I had a fun bike ride today at Hicks Lodge, with Jen, the boys and Partho. Hicks Lodge is Henry’s favourite place to ride at the moment, especially as the playground has just been refurbished, and the cafe does a good hot chocolate. I had also noticed the cakes in the cafe, so a plan was hatched for my birthday weekend – for me it does not get better than a family bike ride with a cake stop! My best friend Partho also came along too.

We woke up to rain, poor weather is one of the downsides to a December birthday, but the forecast was improving and Owen was super keen to ride – he actually hurried me along to get the van loaded up, asking me what he could do to help. The weather was pretty grim driving up the M42, but the rain had stopped by the time we were ready to set off. The trails were still wet and muddy though. Both boys were riding well, despite the conditions and lack of snack stops. I think we have also got to the point where Henry is faster than Jen on a mountain bike trail.

After most of our first lap Partho and I left Jen and the boys at the new playground (next to the yet to open skills area) and set off for a second faster lap, Owen had been keen to join us, but decided to stay at the playground. Stopping for a breather after the first few sections of trail, we spotted a lone rider catching us up, then noticed the bright red helmet peak – it was Owen. He had instantly regretted his decision not to join us for a fast lap and had ridden as fast as he could to catch us up! We finished the lap, taking it in turns to lead out each section – when it was my turn to start, I could just hear Owen saying “I’ll give you a bit of a head start”. Hopefully he was just copying what I do, rather than being cheeky, but he did not catch me up. On the section that Partho led out he was able to get enough of a lead that he could get a photo of Owen and I at the end of the section. There are not many pictures of us actually riding together, so that was really nice to have. Owen started to tire towards the end of the ride, but perked up when we came across the new section of trail, linking what was previously the final to sections in to one long final section – some nice flowy berms replacing a section of fire road.

By the time we had finished the ride the sun had come out, so we sat outside enjoying our drinks and cakes. The cakes from the Hicks Lodge cafe tasted as good as they looked on our previous visits – I had a gingerbread millionaire, a festive take on one of my favourites, and a white hot chocolate. As we could see the playground from our table, we could carry on chatting whilst the boys enjoyed exploring the newly refurbished playground – they seem to have kept all of the best bits from the old playground and added lots of new equipment, and the boys loved the new set up. Henry was really in his element – he is not the most confident mountain biker, but he really loves Hicks Lodge, it is a lot calmer than other trail centres we go to, but I think that suits him. I am pleased to see that it is seeing some investment, as it is such a great facility for the littlest mountain bikers. Even with “tame” trails, with a lot of water on them, I still had a great ride – sometimes it is who you ride with that matters more than where you are riding!