Hamsterley Forest

Whilst back in the UK for the Christmas Holiday, my cousin asked me if I wanted to squeeze in a ride out on the mountain bikes.  Having been many months since I last rode in England I jumped at the chance.  His suggested destination was Hamsterley Forest, a mountain biking mecca in the North East of England boasting all kinds of trails from dedicated downhill competition routes to XC trails with varying levels of difficulty.

We chose December the 23rd as the day to ride, and the weather was pretty bad with heavy rain and strong winds, thankfully the trails are set in the forest which is enclosed within a valley, so once we'd started the ride there was only the wet weather to contend with.

With conditions far from perfect we decided to mainly stick to the red route doing a few laps of some sweet singletrack downhill sections.

Weather aside the only other downside was that I managed to take a fall and mess up my knee.  An unknown bike, an early jump and a little over confidence led me to lose my balance and take a spill.  With all the mud and dirt the wound got pretty dirty and required a doctors visit the next day along with a course of antibiotics...lesson learned, more caution needed on a new bike!