For starters, Baiskeli is Swahili for Bicycle, which covers mountain bikes as well.
This is my first ride for the year 2020. It not only lived up to its expectation but was dotted by all manner of drama, mud-falls and grassy rides. Muguga is based in Kiambu County and this side of Kenya is usually dotted with steep climbs and descends. As such, any ride in this area is usually no mean feat. Add the wet weather experienced in Kiambu and you got a muddy, fun ride.
The ride comprised two sets of distances; 25km and 40km rides, each with two stops for water and fruits to replenish. I must mention that the rides we usually go to are for leisure, not competitive but that does not prevent one from flexing their muscles if they wish to competitively time their ride. We rode through the forest, on the road and through farmlands. The toughest by a long shot was the farmland trail. Two things stood out in the farmlands trails. The path was quite narrow with both sides covered with shrubs and weeds. You literally had to guess where the firm ground is for your bike to make way and not stumble in the mud. Secondly, there are stretches that were covered by knee-high (based on a person of 5’ 10") grass. There’s no way you can ride at high speed in such a trail as the grass keep getting caught in the chain, making you peddling even harder.
The forest trails was so much fun to ride through. And it is this stretch where some most mud falls happened. Luckily, almost all were soft falls and with no sustained injuries to the riders. The tarmac trail made up less than 15% of the total trail. Good thing is that there was no much vehicular traffic and this is a good recipe for a good ride. The untarmacked stretch was difficult to ride because of the corrugation on the road, the bike would shake till your hands on the handlebars pain despite having padded gloves.
After the ride, we relaxed, had a meal at a retreat centre before loading the bikes on the bus and making our way back to Nairobi. Muguga is a cold area and as such, should you plan to visit, be warmly dressed.