Blog
Closed for wolves
In this country, about 150 thousand people are bitten by dogs every year. About 13 thousand sheep are bitten by dogs. It seems to be a bit unclear how many sheep die as a result of this, but in any case it is a lot more than are killed by wolves. Of course, it is not the fault of the dogs, they have owners who are responsible (or irresponsible). I've twice been bitten by dogs whilst out on my mountain bike, and one time the owner didn't even try to call his dog off as I cycled along a public road in front of his house. But wolves don't have owners, so who is responsible if they do actually bite someone? So far, it hasn't happened, but if people feed them or go stupidly close to them, then there is a serious risk that it will happen. In countries where bears live, people know that they cannot keep food in their tent or there is a risk that bears will come looking for it. Maybe we will need to learn that here.
There has been a lot of hysteria in the press and elsewhere recently about wolves. What people don't seem to realise is that the wolf is a wild animal that came here under its own stream and that when wild animals are hunted, it might reduce their population temporarily, but it will also drive the animals out from their core habitats and lead to more problems. Hunting is simply not an effective way to reduce conflict between people and wild animals. It is even possible that hunters are scared that wolves will make their 'managment' of deer and wild boar less justifiable.
Today, when I was out with the club, a section of the track was closed for 'wildlife management'. Apparently this is due to wolves with young in the area. If that reduces the conflict, then I'm quite happy with that. But wolves can have large territories. How much of the woods can we close off for them?
Amerongen and Rhenen
If, for some reason, I cannot go cycling with the club, I often choose to cycle the Rhenen and Amerongen routes on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. I can get there cycling directly from my home Wageningen, making a round trip of about 55 km and it has about 600 height-meters, which is not bad for round here. Yesterday I could not go with the others, so today I headed for that route. All being well, I would get round before it got too hot this afternoon. At least that was the theory. I had a bit of a late start, so it was 27 degrees by the time I got back, but that was only for the last few kilometres, so was survivable.
The other potential disadvantage of the warm weather is that it can sometimes get very busy on that route. In the summer, if I'm going to cycle it sometime over the weekend, I usually try and do it on the Friday for that reason, but that wasn't possible this time. However, today it was not so bad, and I got the impression that even though there were quite a lot of other mountain bikers, they were mostly cycling about the same speed as me, so no hassle with stopping to let people past all the time. I often seem to be about the slowest on the trail. There were large numbers of walkers, though. As usual, a few had wandered onto the mountain bike route, which is not illegal, but potentially dangerous, when faster cyclists than me whizz past.
[text continues after the photo]
As well as the hilly nature of the terrain, another advantage of the Amerongen route is that it has some beautiful woodland. It is quite varied, with different tree species in different areas. With all the rain of the last months, it was also looking much greener than usual for August. There are also some patches of heathland, which was covered in the purple flowers of heather, and so looking quite magnificent.
The rain had not only watered the forest, it had also caused quite a lot of erosion. I was glad of my rear suspension as I bounced over some bits. The erosion also meant that some of the drop offs where you can make little jumps were a little higher than usual, so that was fun. The people who maintain the trails do their best, but it is a bit of an impossible task at the moment. Having said that, the routes are perfectly doable with a hardtail. There were also some corners where it had dried out, and then the problem was more that there were some small drifts of loose sand waiting to whip my front wheel out from under me.
It had been a while since I last cycled that route, and I was reminded of how much I enjoyed it.
Rheden kinderroute
The Rheden mountain bike route has a number of extra bits tacked on, mostly quite technical. One of those is the 'kinderroute'. Despite the name ('kinder' is children), it is certainly not only a route for children. It has a lot of tight bends and curves, which makes it suitable for small bikes. However, that also means that it is a really good practice of your steering skills if you are on a full-sized bike, especially one with modern 29-inch wheels.
[Text continues under the photo]
There is also plenty of up and down, and a few drop-offs as well. Some are on the regular route, and for other, larger ones, there are a few little diversions, marked with an open (not-filled) MTB icon, indicating a harder alternative.
It is on very sandy soil, and that means that, with the recent dry summers, there is always the problem of loose sand and erosion. The track maintenance crew have done a lot of work in embedding wire mesh into the track to prevent this. However, there are still some treacherous patches left, which you need to look out for.
All in all, an enjoyable and challenging small route. Perfect as an addition to the longer Rheden route, or (like I did this morning) as a quick breath of fresh air before leaving for home at the end of your holiday. It is worth riding twice as the second time round you know what is coming and can take those corners just that little bit faster.
De Hattemer Herfst ATB tocht 2023
Hattemer is just a bit too far away from Wageningen, so I had never been on their tour before. I guess that is so for more people, because I heard that there were only 250 participants. We usually get at least twice that for the tours we organise in Wageningen. However, last Saturday I was on holiday nearby and joined the tour. I and all the others who not normally take part in the eight previous editions had definitely been missing out on something special.
It was a great route, through a diverse and varied landscape. It started off from the ice skating association clubhouse (it was cool, but not that cold) and for the first few kilometres we could warm up as we cycled on the road. Then the route branched off into the woods and the fun started. We went through all different sorts of woodland; conifers, broadleaved and mixed, with occasional stretches of heathland and grassland. After that first bit, and a short stretch at the end, almost none of it was on asphalt. Because the landscape was varied, so was the soil, we went from loose and slippery sand (I was very happy it had rained heavily the night before, or it would have been really hard work indeed) to grippy loamy forest soil. There were a few small hills, leading to a total of about 300 m of climbing.
Due to the time of year, when we set off, there was some mist in the forest, which gave some spectacular effects with the sunlight coming through the trees.
[text continues under the photo]
We were very luck with the weather. Not only did the rain the night before mean that it was all rideable, but it was not too hot and not too cold (aside from the first half hour, when I needed a jacket, dry, and quite a lot of sunshine.
It was a well-organised tour, with a great atmosphere ('gezellig'), clear signing and two breaks, which was generous for a tour of only 45 kms.
So far as I could see, the route is all on tracks that are normally open, so you can follow it from here. But ff you are in the area next September, it is definitely worthwhile to join the tour and support the club that organises it.
Everyone is crazy except me
On Friday evening, the general consensus was that with a feel-like temperature of minus six, and a bitter East wind, it would be no weather for mountain biking on Saturday. No one wanted to come. Madness! It turned out to be beautiful conditions for cycling. Ok, it was cold, but that was nothing that a few layers of clothing and a flask of warm coffee could not fix. It was sunny with a clear blue sky and once in the woods, the wind was gone. The seasonally low sun shone through the autumn leaves, and it was glorious.
MTB Route Den Treek-Henschoten
Den Treek-Henschoten is a mountain bike route on a private estate which is only half an hour's drive away from Wageningen. Although of course that half hour is not counting the unpredictable amount of time faffing around trying to attach three bikes to the back of a car. With three hardtails, it wouldn't have been so bad, but the rear suspension was in the way of the attaching struts almost no matter how we arranged the bikes, so we had to be quite creative to get them all attached in something approaching a secure way. But in the end we succeeded and arrived at the start. Within a few meters of the car park, we were on the trail and with no chance for a warm-up, we were on a winding, twisting route. Although the route as a whole is virtually flat, with no big hills, especially in the southern (red) route there is hardly any section which is actually, flat, you are climbing and descending the whole time, but each climb is only a few height-meters. Nevertheless, that means that there is hardly a moment of rest for kilometres at a time, especially as the turns and mini-climbs are all together. The northern (blue) route is 25 km and the southern (red) is 16 km long. There is a slight overlap, but that is a particularly nice bit, so that is no problem.
We were lucky to be there in autumn, as the colours were quite spectacular. There were also loads of mushrooms everywhere. Lots of fly agarics (the red with white spots toadstools that gnomes sit on, Amantia muscaria) and huge amounts of birch bolete (Leccinum scabrum). It took quite some discipline to keep my eyes (and therefore wheels) on the trail and not to peer at them as I went past. I was also happy that there had been some rain in the week before, as some parts of the trail had quite loose sand, and at one point I almost spun out of control. If it was a bit drier, it would have all been much more difficult and the flow would have been lost. The trail is nearly all woodland, with a few bits of open heathland for variety. There is one stretch on tarmac, but that is a very small proportion of the total. There are lots of walkers around, and we came across a few on the MTB route (not everyone knows that the international MTB sign looks like), so you have to keep alert for that.
The trail is on private land, and it is necessary to buy a permit to ride it. You can do that online. If you go there often, that will be quite expensive, but the day ticket is a reasonable price. Note that if you buy that one, you need to buy it on the day you ride. In general, the Utrechtse Heuvelrug can be very busy at weekends, so having to pay for the permit might mean that these trails are less busy than the nearby Zeist route. A definite plus point is that it begins and ends at a pancake restaurant, which has good food and welcomes mountain bikers.
