Wheelers Rides
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First Timers Longer Ride : Lea Valley & Epping Forest
17 June 2006
ok, so there weren't many first timers but it was a good un...Camille and Ken reporting
How many ride leaders does it take?
- A who's who of the great and the good, on a longer easy ride to Epping Forest.
 Mr 'Black Knight' Jones, bike today sporting St George Cross flags, was there to greet everyone on the Green Bridge. While every ride is worth getting out of bed for, he had other pressing Wheeler-related activities to attend to, and was just there to remind us about other bike week events, and wave a bakers dozen of us off.
 So we headed north along the tow-path to enjoy 'la dolce vita', not least of all Owen 'Signor Style' Pearson, aptly the THW Co-ordinator. Clad today in a retro, Mondrian-esque jersey and usual cotton cycling cap, his knowledge of cycling is rivalled only by that of football...While the 'breakfast' stop at the Springfield Marina café was more bacon buttie than cappuccino, it lent an appropriate continental café feel.
 Not letting anyone take anything too seriously was Dave 'I wouldn't have gone that way' Tuckwell, winder-upper extraordinaire. Ride-leaders commentary, routes, and indeed anything are apt to get hi-jacked by a deadpan comment or two. Equally good at encouraging as well as puncturing egos, the distinctive 'helmet hair' attests to an awful lot of miles ridden.....
 We were led, as often, by Steve 'Cannonball' Collins - unstoppable on the flat or downhill, but a cannonball uphill.... An easy pace out past Waltham Abbey, and a cheap café lunch, saw him set up for a few trademark downhill runs in Epping Forest. He hasn't got a cyclo-cross bike for nothing - although the rest of us managed on your average city bike, with a bit of sliding around.......a ride is not complete without a few hills.
 The only mechanical incident of the day was courtesy of Matt 'Mr M', a new leader of 'medium' rides for THW. A puncture was rapidly sorted, giving the rest of us a quick breather by a very inviting looking pond. Watch out for more moderate rides over the next few months. There was also talk of rides from 'newbie' leader Neville, aimed, I think, at novices.
 Providing backstop, to ensure no-one got left or lost (useful when the group accidentally split), was Ken 'Cake-stop' Peters, he of the tree-trunk legs. A cyclist can never carry too many snacks, or wear too many layers...... But beware of the cry 'you can do it' coz he'll talk you into cycling a scary number of kilometres. But today a reasonable 35 miles or so, around 50k, back to Mile End Park.
And all chiefs need Indians - Avril, Bruce, Camille, Janice, Mary, & Richard (and Saul part-way) came along for the ride.
Camille
 Saturday evening
Am now back from today's ride and had a good day in very warm sunshine. There were 13 to start but that became 12 by the time we got to Enfield as one guy, who I had not met previously and sadly forgot to get his name, turned back when we got to Picketts Lock. It all seemed a little odd as he appeared to have little idea of where we were going , how far it was and, apparently, most importantly how long we were going to be out. That's life on a ride.
As I stated there were then 12 who are Avril, Camille, Mary and Janice who provided the glamour. See for yourself from the photos. The rough boys were; Steve who was leading, Bruce, Dave, Matt, Neville, Owen, Richard and myself. That is all name checked but special mentions go to Bruce who I was seeing for the first time and Richard who comes from over the border up north, namely, he is a Hackney cyclists. They were both welcome and I hope that they enjoyed the day out in our company. Finally an extra special mention to Keith who may have been the first there but was acting as Steve, in the meet and greet mode, but was not going on the ride as he had preparations to make for Sunday and also some bike maintenance that he had been putting off.
The day was not going to be too long in mileage terms and as the weather was beautiful there were no problems about the tardy start and we did not get going until about 10.30. Once on the road, that should read towpath everything went fairly smoothly and I even had time to pass a message to Steve that Janice fancied a breakfast stop at Springfield Marina. The truth is I also fancied a breakfast stop as I had been up quite early in order to get down from Winchmore Hill where I am once more a resident of suburban London.
Steve introduced us to some parts of Hackney Marshes that I had never ridden along as he kept us right on the eastern edge of the Marshes and impressed me with some knowledge of the local flora and fauna when we stopped on the bridge at the northern end of the marshes to watch a school of pretty large fish that we were informed are carp. More of this Steve and you will rival Barry Mason, O.K. I don't want to put people off you so I will think about who I will compare you with for the next time I am on the road with you.
Once we got to the café at Springfield Marina people were pretty purposeful about getting tea and breakfast but we were all happy to consume food and drink at a leisurely pace in the warm sunshine. A group of women were there and asked me about a cycling picnic that was supposed to come by but I had no knowledge of such and event and neither did Steve so I was unable to assist them and they soon set off on their own.
 Suitably refreshed we also carried on and as I noted at the start of the report it was not too long before the unknown man decided that he had come too far and returned leaving us as twelve and I had not even used the old joke about throwing someone in the canal as it was unlucky to have thirteen on the ride.
Our next port of call was Waltham Abbey where, after leaving the canal, we nearly stopped for a second tea break but the group overruled Steve and we pressed on to Epping Forest, but not before I nipped into a newsagents and bought more energy drinks and my first magnum of the day. I am certain I had another later but the heat may have got to me. Once at High Beech we did have lunch outside the cafe in glorious weather. I must be back in Steve's good books as he even bought my lunch but then I suppose that he does owe me some money from the E2E but I have not yet managed to work out how much he owes me. I almost forgot there was almost an "oh shit moment" at Waltham Cross as I waited for a few tardy souls who were faffing as Steve led the group away and as there were a few turns to be negotiated we were left wondering where the group had gone. Fortunately, Steve had noticed that we were not all there and came back for us. Those who nearly got us lost can consider themselves severely reprimanded but as I am of generous spirit I will not name names this time.
After a leisurely lunch we then rode round the forest, on the wonderful network of well surfaced tracks, and after a short interlude when three of us, myself included, got lost we made it through to Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge where we stopped for another drink. After the temporary blip with Mary, Dave and myself losing the rest of the group, which was mainly my fault as I had stopped to do a minor repair to my mudguard that had been forced off by careless riding over some small branches, we regrouped and sadly waved goodbye to Avril who, I think, was the only novice rider on the day. I think that she deserves a big hand for staying with us for most of the day on a very cute but ancient sit up and beg number with only five gears. I hope that the experiences on the ride has not put her off and that she returns with new confidence in her riding ability and knowledge that she has the stamina for fairly long rides.
 I forgot to mention that Matt was visited by the puncture deity just before we regrouped and was the only person unfortunate enough to suffer any mechanical or other problem on the day. Eleven of us made it to the final stop where beers were consumed. From the pub it was a short ride to Chingford when we split again and Bruce and Richard left to ride home on the roads. Soon after I then left the ride when the remainder took to the canal for the rest of the trip home but as we were by then inside London Borough of Enfield it was much easier for me to go straight back to Winchmore Hill rather than continue back to Mile End.
If anything happened on the last canalside bit I'm sure someone else will fill the group in on those events but for me that was the end of the day and all I need to do is say thanks to all the riders and a specially large hand to Steve for his cool leadership.
I was very good once I got home as I cleaned my bike immediately I returned as I was also going to go out on the following day and I am expected to be on a shiny bike with my CTC friends.
 Oddly enough I am feeling quite tired but it may be that the ride was much harder than expected with so much of it being off-road. There may be some reaction to the ant-histamines I have taken as I have noticed three rather large insect bites on my legs and I always react very badly to them so medication and lotions are being applied almost as I write this.
That is all from me for now but I will edit the photos I took today and post them on Yahoo. As it was a slow ride I had plenty of time to take shots and ended up with about 60 images. The link is here so please do have a look and make any comments that are necessary or, even, ask me if there are any of my shots that you want for your personal collection in which case I will mail you the full sized image rather than the compressed one you see. Photos »
No statistics as I have mislaid my cycle computer but who cares it was a glorious day in magnificent weather. Roll on DD in a couple of weeks.
Ken
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