Montferland
It was about 8 years ago that I last cycled the Montferland route. That was a memorable occasion, not so much because of the splendours of the route as for noticing a left turn at the bottom of a steep hill slightly too late and jamming my brakes on, whereupon my front wheel dug itself into some soft dry sand, flinging myself over the bike, resulting in some broken ribs and a few months recovery off the bike.
So it was with some trepidation that I ventured out on the Montferland route last Saturday, together with the club. However, it soon became clear that not only was there not a grain of dry sand to be seen (on the contrary, everything was extremely wet) but that apparently I've picked up something about how to handle a mountain bike in the past few years, as none of the hills looked particularly scary. That's not to say that all the downhills were easy, quite some braking was needed, but the difficulty was more to do with the severe erosion caused by the rain of recent weeks, which meant that there were some significant holes and in places a remarkable sort of corrugated surface. It was the only time since April when I had the feeling that my hardtail was not always an improvement on my old fully. But I'm certainly not complaining about the maintenance of the trail. The signposting is perfect and even where the trail is so wet as to qualify as flooded, the ground is still hard enough under the surface to make it passable. Well, mostly. On one occasion I was trying to avoid broadening the trail still further, so ploughed through the middle of a puddle, only to end up with the front wheel sinking up to its axle in the mud, bringing me to a complete halt. No flying over the top this time though, just damp feet. The trail maintenance is paid for by buying a permit, which can conveniently be done from a bike shop near to the start. The price of the permit has more than doubled in the recent years, which I don't mind so much, though I do think that paid-up members of 'natuurmonumenten', which is the responsible organisation, ought to get a discount.
Anyway, bottom line is that it is a great trail. Although it is only 26 km long, the 450 height meters, some of them reasonably steep, make it feel like more (at least if you're used to the relative flatness of near Wageningen), the woodland is diverse with quite a few different tree species and a well-developed understory (plenty of bracken and other ferns) and, so far as I could see whilst whizzing past on the bike, a fine selection of mosses (the tree in the photo is covered in an attractive layer of Hypnum cupressiforme var. filiforme). Parts of the trail are only a few meters from the German border, and the landscape indeed looks quite different, giving a bit of a holiday feel to it. What more could you want?
