Big Bad Log

Rode my bike to Hallerbos today to meet with Moster Blond (MB) who was leading the annual BigM Magical Bluebell Ride. This was supposed to be a BigM clubride - although it was originally an idea of BigM founder MB - but I was surprised to see only 3 people besides myself turned out. MB had some trouble with her Polar and with the help of her friends it was discovered that the speed transmitter was the culprit. Its signal proved too weak to make it to the watch attached to her wrist, so we had her attach it to her bikes' handlebar which solved her problem. She happy - we also happy.
This ride has always been a big success in previous years so I cannot begin to understand why there were so few attendees this year. Sure, the bluebells bloomed a few weeks ago - and we were there thank you - and it was a very nice hot day, perhaps too nice to ride a bike for some?
Oh well, its THEIR loss. The ride turned out to be a great one... read on.
It was not going to be easy though. A very popular annual Hallerbos athletic event was taking place today and some 1000 runners who were spread over some 9K of circuit. They had a great time I'm sure, but we had to make sure we stayed out of their path.. so we had to improvise a bit but in the end we got there, doing the trails we set out to do. The bluebells were still there but only at a fraction of their usual luster. Only a sheen of blue was to be seen, but the smell was still there - coupled to the smell of the pinetrees and some wild onions (or more probably flowers that smell like onions - or perhaps some weird mushrooms after all ??) made me inhale my lungs with the fresh forest air. The loop ondulated nicely through the forest, some big trails, some narrow trails. What a great forest this is.
The loop turned out to be a little shorter than previous years due to some trails being blocked by lumber, but we still got a good 20K and 350 heightmeters before we decided to give the BLUE BLOSO route of Braine Le Chateau a try.
Aargh, what a disappointment this turned out to be. 90% of this route is going over tarmac, sure, through some nice fields and next to (NEXT TO as opposed to INTO ) some nice forests. Moreover, there were a lot of cars trying to pass us on essentially one-car roads, sometimes leaving us in the dust - yes, there were some gravel roads as well - sometimes just having to squeeze by .
There was one very nice bit with a fine downhill section but that couldn't have been more than about 1.5K long. And at one point the road passes through the Hallerbos, albeit on big roads, so that too has to count for something. But as a whole, this 17K easy route is not something I would recommend. Perhaps we need to check out the longer - and supposedly tougher - RED route, but to be quite frank, I don't think I'll bother. What a contrast with the nearby Braine L'Alleud routes, those are really good and well thought-out.
After returning to the Hallerbos we finished with a very fast Yieeehhaa stretch and then returned happily to the Sept Fontaines starting point. Three of us continued by bike going towards the Middenhut were one left and Moster Blond and myself continued together until Jezus-Eik were our roads separated.

Ride Stats : 121K and 1195 heightmeters in 6h06mins