Wrekin: Heaven or Hell?

Wednesday night, 10pm, mental note to self, 'don't forget to reattach the brakes before leaving in the morning'.  Fast forward 14 hours and I've parked up and hiking generally upwards from the parking point trying to find the top of 'The Wrekin'.  Once I hit the main path the route is obvious and clear.

Getting to the top is easy enough and getting down shouldn't be too bad as long as enough speed is held on the short flat or slightly uphill sections.  Too much speed shouldn't be too much of a problem with the quite wide path and the ABS brakes.   Ah.  Knew I'd forgotten something.

Still, the view is fantastic with a nice feeling of remoteness despite the M54 being only 3 minute drive away and the powerstation on the skyline.  From the trig-point at the top the track leads further down to the South West, even further from the car, or I can head back the way I came....  But before I could make a decision to head back, the weather made it for me, the rain dropping like hail and the wind buffeting me from the west.

[Wrekin Hell]

Could be worse - the car is only a mile away and I've a complete change of clothes in the boot so, to the amusement of a bunch of ramblers, I rode a couple of the lines from the trig point, first to the South West, stopping as the path rose a bit before dropping away steeply, then back to the North East.

[Wrekin Heaven]

I'll be honest, the route back down was not the most pleasant, but this wasn't the tracks fault.  On a better day when the wind wasn't blowing and the track wasn't wet and slippery and the ramblers weren't everywhere and I had a bit more balls on the steeper sections or had remembered the brakes, then this would have been a fantastic route.   According to the ride guide,  if you can do it top to bottom, then you have 1.26 miles of track ranging from 'Stony track, into leafy woods, onto mud track'.

[At the top]

I will be back; it's only just over an hours drive from Derbyshire and as mentioned above, parking is very close to the motorway so access is fantastic.  I was surprised just how many people were on the hill despite it being Thursday lunchtime with quite miserable weather, but there did look to be a few more tasty looking tracks here and there in close proximity.  9 inch tires may assist, as would a riding buddy for insurance on some of the trickier sections.  For me, brakes definitely, but then a clear run through the woods on some of the banked corners on a nice summers day would be ace in itself.

Clearly, there is more to come from the Wrekin.

Map link and Rogers routes here.