After 2 weeks of no mountain bike action my bike must of thought its ready for the scrap heap. Fortunately my mate Finnan managed to get his back wheel fixed after it broke jumping off walls in Astley Park, Chorley. We arranged to go out on Sunday, usually there's the 3 of us who go out, me, Sweeney and Finnan. Sweeney couldn't make it because he broke his foot jumping over a wall when out on the town.

We decided to stay local and head to a wood near the Yarrow River. The main aim was to discover new routes and downhill sections. We cycled down a long path which opened up to what could only be described as "mountain biking heaven."

We discovered a huge slope which lined the path we were on, we pushed our bikes to the top to have a closer look. One downhill caught our eye the most and Finnan decided to take it on. The hill was extremely steep so he stayed on the brake most of the way down. The fact there was a tree right at the bottom was neither here nor there. He managed to skid around the tree then it was my turn.

I thought I could go faster than that, I set off down on the break then released when I had a good line, I picked up some speed and began to think about avoiding the tree, unfortunately my wheel got stuck in a ridge and I couldn't turn to avoid it, I slammed on the break but to no avail, the bike flipped, I went over the handle bars and smacked square into the tree, bounced off and hit the ground then the bike landed straight on top of me.

My first thought was I must have broke something, but to my surprise there wasn't a scratch on me. Finnan came running over thinking the same and couldn't believe it when he saw me get up.

If my bike thought it was ready for the scrap heap before, then what would it be thinking after whacking into a tree at high speed. Luckily though it was in full working order, I could hardily believe how lucky I had been.

It brings a new meaning to "being close to nature."