About 2 miles in and the ice showed its scary teeth but the Chronicles made light work up the first few paths. I'd noted that my Singletrack (pants) appeared to be catching on my saddle. Got to the first bit of 'gnar' and assessed if it was a good idea to go down it. Seemed clean and dry enough, but only 200m down the ice brought me to an abrupt halt. Oh, I'd also doubled up on what was covering the water, with a down jacket over the bladder and some of the insulation over the pipe. Worked well and water stayed warm throughout.
Assessing the gnar and it was ice-free.
But just a moment later I perplexing on how to get across to the non-slippery side. Too slippery to walk across with the bike so I ended up chucking/sliding the bike across. Then, kinda on all fours - not using my bottom as it would've been a long slide down - I managed to get to safety.
Soon after I spoke to a couple of walkers to deter them from walking up, but they had a plan. They'dcome down earlier and rescued a 70 gear old lady who'd 'frozen' on the ice. Then at the bottom I warned a young family with a couple of toddlers (5 year old, is that toddler category!) that it might be wiser to just "take a look" then turn back.
Then a left and a right to capture the frozen duck pond.
Soon after I was riding up the first 'grovelly' bit with 1st gear firmly engaged. Slipped out (actually that's an exaggeration, I just couldn't pedal so gave in before wheelspinning) and caught my pants once again. It was here I realised why I'd been catching em... They were undone at the crotch seams
A good innings, so I took my last pics of the route and headed back.
Sadly I'd not even made it as far as the fallen tree. 4 miles in all, Boris'd not be proud!
Looking back, not much to look at.
Way back, I thought to explore the duck pond which I've never actually been up close to. Briefly considered trying to get the the centre for a pic of Stan but common sense won. So I just took a couple of pics with Stan on the safe side of the water. Did whack the water a bit and it was frozen solid.
Except for my plan of how to get back without any taxi drivers noting my ripped pants, the only other highlight was the 2 robins. Possibly the same one. At mile 1.5 I noticed a robin that seemed stuck for food with everything frozen. So i threw some of my Scottish oat biscuits around. Then at mile 1.6 another robin came past and acted like it was waiting for summat just 50m from me. I assumed word had got out about my Scottish 'gear' so I emptied a few more oat biscuits around here...
Survived and (Alhamdulillah) didn't break my head with a good excuse for not going beyond 4 miles too. No-one saw my bottom; got home in the light; didn't freeze to death ; water stayed warm; no muck flew onto my head and back without a rear mudguard cos of the Chronicle. A very successful ride indeed and look forward to another (one of these days)...
THE END
- not to be confused with the nearby mountain of Fan y Big 
some even take bikes 
.
The track has deteriorated in the recent heavy rain and has washed out to the point that's it's unrideable in places, plus there's now a tree down across it that's on the backs either side so there's a 3 feet gap under it. Once at the top it was along the ridge to the former RAF Ventnor.