Work has just been completed at Aston Hill on finishing a new trail.

The Hillbilly Trail Crew met last weekend (Sunday 7 November) put the finishing touches to the new trail, bringing an old ‘secret’ piece of the XC route into service, linking into the bottom of the Red Run.

The ‘secret trail’ was originally started several years back as a way of getting from the Red Run over towards the finish of the Black Run, avoiding the more technical end of the Red downhill. A lot of the fundamental work had already been done – cutting a bench into the hill and creating some swooping turns on the way back down – but there was still a lot of trail to dig and more to reinforce and repair.

22 people showed up at stupid o’clock on a positively autumnal morning with a combination of wild enthusiasm, hot coffee and hangovers, and got kitted up with shovels, mattocks, leaf-blowers and rakes. Three groups worked the morning clearing, reinforcing and digging trail. The sheer enthusiasm and hard work of the group was overwhelming, and by 1pm it became clear that we would actually achieve something that had been considered only a slim possibility at 10am: today we would open a completed track.

By 1.30pm the crew were packing up and the tape at the trailhead was removed – it was done. Aston Hill had a new trail.

Find out more at www.rideastonhill.co.uk. The team have regular dig sessions, so if you want to get involved drop the crew an email at [email protected]