First night ride - tyres that go bump in the night

PART TWO

There is an open field to my left with thick tree cover staying on the
right. This is where the easier stuff begins, a flat and wide road with
a few big stones and bricks buried in at odd angles. The night
situation still makes things interesting by my light faintly
illuminating those obstacles in the nick of time, dodging some and
riding over some others. Somehow I miss a loose stone and another UPD
occurs, as I look into the field I suddenly discover I'm not alone, a
couple of cows are standing with their left sides to me and heads
facing towards my eyes, watching like sentinels.

There's another wooden barrier with another quick ridearound that I
suspect has more churn, and yet again I get flung off. There are orange
spotlights fainly illuminating the cottage walls but no lights from
inside windows are apparent. As I continue to ride along the track I
quickly adjust the angle of my headlight with a loud click, my lit-up
glove passing in front of my eyes blinding me for a second or two. As I
reach the crossroads the moonlight increases and I catch sight of
something bright buried in the hedge edge, it turns out to be the
reflection of a car registration plate that isn't attached to a car.

At the crossroads I turn my headlight completely off for a minute or
two and look around me, it's not often that I'm alone in the dark in
the middle of apparent nowhere. If I didn't have a tyre to rotate I
wouldn't need any light at all for this trek, the wispy clouds have
dispersed leaving me with nature's worldwide streetlamp beaming amongst
the constellations against the deep blue sky.

I switch on the light again and remount for my least favourite part of
the ride, the two thirds of a mile of rough track leading uphill, and
uphill. Only on a few recent occasions have I managed to ride this in
one go, and that's during the daytime. I discover that thanks to the
darkness I've cautiously put more torque on the pedals all along, and
my legs begin to burn up much sooner than expected. After a few
cranking minutes that feel like hours, the "nearly there" point is the
thicker tree cover leading out to the opening with the steepest
gradient, but thanks to my extra torque combined with the wind spread
damp stones my legs simply run out of power, so I have to come off.

I'm surprised to see the fourth wooden barrier that signals the
steepest gradient has been left open. A couple of remount attempts
fail, and a few more metres of this rough gradient seems too much. I
dismount and walk past the barrier into the big triangle opening, again
the flood of moonlight makes me switch off my own light, leaving only a
distant pair of yellow and orange illuminated windows from the third
cottage somewhere to my right. An owl hoots as I push the muni up the
rough hill, and as the track levels out I finally turn the light back
on for the final section with the thickest tree cover. Thanks to the
moonlight disappearing I don't see that the fifth wooden barrier is
also open until the very last minute, somehow I manage to power through
several muddy puddles on the junction and ride around the final barrier
to the home straight.

It's still only me and my light on the final tarmac path, which seems
to appear slightly more debrised than usual and definitely feels like
it's not that super smooth as it usually is. A faint rectangle of white
slab appears in my light, the first of the unnecessary speed bumps that
appear yellow in the daytime which are no problem to get over. As I
pass the viewpoint sign I dismount, click the light off and divert to
the hill viewpoint on the left for another night view. There aren't
that many city lights from this angle but the occasional white and red
headlights tracing the path of the A24 can be seen, and even a fast
flashing blue spot from some kind of emergency vehicle.

Just when I think about how many X-files episodes I've seen that are
set in dark woods, the silence is shattered by a howling hound and
rattling wood branches coming somewhere from my left. It must have been
the Norbury Park mansion garden, except it sounded a lot closer. I try
not to feel scared as I make my way back into the dark wood cover,
click my light on and continue on the dark tree-tunnelled tarmac. Light
reflections catch my eye every now and then on either side, caused by
the bright exposed wood of recently chopped logs. I never see the
subtly increasing downhill gradient but I gradually but unexpectedly
feel it more and more. The second bright speed bump is expected though,
and again no problems getting over it.

I keep a look out for the eventual path branching on the right leading
back to the car park, several times after the third speed bump I think
I'm about to see it but I don't. Eventually I do at the last minute,
the smooth downhill gradient suddenly becoming an uphill bumpy one. I
make it to the top and the very last section, and in the dimness of my
little light I seem to have lost track on where the edges of the path
are. This section has very subtle ups and downs but again I never see
them, only feel them at the last minute and have a slight feeling of
being out of control.

I know that the descent back to the car park is a very short technical
downhill section, but it seems I won't be able to see when the gradient
suddenly changes at that point and for some reason it seems too risky
to me to attempt it. I dismount and expect to walk down that gradient
in about ten seconds time, then I expect it for the next ten seconds,
and again, and again. Finally after a minute I come across it, and plod
down back to the car park, the white reflecting circles of the hubcaps
providing a beacon to welcome me home.

My watch reads 22:35, so my daytime 4-mile ride of 35 minutes became a
night ride/walk/UPDathon of about 45. In the darkness I feel clumsy as
it seems to take longer to find my car keys and put everything away,
checking at least twice before I drive away that I haven't left
anything beside or behind the car, or on the roof. The drive back is
uneventful, no deers to run down but two pinhead eyes of a domestic cat
peering out of the bushes.


For those still reading, it was my first ever night ride with a piddly
3 LED head-torch. Despite the familiarity of the route there were at
least ten UPDs on a circuit that usually only has one or two, with
gradients that either tire me or plummet my confidence, leaving me feel
somewhat clumsy. I don't think there'll be another night ride by me
just yet, at least not until either the conditions dry up a bit, or I
get some more powerful lighting.


--
gkmac

"It's a marvellous thing to see, someone in full flight on the
unicycle." - Stuart Maconie, Radio 2
"Oh no! Both my toes have gone numb!" - Joe Hodges
"You also met me gk! I was the one eating the sandwich!" - Adam Gayne
"Act your tyre pressure, not your age." - rob.northcott
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