With the summer fast approaching we thought it was time to start clearing our routes and looking at new options up on our Wellington site. The site has been used for the last 10 years or so with some well established tracks and trails; these cover a wide range of surfaces from Deep Leaf mulch climbs through to wet soggy sandy and also clay bomb holes with the old hop across a bank and some nice descents down towards the ponds. The site varies from our Bampton location in that it’s very compact being spread over two main areas with limited road work in between them.

The team met on Saturday around lunchtime. After a quick decision on where to base our camp for the evening we set off with 3 vehicles. The aim was to open 3 new tracks down on the Moor area plus we had the original tracks to reopen after the recent felling work there. As always the winter winds and rain had played havoc on the site giving us plenty to do but also providing plenty of driving challenges for the guys that joined us for the weekend.

With a fantastic amount of tree felling having taken place down on the Moor we were able to explore parts of the site that had formerly just been impossible to access. This added in some new short but steep climbs in the region of the newly opened up ponds, Plus just above it a little side slope just to test the nerve of everybody coming. This will add a greater variety to the route and also spice things up a little for the regulars. The new climbs (and descents) taken a slightly different driving style to what most expect, the ground is not very forgiving and certainly sucks the power from the Tdi’s in our group.

Before we knew it the majority of the afternoon had disappeared it was approaching 7 o’clock and time to make camp. Tony Dunstone and his son Toby had joined us for the evening and we took them out on one final drive just to show them the new routes and to get their first impressions. With big smiles from them all-round we knew he had it right.

Sunday morning saw us up on the Island. The first main part was just as we had left it last November, in some places it was just as wet too! Well there were some changes ‘the odd poacher’ who we encouraged to get on his way who we had found lurking around! He definitely wasn’t there in Nov, and he defiantly wasn’t expecting us to turn up! We spent the best part of the morning clearing the brash from the original routes and re-opening some of the older routes we had bypassed last season. Again there was plenty of driving to keep the team occupied and many hands made light work of what had to be done.

The second part of the Island, had changed a great deal, probably 10% of the pine was now left standing with a fair amount of brash down too. We uncovered and proved the main descent/climbs but left other sections as the loggers are due to come back and it will be case of take it as we find it on this final little section.

All in all a great weekend, two reopened older routes on the Island, 3 new routes on the Moor including one new complete section and one old route (last used 3-4years ago) reopened. A fair bit of brash, tree, soil removed and a fair bit of driving/wheel spinning by the team. Well done guys and that’s us all set for the first one on 10 Ju 18. Contact us if you would like a space.