My Bike is My Body

This trip occurred in June 2000, in Bristol, England. For some time I had been wanting to trip outdoors in the woods as I had read countless reports telling of the greatness of nature for a trip. Eventually the time had come, it was a beautiful hot, sunny day, and a group of five friends and my younger brother set off to a huge park land estate. It's an ideal setting for a trip as it has woods, meadows, a deer park, and it's never that busy.

We sat on the grass on the fringe of the wood, and washed down some liberty caps that I had picked the previous autumn with a couple of cans of beer.

The effects came on suprisingly quickly; within 15 minutes or so I was feeling the tingly sensations up and down my body, and I was starting to laugh. We walked down towards the woods, and I knew that this was going to be a good day. The grass looked greener, the trees looked more magnificant than ever, and the sun pleasantly warmed my body. We decided to go for a wander in the woods. The trees were so tall, we walked until we found a clearing that opened out onto the hillside. There was a cool breeze in our faces and we looked out over the fields and meadows. We just stood still and silent while we gazed at the breath taking view.

We had brought a couple of mountain bikes along, and after about 3/4 of an hour into the trip, I decided to have a go on one. This was by far my best decision of the day. As soon as I got on the saddle, I knew that I wasn't going to get off all day.

I started riding the bike down a woodland path. The feeling was exhilarating, the wind in my hair, the speed, the power of the bike. It was as if the bike was a part of my body, as natural as my legs were. I had so much energy, and I could ride up the hills with ease, I loved the speed that I could ride at.

I plunged onto a proper mountain biking track; very narrow, with lots of tree roots, logs and rocks on it, as well as plants encroaching onto it. It was like being dropped into the jungle. Although my mind was feeling a little warped, my body was on auto-pilot. I went really fast, but my bike turned, peddled and braked perfectly at all the right moments. I didn't have to think, it was all automatic. At one point, I raised my head so that the bike was not in my field of vision, and I imagined that I was just running down the path, and was not on a bike at all.

After several minutes, the path opened out onto another, wider track. I peddled for a few minutes, and then got off my bike to go for a piss. I walked into a small patch of young trees, which were very green, and just stood there in awe that I was amongst their tree city.

I then got back on my bike, and the track opened out onto a meadow. This was the best bit. I just crusied down the meadow, towards my friends who were at the bottom lying around. I felt like I was a bird, just effortlessly gliding around, it was like I was flying, like when you're in a dream and you run down a hill and then just take off. It was wonderful, I loved it. I reached my friends and tried to get them to come into the woods, but most of them were quite happy sitting in the sun. I really felt like they were missing out on a very great pleasure.

I continued to ride around for the entire day, I had limitless energy, the bike was part of me. I stayed until night fall when everyone else had gone home apart from me and my brother. We felt free as birds, looking out over the city of Bristol which was now a sea of glimmering lights. The parkland estate was now completely empty of people, apart from us.

After a little more exploration it was time to go, so we cycled out towards the main gates of the estate, only to find they were locked and that we were trapped in. This didn't really phase me at first, as it all added to the adventure, but it meant that we had to cycle right the way across the esate (a good half hour) in the pitch black dark.

The wood was suddenly not such an endearing place to be, and we could not see a thing. I started getting a litte scared, but I kept my cool so as not to worry my brother. I started to have nasty thoughts about murderers that might be lurking in the depths of the trees, but it wasn't too bad as long as we kept moving.

After what seemed a very long time of cycling through the woods in perfect darkness, we eventually reached the other exit. However, I had lots of mushrooms on me, and was worried that we might be stopped by the police on the journey home, so we stashed the mushrooms in a bush, for collection on the following day. Although the mushrooms I had taken probably added to the paranioa, I still think this was a sensible move.

The journey home was nerve racking. We were on a main road, it was about half midnight and we had no lights on the bikes, plus I didn't even know exacly where we were going as I had never been on that road before. My brother started to show sings of dispear, but I assured him that all was well and that I knew exactly where we were going, although I didn't. However, we did manage to get back home eventually, and I felt very relieved to sit down in my lounge, finally safe at last, and began to tell my house mates of our adventures.

I had one of the greatest trips that I have ever had that day. I highly recomend tripping outdoors, and I especially recomend going for a bike ride. It was one amazing day.

My bike was my Body. :)