Mt Airy revisited

SMORBA head honchos Jonathon and Andy did a recon ride of the Mount Airy to Annatto Bay 'cross the island' route yesterday, with a view to including it in the 2011 Fat Tyre Festival. This ride is usually a gem, lots of elevation change, great scenery, technical but still fun for any experienced rider and lots of singletrack descending. BUT Jamaica was hit by Tropical Storm Nicole recently and some areas had ridiculous amounts of rain in a very short period. Well my guess is that the area that received the most rain was the forestry road we have to climb during the first third of this ride!! What a mess! We soldiered on and encountered multiple landslips, downed trees and mini grand canyons and more than one local who tried to warn us that we couldn't make it and luckily managesd to complete the almost endless singletrack before the heavens opened. 21 miles in 4hours; not the fastest ride ever but we couldn't have gone any faster! The post ride Red Stripe was definitely appreci-loved.

Hopefully the local coffee farm will rehabilitate the forestry road in time for February.