Whats going on at all? It's absolutely bucketed down for about a week. Yet we've just got back from a corker of a ride round Rivi. I was expecting wheel swallowing gloop, and riding through streams, yet the trails were all bone dry and firm!
Now i'm not complaining! Perfect conditions for riding. Just a bit confused. Was it the wrong type of rain?
Is it because all the trees and vegetation are really hungry at this time of year?
Have you noticed how windy it's been?
Wind has far more effect in the drying of land than anything IMHO
Same here. Big puddles,overflowing steams but bone dry trails. Bizarre. Not complaining though!
Because its not rained properly for the last few years and the grounds still really dry so anything that doesn't run off gets absorbed really quickly?
Not here, my commute is currently under 4 feet of water in places. What tyres for.....?
Like Binners, I too was pleasantly surprised by how dry the trails were(a great ride). I'd put it down to the wind though.
It's not been [i]that dry[/i] in Lancashire (in the hills) in recent years, although I seem to remember it being more wet/drizzly when I was a child, but maybe that was just because we were forced to play outside at school and had to walk everywhere.
trees are drinking big time 🙂
sheffield:
even more rain than usual.
no more wind than usual.
(mostly) dry trails.
i don't think it's the wind...
It was the walk from our overcrowded hovels to the pit, when we couldn't afford shoes, that left the indelible stain on our memories
It was the walk from our overcrowded hovels to the pit, when we couldn't afford shoes, that left the indelible stain on our memories
Aye, but that was normal around our way, so I didn't think it warranted a mention.
Maybe the underlying bog/moors have been very dry and have absorbed the water very quickly due to grass/moss growth at this time of year.
The ground was certainly very wet and boggy in the same area a few weeks ago, though.
it's because (as i was repeatedly told during the floods/drought conversations)... as a result of the extensive 30 yr drought, the earth has become aquaphopic and propels water downhill at such a rate that it cannot possibly be absorbed.
ergo that 4 weeks of constant rain we had is now off in the north sea somewhere, having skimmed over moor and forest like a stone skipping on a pond.
apparently.
I don't know about aquaphobic, but I was told that if it rains at a certain level then the ground can't absorb it quick enough so it runs off & down into rivers & to the sea.
Which is probably essentially the same thing. Just not necessarily to do with all the drought. Or something. Maybe. I dunno.
Binners I was up Rivi last night. I rode the cheeky mini-gully run off of Winter Hill http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-mini-gully-off-winter-hill
and it was amazing- totally dry and fast/hardpack (apart from the very very bottom of course).
It was that good that I actually thought I was an amazing rider!
binners - im hearing you on that, as of tuesday night most of the stuff by me had dried up ....yet for the previous at least 2 weeks pretty much, and sunday was attrocious absolutly horrid in every way possible, yet tuesday it was mostly dry! and out again last night the majority of trails were almost sandy in alot of places...very odd, considering its not really been warm enough to warrant it drying out so quick...
not complaining, hopefully it will continue for a good while now!
Binners/Hora/anybody
I'm planning going up Winter Hill over to Great Hill early doors tomorrow morning (6am) - any idea if the trail from Rivington Road (from Belmont) up to Great Hill is a amud fest or not?
Need to decide on downhill to White Coppice or venture on to Darwen Tower afterwards....the agony of choice!
I think all of the rain that's fallen in the UK recently has made its way into my barn.
I can hardly make it through the door for standing water.
No need to thank me, it a price I'm willing to pay for you all to ride dry trails 
eaststandlower - I didn't go that way but I did ride up the footpath at the side of the winter hill tower (or stone-landmark thing) and that was totally dry as well (hardpack).
Cheers Hora.
On the moors where I ride, the heavy rain has cleared away the soil in parts forming little drainage channels.
The moor is made up of all sorts of material - peat, clay, gravel even the odd bit of slag and shale from historic mining and smelting.
All these different materials hold and drain water at different rates so you can have dry sections almost immediately after a long down pour and boggy sections after weeks of dry (and windy) weather.
Easy.... it's because once again my FS bike is off the trail waiting for a complete new drive train after wrapping my rear mech round the chain, cassette, hub and everything else (note-not the other way round !), and this was after a 5 week lay off the trail waiting for a warranty replacement for my rear wheel.
You watch, next week I'll be back on the FS, the HT will be packed away again and the world will turn to sh1t once more 🙄
It was so heavy that a lot of it ran off, didn't soak in the way it does in winter. Round here most of the gravel pits are still well below normal level for the time of year.
Ye no shit same here in lincs!...near dry trails,cracked dry!..mental,had great ride wed night!...i rekon the wind has done the "drying effect" thingy here..:.bn bloody blowy like.....now then..