Carry on regardless...

[Wades]

You know that moment when you've reached the point of no return but are too bloody minded/ stupid to turn back?

Had that moment tonight riding down a horribly overgrown bridleway. Amongst its less endearing features were a delightfully churned up (and now solid) mud surface that would give the moon a run for its money, constant face and arm level brambles, literal walls of nettles and swarms of flies that made me wonder if the area was being smited by the Almighty.

I could have turned back but carried on anyway thinking it must surely improve... It was then I prompty hit some unseen obstacle and put my foot straight down a hoof hole deep enough to pitch me into the hedge, tangled up in the bike and cursing my own idiocy.

I know this is hardly a completely disastrous tale of woe but the thing is this isn't the first (and won't be the last) time I've committed such a folly. Please ladies and gents reasure me I'm not alone in this... I'd love therefore to hear your tales of woe whilst I sit scratching the alarming rashes that have formed on my arms and legs.

 

[ScotiaLass]

You know that moment when you've reached the point of no return but are too bloody minded/ stupid to turn back?

Had that moment tonight riding down a horribly overgrown bridleway. Amongst its less endearing features were a delightfully churned up (and now solid) mud surface that would give the moon a run for its money, constant face and arm level brambles, literal walls of nettles and swarms of flies that made me wonder if the area was being smited by the Almighty.

I could have turned back but carried on anyway thinking it must surely improve... It was then I prompty hit some unseen obstacle and put my foot straight down a hoof hole deep enough to pitch me into the hedge, tangled up in the bike and cursing my own idiocy.

I know this is hardly a completely disastrous tale of woe but the thing is this isn't the first (and won't be the last) time I've committed such a folly. Please ladies and gents reasure me I'm not alone in this... I'd love therefore to hear your tales of woe whilst I sit scratching the alarming rashes that have formed on my arms and legs.

I did this only last week.
I continued down a similar route as you did, whilst thinking, oh this has got to improve. It didn't!
It was overgrown and I got hit in the face several times with eye level bushes etc. Despite closing my eyes, (I don't know why, I had glasses on!)
I stayed on the bike, but had to rather unceremoniously turn around whilst straddled across the MTB, and taking baby steps.
I managed to get a thorn lodged in my leg too and missed the deer that leapt out in front of me....I don't know who got more of a shock!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Ha ha, I chicken out well before the point of no return, but well done to you for persevering.
Was it worth it?

 

[Wades]

@ScotiaLass Owwwwww... I did plenty of the baby steps thing too! Not a good look...

@Pat "5mph" Not really lol! :-)

 

[drummerbod]

I'm with you two @Wades & @ScotiaLass - no turning back now... it quite often has it's rewards.

 

[ScotiaLass]

@ScotiaLass Owwwwww... I did plenty of the baby steps thing too! Not a good look...

@Pat "5mph" Not really lol! :-)

Not when you're trying to look like you know where you're going!

 

[coffeejo]

Cycled along a long road that was ankle deep in liquid cow muck. Couldn't turn round as it was too narrow to do so without stopping and putting a foot down. Made it through, bike plastered. The road surface then deteriorated - you know when they scrape back the tarmac to resurface it? It was like that but hadn't been resurfaced and was also full of potholes, weeds and rubbish. The point of no return was passed just inches into the cow poo.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Last March I went to Switzerland for a spot of cycling.( MTb and Road) I cycled up Mt Piz Nair on my MTB with is around 3,00 mtr above sea level St mMoritz is around 1,800 so had a 1,200 of elevation to go up. I ended up racing two locals from the bottom, one gave up halfway up. When I got to the top I had a chat with the other guy who advised me to take the flow trail down. I had seen on the map a trail that took me right back to my chalet. Local told me too much snow I probably wouldnt make it.
But what did dumb ass here do. I carried on down the trail covered in rocks and snow. Soon I was knackered from constantly pulling the front wheel up to get over rocks and the concentration need in the conditions ( constant slipping because of the snow) was wearing.
There was the track of another bike in front of me so not too bothered. Well a few miles in the track disapeared because of the snow getting deeper so I just followed the tyre track, then that disapeared as well. So long story short didnt want to track back a few miles , I looked at the map figured out where I needed to go and just walked the bike down through the snow sometimes disapearing up to my chest in snow. At last I was nearly getting out of the snowline and found the track again and two MTBérs coming up. I told them that it was not a good idea but they decided if a old fart like me could make it so could they. Looking back it was really stupid it took me 3 hours to get down out of the snowline and most of the time I hadn't a clue what was under the snow.

 

[nickyboy]

Went down a long, steep, tarmacked hill in wet 'orrible conditions. It then turned into a steep, cobbled single track. I could have turned around and cycled back up the hill. Or I could have got off and walked down the cobbled single track. Or I could have done what I did which was to keep going and hope for the best. Except it wasn't the best. After about 20m the front wheel went from under me and down I went.

Cuts and bruises but a knackered brake/shifter meant a ride to the nearest LBS in the big ring only with no back brake.

 

[anothersam]

You know that moment when you've reached the point of no return but are too bloody minded/ stupid to turn back?

Hit that point a number of years ago.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Walking in Snowden, some friends and I were making our own trails through a minor forest. Steep hill, as you would expect, and the trail became a crawl as we made our way through dense pine, then almost a full on commando crawl.

We were getting scratched and stabbed everywhere, with my mate at the front constantly calling out "honestly, this is the best way".

We had gone so far down the hill, the thought of turning round and going back through the same stuff, in reverse, with more effort was inconceivable - however we reached the point where it simply wasn't passable anymore.

By now, everyone was bleeding slightly from minor scratches - except one friend at the back who was only wearing shorts, who looked like he had decided to participate in Ill advised experiments to determine the actual state of Schrodingers cat, and found that a cat in a box is neither alive nor dead, merely "very p**ssed off". He was shredded.

With no other choice, we turned round to drag ourselves back upwards. I decided to branch out left a little, to see if the dense pine got any better.

About 20 metres later I exited into clear ground, lined with nothing more dangerous than dead wood where the trees had all been felled at some point in the past.

Friend who had been leading the 'best ' way then got chased the rest of the way by angry "shredded cat friend".

And yes, we could also have just stayed on the paths, but it all seemed like such a good idea at the time.

 

[summerdays]

I once decided to take a short cut along a biddleway in high summer ... really hot, with a friend on his road bike but he said that was fine. Basically it didn't cut off the corner (at most half a mile of saving), and ended up being a several mile diversion along briddleways with a stream running through it so unlike the solid ground everywhere else baked hard, this was up to our ankles in deep mud and grit. We ended up climbing much higher than we needed to too. When we finally reached my house I had to clean off his rims and brakes of all the grit! He went home via the roads.

I've passed the other end of that path on a walk and know not to go that way, if it was that bad in high summer who knows what it would be like in the middle of winter.

 

[HarryTheDog]

couple of photos concerning my earlier post. 1st picture This is coming out of the snowline.Note the river, after the hut you actually have to cycle down the river for a bit, marvelous fun NOT!. 2nd picture was on the west side of the mountain near the top , snow did not look too bad at all. When I got to the east side thats where all the deep snow was.

 

[Globalti]

One of those nevés could easily slump off and carry you away.... this is how accidents happen in mountains.

We've all done it... I still have nightmares about the time when, in 1980, I was working for Ramblers Holidays in the French Alps taking groups of walkers out. It must have been early June and there was still lots of snow around so I chose a small group of the fittest walkers, borrowed some ice axes and we set off to be the first group to do the 2-day walk over the mountains to Chamonix, the rest of the group coming round by bus to meet us. We spent a night in a refuge and had lots of fun then got up for an Alpine start and headed up towards the Col du Brévent, opposite Mont Blanc. At the bottom of the old snow I gave them all a quick lesson in how to self-arrest with an axe and up we went, on increasingly icy sculpted snow where we should also have had crampons. By the time we reached the col we were fairly committed; I should have had the humility to call it off, walk out down the valley and get a taxi round to Chamonix. Heading down the south-facing side into Chamonix valley we soon found ourselves floundering in deep snow with a rising sense of dread. A woman in the group had less blind faith in my leadership and told me firmly that we were getting into danger and at last I saw sense. We climbed back up and walked on easy frozen snow to the summit of the Brévent where, thank God, the cable car was running and took us safely down into Chamonix. At the age of 24 I didn't have enough humility and I certainly lacked Alpine experience; I could have killed the entire group that day.

*shudders*

 

[fimm]

... one friend ... who looked like he had decided to participate in ill advised experiments to determine the actual state of Schrodingers cat, and found that a cat in a box is neither alive not dead, merely "very p**ssed off".

I have to quote this because just hitting "like" isn't enough to display my appreciation of its wonderfulness....