Monsoon season

Rides in August shouldn't be this muddy!Started from Simonsbath today with the aim of riding for 3 hours. Since its been raining almost all week, I chose a route on pretty good surfaces; still it was slow going with so much water on the ground. It started raining about 20 minutes in, and didn't stop for another 2 hours. I'm pretty used to riding in the rain, but this was heavy thundery monsoon rain, and for August it was pretty cold. I didn't manage to take any photos without water spots... but I think it adds to the whole atmosphere of the dayThe section of singletrack from Simonsbath to Cow castle is probably the most popular section of singletrack on Exmoor:I only saw two other riders today though, who seemed more preoccupied with trying to hide under a tree and eat soggy sandwiches than actually ride their bikes. After that I seemed to have the whole moor to myself.  I took a cheeky 'super secret' short cut through a plantation - singletrack made my deer and sheep rather than humans with shovels is so much more fun to ride!Everywhere seemed to have loads of trees down today. Off camber tree hoping is made much more difficult when everything is really wet. Only managed to hit the deck once though, and no blood (or none that I could see under all the mud!)emerging from the woods, I realised I should have bought more than arm and leg warmers with me - Only a  big climb to get back on top of the hills stopped me from shivering too much. I think its amazing how much faster you can ride when the alternative is freezing your arse off.By the time I got back to Simonsbath everything was completely saturated.And then my camera decided that it was done with taking photos and stopped working. A bag of rice and a warm kitchen seems to have sorted it out though.Also started playing around with some video. I made a mount out of an old commuter light bracket a quick release seat binder. Still needs a lot of work though.[vimeo 14243560]