This doesn’t warrant a new day as I had already been round at lunchtime but as it had been so dry the last few days, I decided to take the bike around for a spin. I have a reasonably nice aluminium hard-tail with hydraulic discs that I bought in a previous life and has only ever been up Ardagh Mountain once and that was only the easy bit and not far from 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
So anyway, I dusted it off and set off up the mountain. After huffing and puffing up the road I set off around the left loop which has a hard gravel base without too much difficultly despite my lack of bike fitness. I had a bit of fun after the peak scooting down and again it was pretty easy going.<\/p>\n
Once I crossed the road, the going got a bit tougher as the path is mostly mud here. I had to dismount a couple of times and I nearly sunk a couple more. Eventually, I came a-cropper and went over the handlebars and luckily landed in heather so no harm done apart from a slightly bent brake-lever.<\/p>\n
That was the worst of it over so I rattled down through the rest which turns back to gravel fairly quickly. I decided not to take the turn-off that keeps me in the forest but instead continued on the good surface and finished off the loop by cycling into the village and then back home.<\/p>\n