April 2021

Sherwood Pines 'Red Route'

It's not often I get a free evening to get out for a long ride...but Friday was my opportunity. My plan was to head over to Sherwood Pines and do a couple of laps of the Kitchener Trail.

The Kitchener Trailis the local 'red route' named after Lord Kitchener the famous General of WW1. It flows through Sherwood Pines linking broadleaf and pine woodland with Heathland and clear fell sites. The trail is virtually 100% single track, the only time your wheels will hit forest road is when you cross one to hit the next section.

What the area may lack in elevation, the trail builders try to keep you flowing with berms and rollers and a nice mix of rocks and roots that give the trail its red grading. At 13km long, it is fast and a challenge to ride at differing times of the year.

Friday evening threw up a totally new challenge I'd not been presented with before on the route. Being a free night, I should've expected things wouldn't go to plan. The weather decided to be a pain by opening the heavens and tipping a bucket from the sky. I can undoubtedly say the ground was fully saturated.

The first section was quite nice as the rain seemed to be running off the track with only a few puddles to negotiate. It's generally a lovely fast section with some small berms switching you left and right before hitting the final uphill section to take you across the Pines entrance road.

The second sectionhadn't been impacted too much by the rain either. More of a straight section through the trees on the edge of Sherwood Pines allowed the rain to be absorbed. However, from section three onwards there are a lot of rollers and the water certainly collected in them. Often the puddles where deep enough to cover my bottom bracket, certainly deep enough to wet my feet. It's fun to get wet and muddy initially, but after a few miles the fun does wear thin.

By the halfway point my brakes were shot. Sounding like metal on metal I had to be careful of my speed to compensate. Having taken the pads out since you can see how the water and grit had affected them.

After passing the bike park and taking a right along the edge of the woods nearest to Clipstone village I had a navigation nightmare, through no fault of my own. When leaving an ascent, I took the red arrow pointing right and continued along the trail. I hit a fire road and there were no further red signs. It very quickly became apparent that I had gone wrong somewhere. I headed back to the last red sign and chose a different track. Again, after number of minutes it became clear there were no red signs. So, for the third time I returned to the last sign. Having investigated a little further I found a fallen post with a red arrow pointing straight on. I positioned it in several ways to see what the possibilities were and eventually worked out which was the correct track. I was on the track for quite a while and was doubting my decision before eventually seeing the next sign. So, if you come across a fallen sign simply take it as a chicane go right and straight left, heading in the same direction.

The final part of the trail heading back to the trail centre was probably the worst. By this point I was cold, wet and really had no brakes so I can't honestly say if it was the route or the circumstances that made it the worst. All I can confirm is there were still deep puddles along the way.

I love the red Kitchener trailin Sherwood pines, but I must say on this occasion I was ready to get home. Over the next few weeks look out for my experience summarised in a couple of videos. I'm sure they'll give you a feel for my experience but also provide some visual detail on what the trail looks like in the pouring rain.