I know I needed to cross the Chaussee de Huy and I remembered a nice singletrack leading into Louvrange. So I took that and it gave me some surprising sight. The steep track passed a weird-looking house.

Looking at my GPS I saw that there was another track leading towards the E411 and judging from the tyre tracks I knew it wasn't a dead end. And indeed it was not. Making my way through the many little streets of Louvain-La-Neuve was not easy but I had a direction in mind and before long I was on the Avenue Baudouin 1er and from here I knew my way towards the little forest that waited for me.
Dropping down a trail along the Bois de Mormont and I was at the gates of the Bois des Reves. Here I did the "loop VTT" with some extras. The v-brakes on my bike were far from strong enough to control the bike on the short steep descents and into the switchbacks. A very good arena to train your technical prowess on the bike. But care has to be taken. After all, I was quite some distance from home and I did not want to fall or hurt myself or my bike.

Before long I decided I better head back and I left the Bois in the direction of Louvain-La-Neuve. Following the bikepath and a Adeps route I done before I made my way towards the Golf de Lauzelle and then towards Limal and Wavre.

Passing Walibi I tried an alternative uphill towards Bierges but I had to retrace my steps because it came to a dead end. nearing Rixensart I saw another track I could take and it incorporated a trickt descent into a valley along a singletrack filled up with leaves. Under the leaves all kinds of traps were waiting. Stones, ruts, branches and the occasional dropoff kept me busy. But I enjoyed it. Into the valley of the river Lasne and onwards towards Overijse. A steep climb brought me on the Blue Overijse Bloso track and I decided to follow this down into Tombeek. I followed the Bloso until I came at the Terlanen plateau. Here I switched over to the Green for a while and then decided to ride towards the Sint-Agatha-Rode bos. In a downhill disaster struck. I took a big blow with my rear wheel. I suspect some concrete block hidden under the leaves. Before long I stood still - snakebite. I tried my Pitstop but the holes were too big. So I needed to change the inner tyre and this took a while. I pumped up the tyre and moved on. The tyre was badly seated and it looked like my rear wheel had developed a serious twist. But my brakepads weren't indicating that my wheel was out of true. Strange. I would have to look at that when I got home. I rode on into the Sint-Agatha-Rode bos and then through Sint Agatha Rode towards Sint Joris Weert. Into Meerdael Forest again for  a last stretch past the Kluis and then along the Denteneers pad back to the Weertse Dreef. Crossing that and a couple of forest tracks later I was on the Prosperdreef and nearly home. 
A good ride with - as it turns out - a nice amount of climbing and some great tracks. Weather was fine as well. After a cold start the sun warmed me up nicely. The rear wheel turned out to be straight when I checked it after washing the bike. I put some pressure into my tyre and it popped into place. Always difficult to put enough pressure in a mountainbike tyre with a small pump along the way. I was glad my wheel was fine and also that my frame didn't suffer. It was quite a blow when I struck that stone or whatever it was. 
 
Endomondo track


Ride Stats : 71K and 925/1010 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 4h07min

12647/111540