Team No Fixed Income Diaries: Bush Bay Trails Exploration Antigua July 17th 2023

The day after the ride to Seaforth Beach and to Hamilton Dam below Mount McNish would have the opportunity to explore an area near Dickenson Bay Cottages.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9469702180

Before this ride set up the hydration system from Original Free Range and Hardside Hydration. To ensure that had enough fluids to ride with. Also had ensured that had been taking in lots of fluids the night before and before the ride as well in the morning.

Heading out down the road and making a left onto Marble Head Rd to the area where I wanted to explore. There is no map of the trails in Antigua that is online so beyond what can see on Google Satellite view this would be an old fashioned before the internet figure it out as you ride kind of ride.

The trail was an old access track for am guessing a past potential development that fortunately didn't happen. But just because it is a neglected and unmaintained access road don't let it fool you as it was still challenging. Funnily enough it reminded me of the old 1990's video's of the Laguna Rads riding in Laguna Beach.

Followed on track but at a certain point had a feeling that it was a dead end so U-Turned and headed back to a previous intersection and followed that thinking this might get me to a view point that suspected that existed. And Found it.

Looking over Dickenson Bay could see towards the area where rode the day prior which was near The Sleeping Indian.

From the Dickenson viewpoint backtracked to the trail intersection and turned left heading down towards Bush Bay Beach. On the way passed what through the bush could see was beach but wanted to check out a bit further down the track.

Going down that track came to a section where the trees and such had grown to provide a bit of shade. Though I did have a feeling there was more down here.

And there was. Came upon a dirtbag style chill out spot in the trail system. Proving that any where in the world there exists the local version of the Dirtbag. It was kind of the Antiguan version of the Don Rats spot in Toronto's Don Valley known as Dirt Camp. Though looks like it was set up for some kind of party with your buddies in the bush. If I had a beer this would have been a nice spot for a mid ride beer.

Backtracked to where spotted the beach in a gap through the bush where carried the bike over the little drop to Bush Bay Beach. And there I was, an Antiguan beach with no one else other then me. Because it takes a bit of work to get there.

Since I know some out there will wonder why I like these spots and places where 95% of tourists and other visitors don't go. I don't exactly know. I just know that for me places like this have more memories then if I went to touristy places.

Best example can use to explain it is when i went to Sutherland Shire NSW back in January 2001. I rode a downhill track there long before it was mapped out on Trailforks. A trail that unless you had local knowledge you had to find it. Years later that still stands out as a cool part of the trip. This will be a memory for a long time.

Chilled out for a bit and went a bit into the water so could get the jersey wet to help with a bit of cooling. A trick learned way back in 2004-2005 training for ultra distance endurance events. That led to that moment of wishing for one of those camping micro fiber type towels which could have helped cleaning the sand from feet before trying to put on my shoes. Small problems.

After some quiet beach time to appreciate where I was.. Headed up from the beach to the trail to retrace my ride back to the trailhead at Marble Head Road. Turned right and headed back towards Dickenson Bay Cottages after a good exploration ride. What matters more is time out riding and explored somewhere new not what the distance was.