The Cotswold Foss Way Trail to Bath

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The Foss Way was a Roman Road and much of it runs straight unless forced by hills and rivers to briefly twist and turn, before again running straight and true.

Somewhere, North of Cirencester it is a busy road - but not the byway below Kemble Airfield.

Last Saturday I and Dave caught the mornings first train too Kemble just one stop from Stroud. So at 7am we enter a hedge and tree lined Byway that with two river crossings was to form the major part of our ride into Bath.

The weather was ideal with the occasional length of tarmaced lane being the only places we saw other traffic. When faced with a choice in trail we diligently kept going straight ahead. After diving under the M4 motorway, it became tarmac lanes weaving up and down a more hilly terrain then at about 10.30am we saw Bath off to the West pouring down the sides of the escarpment.

Soon we came to a layby on our right, with the entrance to a common which gave us an exhilerating bridleway then small lane downhill that took us smilling widely and steeply to Batheaston, the River, the toll bridge, Bathampton, the pub on the canal, two pints with some chatty lady mountain bikers and the canal path into Bath itself for 12ish. Later we and our bikes caught the train back via Swindon to Stroud.

A good, different and easy fun 30 mile ride, with the choice of fording rivers or not - Dave still got wet!

So, a QUAFF weekend of unique & amazingly beautiful Bashes is proposed for October!

Arriving Friday at Campsite please, as very early start then breakfast and restart on Saturday - local bashers might choose to camp with us to enjoy a drink, or meet us for breakfast at the all-night transport cafe at 6.30-7.00 or park-up in main car park at Kemble Station 8.00 for 8.30am when QUAFF sedately burping & groaning ride-by-on-road.

We then ride an easy 30 miles offroad on the The Foss Way into Bath where after lunch and more local culture than normal, the surviving adventurous Bashers can return back by mountain bike or by rail in shifts with different Hares to Kemble Station for an early evening pub bash back to campsite.... showers, an early night (me)or a route march/taxi too & from the pub with Blow!

Then the wonderful hard riding Cotswold Trail we did last year, starting from the campsite car park at 9.30 for a 10am On On... so we can bash the complete trail this time with a different pub stop part the way around at midday!

Blow, please link this posting to your next QUAFF newsletter & the Nash Bash 2010 web-site...

Beer n Bikes
On On
P.

Sunday Shiggy...

Three of the girls in our cycling club set a trail around Braunston-in-Rutland, lovely scenery, weather kept off, great pub afterwards... brilliant company, but only one problem... MUD, glorious mud...

We end up walking a good fifth of the trail due to the totally water logged fields.

Brilliant to catch up with everyone after the New Year...

On On...

More Sherwood...

Had another great ride around Sherwood last Saturday, doing loads of single track though the woods, and this time we found the freestyle area, which we only touched on briefly, but will definately be going back to at some point.

It's amazing the amount of balance you require when going through the trees at 2 MPH, must admit you don't very far at that speed either...

Great day, also met two nice chaps, that have now joined the Q.U.A.F.F...

Blogging is this era's diary, a very public one........

To Blog, is for me a way of expressing your feelings and thoughts that open a window to your soul. For others, it's somewhere to entertain the World, further a viewpoint or special interest. It is a medium that can be addictive and restorative for the Blogger. Who I think should try to be honest, readable and blog with style.

Thank you for inviting me to share this blog and post weekly to it on social Mountain Biking, long QUAFF's and Events. But not long cold solo rides!

I recommend Northern sections of the Lon Las Cymru trail as a supported Long Quaff on Mountain Bikes, including selected red or black trail stages. Restricting it to Mad Bastards and geographically to Snowdonia plus the Cambrian Mountains in the month of May!

Nash Bash 2010

The arduous job of organizing a 100+ person event starts in earnest this month...

The event is still some 19 months away, but getting things organized is becoming a full time job, for me at least...

My brain is constantly on the go, thinking about this, that and the other. Cost, mechandise, arranging meetings... it's none stop, and that's the easy tasks...

We are filling up quite fast now, and might actually have to limit the entry due to the trail sizes, etc, which is actually a disappointment, as we hoped that the more the merrier!!!

Will have to organize a diary of events for the web page, to show people what is happening, etc...

More later...

Mad Bastards Weekend...

Well we were driven by the excitement of our trip to the Marin Train to organize a weekend event for the die hards, the lunatics amongst us, the ones who live life to the full... THE MAD BASTARDS...

I think as a rule, you can't class yourself as a real MB unless you have appeared in a copy of MBR readers photos!!! This weekend should incorporate a lot of opportunities for such press coverage...

We are planning to visit the sleepy village of Coed Y Brennin, early May to see if we can successfully navigate around the 'BEAST' trail, and survive...

This will be a bit of a tester for a lot of us!!!

Sherwood Forest

It's totally amazing how you feel as you dash through the trees in a forest. You don't have to bomb down a hill at break neck speeds to get a buzz out of cycling, just peddling fast through the tree lined alleys of Sherwood Forest was a morning to remember.

Arrived early on Saturday, to find what I thought to be a free Nottingham council owned site, was actually a forestry commission, pay for privilege. Having not taking any money with me, I had to hard tail it out of there sharpish, and find a suitable alternative start point.

They have worked hard on transforming the tracks at Sherwood, and when completed will be a bigger adventure to ride in...

I find it hard cycling on my own, almost boring, which detracts from the thrill of actually being there, almost like to want to share your experience with someone else...

I was there to do a GPS recce of the area for a big event we are holding in 2010, only managed 6 miles, in the two hours I spent there, which make up about 15% or more... got plenty of time to do the rest... more fun coming!!!