Had another good ride on Saturday from Nirvana. I didn't feel great cycling over to Westcott and had it in my mind that I'd just say hello to a few folk then pootle home via Leith Hill (I wanted to go past the Coldharbour bonfire site and see if there was any wood there for the traditional Sunday morning Bonfire building I was due to do the following morning).
However, as people gathered under the tree on the green opposite Nirvana it was apparent my ride leading abilities were in demand so I was persuaded to lead out at least for a while.There were 9 of us as we set off - regulars such as Dave, Leo, Simon, Brian, Matt, Laura and myself along with 2 faces I don't remember seeing before.
Well, as stated I wanted to go via Leith hill so off we all went setting a course in that direction. We went via Wootton then Wolvens Lane before we started to twist and wind our way around the hugh choice of singletrack thats on offer. I was glad to see a big pile of palletts up by the bonfire site so new my Sunday morning would be busy and having seen this we continued on our way.
| By the time we reached Leith Hill Tower well over 15 miles had been covered (including Summer Lightning, Crooked Furrow, Su Egypt, Chocolate Jesus to name just a few) and a drink and cake were well deserved. | |||||
| From here we had all ready lost one rider and Simon decided to head for home which left 7 of us. It was decided to head on over to the shop at Peaslake so it was with this in mind we rode away from the tower. | |||||
| Having completed most of Windy Willow we came out on Caspers and waited to re-group. Now Caspers is a trail I know from when I 1st started biking well over 20 years ago. I remember a friend showing it to me and it was the sweetest piece of singletrack I had ever ridden. At this time Mountain Biking was in its infancy and Nirvana Cycles was still a few years away from existing. The trail now is still good but to be honest is a shadow of what it was in its prime all those years ago. | |||||
| Anyway, I mention this because I always wondered where the name Caspers came from, its the oldest named trail I know and I had assumed it was about ghosts or something. Well, on the ride today as said before was someone I hadn't met before and whilst re-grouping I heard someone else call this fellow Casper - could this be the the person the trail was named after, surely not as he looked far to young. But, on enquireing, the storey came out. It was indeed the Casper whose name the trail bears. It would seem that 21years ago as a 10 year old he had shown the trail to a group of local riders who then named it after him, it just so happened that this group had included Simon who a few years later went on to open Nirvana. | |||||
| Well I never, a piece of local biking history resolved for me at least. We headed down the last section of Caspers then over to Friday Street via Wildwood. From here we sped on over to Abinger Common then Holmbury St Mary. I was starting to tire now, Laura had headed off home having had enough for her little legs today and Casper and me had a chat while assending to the summit of Holmbury. After a rest we had a blast around Park Life which is riding so well at the moment and then split. I decided to head home via a fast desent to Forest Green and then Tarmac back home. The others went down to Peaslake shop for more refreshments before heading back from there. | |||||
| Decent ride and a mystery sorted - great stuff. | |||||
