Aston Hill is the self-titled home of the South's premiere Mountain Bike Area located near Wendover in Buckinghamshire. Set in over 100 acres of forestry commission land it boasts 4 Downhill (DH) courses, a
4X course, and a 5mile Cross Country (XC) trail. Although entry is £5 a day, facilities are limited to a secure car park, phone-box style portaloo and a mobile burger van. Not quite up to the standard set by
Chase Trails (which is free!)
Being a Hardtail owner, I’d come for the XC trail, the harder DH courses best left to the crazy
Downhillers and their specialist equipment.
The first section gave me an impression of the type of terrain I would be seeing a lot more of around the trail, roots, roots and more roots and as it had been raining on and off all day these were incredibly slippery. This section was a mixture of up and downhill singletrack, winding its way through the forest with some tricky technical sections.
The second section of the trail actually makes up one of the DH courses, known as The Red Run. Of the 4 DH courses, this was meant to be the easiest, with The Black Run, DH3 and Ultimate Pursuits DH becoming progressively more difficult. No pedalling needed on this section but my brakes certainly got a work out, in true downhill style there were fast berms aplenty, man-made jumps and, again, many slippery roots. I have to say some of the sections were a tad scary, but I managed to stay on all the way down. This was by far the most fun section on the trail.
The next couple of sections were a bit of an anti-climax, the third being what amounted to a path running alongside a golf course albeit with some fine views over the country side. The fourth section was a killer and no fun whatsoever imho! Known as The Climb, it’s an uphill section about a mile long zig-zagging up the side of the hill; by the time I’d got to the top I was knackered. The fifth and final section echoed that of the first and was a fun singletrack through the forest with the odd log that required bunny-hopping, and again roots aplenty.
I still had a few hours left before my taxi was due to arrive (my sister was playing hockey in nearby Tring) but didn’t want to do The Climb again, luckily the layout of the trail is such that it’s possible to choose sections and just do those and there’s also an area known as The Bomb Holes which is a
play area.
So, there I was starting out on The Red Run for the third time when I get to the point in the trail where it splits and The Black Run starts. I had one of those spur-of-the-moment, you-only-live-once thoughts and decided to give it a go. Big mistake, I was later to find out that it was actually the Ultimate Pursuits DH and not The Black Run at all. To quote from their website
"The newest downhill on Aston Hill, The Ultimate Pursuits Downhill takes technical downhill riding to a new level and it's certainly not for beginners. Steep just about describes some of the sections of this track and it's a thrill a minute once you hit the steep sections and fly down over the hill to the finish." Not for beginners? Try - Only for Lunatics. Steep? Try - vertical. Fly down? Yes, that bit’s true. The course was similar to that of The Red Run in style only more severe with huge drop-offs, big jumps and frightening
switchbacks. It was very early on into the course when I realised that crashing was going to be inevitable no matter how slow I went, it was just a matter of how many times and whether I could avoid any serious injury. It was the third crash that hurt the most, when I fell about 6 foot falling arse over tit and ending up sliding further down the hill. Climbing back up to retrieve my steed I found that I’d broken my front brake (in exactly the same way as the previous week on
Follow The Dog) which meant riding any further down the trail would be impossible. At this point it wouldn’t be exaggerating too much to say I was terrified, but persevered down trying not to worry about ditching my bike, which I had to do several times. Eventually I made it to the bottom a very relieved man, with only a bloody shin and a bruised body by way of injury.
Would I go back to Aston Hill? Only with a
full-suspension bike,
full-face helmet, and copious amounts of
body armour.
Agent Gorgeous, BigFootCookie and myself all managed to wangle holiday on the same day, so an early start and up to Cannock Chase for a spot of dogging was in order. (To avoid any misunderstanding that means mountain biking on the trail known as Follow The Dog)
We finished the trail half an hour before the cafe opened, so a short trip up the road and we did the last few sections again.
