LeMasters in London: Bike Rides

Now that bikes have arrived there was only thing left to do.....RIDE!! Well unfortunately from the time I left Tulsa till now in London I missed all of fall and am in full on winter. Not Tulsa winter, of 25 degrees and 20 mph winds, but English winter. Its the kind of weather that just makes you angry. 45 degrees, and cloudy, no sun, and 90% humidity. As long as you aren’t moving its not too bad, but as soon as you start riding it gets super cold. That is unless you bundle up like crazy, then you get too hot once you get going its a vicious cycle.

Anyway, so I stopped by a bike shop and found a group to ride with. Saturdays through the park and Sundays out in the hills. When I rolled up on Saturday I half expected to see a full on elite race team, and half expected to see a bunch of old men and women. Turns out that both were there! Probably close to 80 people total. We rolled off in groups of 8 so that we didn’t dominate the other park users. 4 7 mile laps and then a stop at the coffee shop in the park afterwards. In general I am super out of shape and apparently didn’t pay attention when they said every man for himself with 1 lap to go. Got dropped by some old guy with fenders and a rack on the back of his bike. Can you say demoralizing?? All and all a good time though. When I wasn’t cross-eyed and hypoxic I got to enjoy some of the scenery, which was pretty much amazing.

Remember I said Sunday was out in the hills? Well I guess that was still the case for those who decided to get up and make it to the ride. Well I wasn’t one of those people and hit the snooze a few too many times. Once I finally rolled out of bed I continued my self loathing with some toast and sugar butter. Yep exactly how it sounds, butter with sugar, don’t judge me I am not proud of it. Since I was fully depressed and felt lazy and fat at this point in conjured up the gumption to go out and ride by myself. Nothing exciting I just went out to the park and for a change of pace decided to do laps in the other direction. I found out quickly that there was a reason we went counter clockwise.....left turns have the right of way, or I guess that is the left of way over here, you get the idea. What I learned on my ride was that I have absolutely no idea how roundabouts work. Don’t know who goes first when do signal and in general am completely confused. On three separate occasions I ended up turning left to avoid the confusion and had to end up making three lefts to get where I wanted to go.

History lesson for the day – Richmond Park is the largest Royal Park in London covering an area of 2,500 acres. The royal connections to this park probably go back further than any of the others, beginning with Edward (1272-1307), when the area was known as the Manor of Sheen. The name was changed to Richmond during Henry VII's reign. But it was a visit to Richmond by King Charles I in 1625 that turned this area of medieval farms and pasture into a royal park. Charles was escaping from an outbreak of plague in London. He realised that Richmond gave him the best opportunities for hunting near London. The area included open grassland with individual oaks - some of which were mature trees at the time of Charles' visit and are still standing. There were also small farms and common land where local people had a right to graze cattle or collect timber. Charles ignored all these claims on the land and, in 1637, he created a hunting park. He introduced around 2,000 deer, and to make sure they didn't stray he built a brick wall eight miles long, which you can still see today. Some 650 deer roam the park to this day. Local people were furious about the King's action. He was forced to pay compensation to some landowners and had to restore the right of people to walk in the park and collect firewood by installing a ladder in the wall. From then on, deer and hunting began to change the appearance of the park. Deer grazed the leaves and bark of young trees and stopped the open grassy areas turning into woods. Ancient trackways and field boundaries disappeared as the grassland developed.

Large established trees were pollarded (cut regularly at about 3 metres from the ground). This technique encouraged the trees to grow straight tall branches that were suitable for timber and also protected them from browsing deer. Even today, the lowest branches of trees in the park are all about the same height from the ground - just out of a deer's reach. In the second half of the 17th century, King Charles II spent over £3,000 on repairs. He created new ponds for the deer to drink from and gave permission for gravel to be dug in the park. In the 18th century, two planned vistas were created to show important guests the best views of the park and beyond. One looked down to the grand avenue of Queen's Ride to White Lodge, a hunting lodge built for King George l. The other looked out from King Henry's Mound - a high point, said to have used by Henry Vlll to watch hunting. You can still stand here and look down a specially-maintained avenue in Sidmouth Wood across London to St Paul's Cathedral. Few other changes were made in Richmond Park. Pen Ponds, a lake divided in two by a causeway, was dug in 1746 and is now a good place to see water birds. In the 19th century, several small woods were added. These include Sidmouth Wood and the ornamental Isabella Plantation, both of which are fenced to keep the deer out. Also in the 19th Century people were no longer given the right to remove firewood, which is still true to this day, to help in preserving the park. Change happens slowly and maps made in Victorian times still make sense here.

The park is pretty amazing and it looks like I will end up getting to know it very well. In addition to roads which go around the perimeter of the park there are probably 100 miles of trails zig zagging throughout the park. Mountain bikers and crossers would be in heaven. Of course there are soccer, rugby and God knows what other kinds of fields as well. You even have to dodge the occasional horse present (poo) as there are stables and riding trails too. Kristen doesn’t know it yet but it is where I am going to take her for a pony ride.