After a couple weekends of not being able to ride it felt great to get back out on the bike at one of my favourite trail systems, Durham Forest.

It was a bit chilly in the morning, but the trails were nice and tacky which was great because Durham can get quite sandy. After meeting up with my Dad, Uncle and Cousin we went out on Burnt Toast and Bowes 2 trails. These make up one of my favourite starts to a ride. A great climb to warm up and then some fast downhills with a couple tight corners to keep you on light on the bars.

We then rode Maple, Big Butter and Little Butter, which are typical Durham Forest trails, flowy and fast. Honestly, I don't think there is a trail at Durham that I dislike. It kind of makes riding there hard as you don't know which trail to take next.

Once through The Missing Link you enter The Maze. This is a section of Durham where it is easy to get lost. There are trails everywhere. The easiest route I have found is to stick to taking right turns. This will take you to Logs and Ogres and out. Both fun trails which a few tricky sections. Naughty but Nice is the next trail, this has a couple nice wood bridges, luckily they were not too slippery this ride, but you do need to have caution in the wet.

After some double track riding, we came to the older section of Durham Forest. These are the trails that I rode when learning to ride mountain bikes. Some great memories on these trails. The Pines has been shortened but still a great little blast before riding the technical Lunatic Way.

It was time to head back at this point so we rode back out The Pines and back into the Maze. This time we stuck to the left as we rode out and back to the parking lot. On the way back we rode a couple new trails that have just been built this summer. Once they get worked in they will be great fun.

Overall it was a great ride and felt good to get back on the bike and ready for the Triple Trail Challenge this coming weekend.