On Saturday 666_pack and i decided to take a different route to meet up with the guys for the summit. As it was are first trip since the MMM in September due to baby and work commitments, we thought we’d start the year with a hard one.
So we decided on biking in from Newcastle sticking to off road trails as much as possible. We parked up in Donard wood got are bikes ready took a swig of the auld trusty tonic, and off we went. We took the ranger trail up past the YMCA and kept gaining height ever so slightly. Then we started feeling the effects of 4 months of being lazy and to much food and beer over xmas Cry
So we pulled in and considered bailing out. But not wanting to fail on our first trip of the year with continued with the pain. We finally got out of the trees and could see tollymore forest at the top of another hill. So we kept moving having to push the bike s now as the trail was like a small river.
We got to the top and found the single track pointed out to me by suspectmonkey, This lifted or spirits flat and down hill, we made up a lot of ground here. We then came across a style and hoped over and into tollymore. Then came a monster of a down hill section. Once i got over the fear of going so fast i began to enjoy it.
We wanted to get out of tollymore before it got dark so we headed for the mountain centre and onto the road to Meelmore lodge. We stopped here and got a break and let some of or gear dry out. Trying to get in touch with guys on the summit to confirm the location of camp, before we head back out in the rough weather.
We found out that camp had been moved to a lower site so we adjusted or route and headed back out.
Following the Mourne way for while we spotted 3 head torches. They seemed to be signaling us, so we started to head toward them. Thinking that some of the guys we’re bailing from the higher camp and we coun’t get a phone signal at that time to confirm.
We lost sight of the 3 hikers and finally got through to the camp.It wasn’t any of or guys. But now we we’re off are route the weather was terrible. We couldn’t ride the bike much we kept coming off when we pushed the bike we fell over. We pushed on for about another mile and finally came to the river and path that would lead us to the saddle were the guys had pitched.
Both of us were busted it was to dangerous with bike to continue upwards, so we retreated crossed a farm onto the road and back to Meelmore lodge. We we’re drying off in the toilets when we decided to bivvy in the toilets of the lodge through the tarp on the ground roll mats down pipedreams out and crack open the Buckfast Grin By this stage we had been cycling in the shitty weather for almost 7 hours, its was a hard day but still enjoyed it Grin
