...and so when geoffcampbell led a 4x4 laning trip on the Saturday just gone which took in Strata Florida and a couple of nearby lanes, I took the opportunity to go along on my XL250 Degree and do a bit of a reccy (I have been intending to include Strata Florida in the itinerary on the weekend of the 24th/25th, so it was too good an opportunity to miss). I made the following mental notes as the day progressed...

1. The surface is almost all solid, there was hardly any deep mud, barring the odd bit of erosion (although if you want mud, there was plenty to be found on either side of the main track). At the moment the XL has a Bridgestone Trailwing on the back (which I left inflated to road pressure) and what used to be a road-legal motocross tyre on the front, which now closely resembles a slightly dimpled slick! Tyres were hardly a limiting factor. There were only a few technical bits en-route, none of them I found particularly tricky, although there were one or two optional difficult sections available to masochists/the adventurous. The rocky nature of the trail does present some theoretical puncture risk, and also means that any high-speed heroics carry the attendant risk of high-speed body-rock interfaces.

2. Strata Florida is at altitude. There was snow lying on the track, and much of the standing water had frozen over with a thin layer of ice. Fairly regular traffic from 4x4's normally breaks this up, but I know that geoffcampbell has been up there before and found sheet ice thick enough to stove in the front of his Discovery when he broke through it. Obviously it was f-ing cold, but the weather was kind to us - fine drizzle being as bad as it got. Blizzard conditions or thicker snow might be less amusing, and I guess I'll need to make a pragmatic call based on the weather forecast and prevailing conditions as to whether this particular lane is a goer for our pending weekend; it is quite feasible for conditions up there to be life-threateningly bad, which would not be much fun, and even if conditions are good, also quite feasible for lying snow and ice to make the route much more of a challenge. Nevertheless, I think it's worth us collectively carrying some minimal outdoor survival gear such as a space blanket and suchlike (I've got one of those), just in case - it's a long way from civilisation if somebody did e.g. break a wrist or something that stopped them riding out on their own.

3. Water. I need to make the XL's electrics more waterproof; there's a lot of standing water, and some of it is quite deep. I got through a lot without trouble, after liberal application of WD40, but it still conked out a few times. My XL is pretty near the ground for a trailie, so anything taller would have less trouble, and I doubt (with one soggy exception) that any of the numerous puddles and river crossings was more than a couple of feet deep on the lines I followed, but I had the advantage of a 4x4 to follow so I could gauge the depth and watch for evidence of rocks and holes. The deep water is bad news for bike electrics though, so anyone emulating me should expect to make liberal use of WD40, and should try to waterproof their sparky bits before start of play. If your bike would struggle to get through two feet of water without ingesting it through the airbox, you might need to rethink your plans...

Obviously if you do drop your bike in 2 feet of icy water, drying it out could be a bit of a bitch. Some of the deeper patches of standing water can be circumnavigated via muddy alternatives, but the numerous river crossings obviously can't be. Without a 4x4 to use as a depth guide, I think it would be very sensible to pause, plan and check your lines for depth quite carefully.

Another consequence of the water is that I got wet (amazing, eh?). I was quite warm and comfortable, wearing unlined cordura waterproof trousers, waterproof enduro boots and a lined cordura winter jacket, but the first time I rode through a really deep bit of standing water my boots filled with icy water (from the top) and my old leather summer gloves got soggy. I'll try and get my trousers outside my boots next time (if they'll fit), but obviously if your bike stalls mid-river as it did to me later, and you have to put a foot down in two feet of fast flowing water, there's little to be done. Even after that, I was OK while I was moving and riding, and only really started to suffer when we stopped for lunch on the trail. Andy Pearce has suggested Goretex socks as a solution!

However, I think the real lesson here is:

a) As a minimum, carry spare, dry socks and maybe spare, dry gloves as well.
b) At this time of year it's essential to try and plan the routes so that they include a warm, dry pub/cafe for lunch. Sandwiches on the side of the trail are great in summer, and just fine if everybody is riding ensconsed in heated 4x4s, but I think that when it's freezing cold and my boots are full of water, I'd prefer a steak pie and a roaring fire.

Obviously, in sub-zero temperatures, if somebody did manage to fall off in mid-stream, it would probably quite literally ruin their whole day.

4. Road miles. Strata Florida starts about 40 miles by road from Carmarthen. It's quite feasible to ride this - I did it on Saturday and even enjoyed it, once I'd borrowed some dry gloves from somebody for the ride home, but I guess the option is there to trailer/van the bikes up to the car-park at the start of Strata Florida, and ditto for Sarn Helen (another lane on my list of potential trails) which is a fair old clip away from Carmarthen in the other direction.

5. Trail miles. A full day of laning in a 4x4 might easily finish at 8pm - enormous clusters of roof-mounted floodlights make that perfectly possible - but given the quality of lighting on most trailies, I don't fancy being on the trail in the dark, which makes for short days in winter. My current feeling is that we shouldn't try and do too much - I reckon that - say - Strata Florida plus the loop round the Claerwen reservoir would be a good target, with perhaps another local lane in reserve in case we make really good progress and still have lots of daylight in hand.

6. I'm so horribly unfit that I'm still feeling it today, but there's not a lot I can do about that in the next 3 weeks except whinge.

7. The bars on the XL, aside from being bent, are currently in totally the wrong place for riding standing up, ditto the levers! Also, the chain needs adjusting urgently and the rear preload needs winding right up...