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With rain forecast for today I decided to stay home and ride my Secret Meerdael Loops once more. These roughly consist of 2 parts, the first bit in the eastern part of Meerdael Forest focusses on twisty singletrails and little trails. It is about 24K long and has roughly 300 heightmeters. With trail conditions being dry and fast it was a great time riding these trails. Normally there are always sections with a little mud but this time the only difficult track conditions came from deep tyre tracks for the forestry machines and fallen trees. Some sections were completely blocked so I had to invent new loops to circumvene them. I also added a new loop to the south of the Limietendreef. I am not completely happy with that loop and I think I already saw an opportunity to make it better. But for today it was fine.
After a while I arrived at the Dikke Eik and this left me with only a couple of kilometers to go on this side of the forest. I stopped to take a couple of pictures of this majestic oak. It is the oldest one in this forest, 300 years or older.
A last little loop in Valduc before I am crossing the Naamsesteenweg which brings me to the second - hilly - part of my Meerdael Loops.
This is another piece of meat entirely. It gets serious with the climbing and descending. During the next 38K the trail goes up and down practically all the time. There are a lot of small loops here, trying to get the most out of the hilly section of Meerdael forest is not possible without the tracks crossing each other from time to time. I feel very good and the bike performs flawlessly. Climb after climb gets taken with confidence and ease. The downhills are a breeze with the Moots' strong disc brakes. But be aware, some of them are tricky and you need to stay focussed all the way. The heightmeters are adding up nicely and should you ride too fast in the first section , that will pay itself in cash here. If you decide to ride these trails, keep in mind that you have to spread your energy over the whole loop. The forest is beautiful and the forecast rain does not come. Instead, the sun comes shining through the clouds and the average temperature rises a couple of degrees during the last hour or so of this ride. I stop at the Hertebron and read that the water once again is good to drink.
But I still have enough in my drinking bottle and I continue for the last stretch of my Meerdael Loops. Bringing me at the Kluis and from there on another climb. But the forestry works are still ongoing here and I need to get off my bike to climb over lots of trees. I hope they clear out all of these trees during the next few weeks. Otherwise I might have to pay the Forestry a little visit.
Last loop now driving into Blanden and nearing the end, which I have placed at the little school. There is some parking space there and the start of the singletrack loop is only 400m away.
I had a good ride today and even though I normally get this ride done in under 4 hours, I was pleased with the time because I added another loop and found some new heightmeters, making it tougher than the previous versions. I leave you with a link to both sections of my Meerdael Loops.
If you want to ride them, please stay on the trails and I wish you a very good ride. Be careful because the track is a twisty one and you might wanna have a good look at it on mapsource or the likes because it consists of a lot of loops and you might get lost - or your GPS might - if you miss a turn.
Ride Stats : 60K and 1140 heightmeters (Garmin) in 4h7mins
3036/31725
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