This morning saw a rather cold but clear and bright sunny start. When I rode out around 10.30am it was freezing still but the sun was already upping the temperature . There was a cold northeasterly wind blowing. I wanted to play around a bit with some trails around Overijse and Meerdael so I started out in Meerdael Forest slowly working my way towards its southern edge where I could drop into Nethen and then climb towards Pecrot. Here I made sure to add the famous railroad singletrack in my trails and from Pecrot I made my way towards the Bois de Laurensart for some climbing and descending along interesting trails. The bike was handling well with my tyres on a low pressure of 2.0 bar. It takes some getting used to on tarmac - especially in the corners they tend to roll a bit - but the grip is great and so is the comfort from the 2.25 Big Jims on this low pressure. 

The sun made the trails tricky. In short, whenever you saw the sun on the trail, you had to beware because the top layer would have defrosted just enough to make it slippery. So when you were in the forest, there were no worries, the trails were dry-ish and dependably stable. But whenever you came into a field, or a patch that would accumulate some sunshine, care had to be taken to keep the rubber side down. I made my way along the Overijse red route, in the reverse direction, for some time, adding a little loop here and there to check out some interesting trail and/or ascent/descent. When I arrived near Ottenburg I descended towards Terlanen and from there I made my way into the Sint Agatha Rode forest. In Sint Agatha Rode I added a couple of heightmeters and then made my way back to Meerdael Forest over Sint Joris Weert.

In this forest I did a bit more trail-exploring and ended up in the Speelbos near the Everzwijnbad. I did not ride the bridge over the hollow road. Instead I made my way over it, bike in hand, careful not to slip into the netting. I wonder if anyone would try to ride this. I would surely like to be there and record it on film. Its not that long but if you miss the narrow bridge you end up in the netting, bike and all. From there I rode back towards the Naamsesteenweg, crossed the bikers bridge and added another loop over Hoog Blanden and the Wijngaardberg before returning home with a nice amount of pleasurable kilometers under my belt. The weather was just fantastic, if you didn't mind the cold wind, and I had an average temperature of 2 degrees C. This was quite OK with the right clothing and the shelter of the forest.

Ride Stats : 46,5K and 700/770 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h08mins

1511/15505