The Pensioner Returns.

Mountain Bike Ride.

The Pensioner, The Ginger One.

17th August Route

Pretty much a truncated version of the last route (Birk Brow Revisited), featuring The Pensioner freshly returned from his temporary hiatus and The Ginger One, freshly out of cycling helmets because his remained on his drive in Darlington. The usual 2015 summer weather, sunny but cool followed us from Teesside to Danby as we waited for The Pensioner to arrive - late. He arrived in a flurry of expletives, having tried to drive along a closed road, despite the road closure being well signposted for weeks in advance - all part of life’s plot against him. 

Eventually we plodded uphill out of Danby and made our way up the road to Robin Hood’s Butts, the off-road track still not too wet considering the rain we’ve had this month. Reaching the Sis Cross bridleway, we paused briefly before setting off on the singletrack bridleway, slightly uphill at first, then, after a cleft rock, which marks the summit, we headed downwards, snaking through the blanket of purple heather on a narrow, rutted track which elicited some muttering from the stability challenged pensioner at the back. Even more muttering ensued when we made a left turn and headed up the Pannierman’s Causeway back to the road. The idea was to ride up with a view to riding down later in the ride. A couple of boggy patches but mostly okay, it past muster for the ride down, but that was to come later, first we had to plod up to Danby Beacon - all on tarmac.

The usual breather at the toposcope, waiting for The Pensioner to doubt its directional accuracy, which he invariably does, regardless of having vision slightly less sharp than a myopic mole. The track to Oakley Walls was enjoyed by all, again sticking right to avoid the 4x4 ruts, wide and only a little technical, it went by too quickly and soon we were heading along the bridleway to Clitherbecks, passing the farm and returning briefly to the road.

Crossing the road we embarked on riding the Pannierman’s Causeway in the opposite direction, taking in the whole length this time and quite pleasant it is too. Heading generally downward at first, across the moor on a grassy track and some slightly paved sections the track then follows a line of blue topped posts through someone’s garden before passing through a field, over a stream then turning steeply upward to gain the moor top. A last downhill section, through bracken, ends up at a junction of tracks near Danby Park, from here a left turn brings the road and one last hill before Danby is reached. Or more importantly, the Stonehouse Bakery is reached - so busy today we were forced to sit outside in the sunshine.

Two new (to us) tracks ridden, totalling over a quarter of the, admittedly, short ride, one of my companions was more impressed than the other, The Pensioner is a tough audience to please, most trails have more negatives than positives, his perfect trail has yet to be discovered, may not even exist, but it will have to be downhill, wide, well-lit, with a firm surface, no damp patches or puddles and definitely a tail wind. Not forgetting a cafe at the end.

Birk Brow Revisited

Mountain Bike Ride

Rod, The Youth

15th August Route

In a change to the usual programme, we had a 2pm start to our ride today, while we waited for The Youth to finish work. If you can call belaying kids for a few hours work. Whitby Regatta weekend, so the moor road was impossibly busy as a families flocked to Whitby to watch drunken scaffolders fighting in the quaint old-fashioned streets. We joined the traffic for a mile or so, this has got to be the only start to a ride where you average 25mph, then turned off to Swindale Lane and Moorsholm, returning to cross the moor road from opposite Freeborough Hill. According to a legend, King Arthur and the knights of the round table are sleeping within Freeborough Hill, waiting for the moment when England needs them; they haven’t appeared yet, so everything must be okay, despite what The Daily Mail would have us believe.

We eventually crossed the road, The Youth being honked at by an irate motorist who obviously imagined his Astra could cover the 500m between him and a cyclist in nanoseconds. Our first bit of offroad came at Dimmingdale Farm and the bridleway was not in bad condition considering the 16 or so hours of constant rain we had yesterday. Robin Hood's Butts featured some large puddles but not the usual lakes of standing water more often encountered in other seasons. Some way along Robin Hood’s Butts we turned off onto a bridleway over Danby Low Moor, heading south to join the road above Rosedale Intake - the steep road hill out of Danby. The bridleway proved to be a bit of a find, narrow singletrack through the heather, gently up at first, then gradually downward, very enjoyable apart from the odd muddy patch. At the road we followed tarmac all the way to Danby Beacon, to try another ‘new to us’ track which is the B.O.A.T. leading from the Beacon to Oakley Walls. Turns out it’s a good track if you stick to the edge, away from the deep trenches gouged in the ground by the ‘One Life: Live It’ wobbly-head retards in their 4x4’s.

A brief bit of road along Oakley Walls took us to the Clitherbecks’ bridleway, always more fun in this direction, then we made our way up to the east end of Robin Hood’s Butts and retraced our tyre tracks all the way back to the bus shelter on the Castleton/Commondale road. Only the Quaker’s Causeway remained, an enjoyable prospect, except for The Youth on his hardtail. Rod and I engaged full-bounce mode and powered across the uneven paving, The Youth suffered the sort of pounding normally afforded to unwilling young men on the high security wing of Durham prison or perhaps a favourite choir boy after a particularly lurid confession has inflamed the passion of the man in black.

The ultimate section, back to the car park is more enjoyable, especially to those with tender glutes and it wasn’t long before we were braving the traffic again to return to our cars. Another cafe-less ride, it’s easy to tell The Pensioner is otherwise indisposed.

Mud - actual mud. In August?

Down In't Dales

Mountain Bike Ride

Rod

13th August Route

Freshly returned from eight days in glorious Spain, eight days of sun, sand and San Miguel it did seem rather unfair that the first mountain bike ride since touching down involved an ascent of Fremington Edge. A name guaranteed to induce a shiver of dread, that feeling of an icy hand gripping the internal organs, as the climb is spotted high on the hillside on the journey into Reeth from the east. Park at The Dales Bike Centre, never a bad spot to start a ride and a primo finish to a ride, and there is not even a warm up as the road rears vertically through High Fremington and ever upward onto Marrick Moor, some 800 feet higher. Nice views of Reeth though. Although nominally summer in England it was at least 15 degrees cooler than i was used to making it feel quite fresh.  A fair proportion of the climb is on tarmac until it turns to loose stones, strong legs, good lungs and exemplary technical skill is required to make a dab-less ascent of this section. We lasted about 30 feet before resorting to pedestrianism. Eventually the track does level out and we got a bit of respite as the track heads downhill to Hurst, past the old chimney then west on the bridleway, climbing gently through the typical post-industrial landscape of Swaledale, rocky and barren, mining spoil tips being reclaimed by nature, turning to green undulations as the moor reclaims its surface.

Reeth

Passing through a gate, our route heads downward, through an old quarry to Storthwaite Hall, one of the highlights of this ride, a varied descent taking in everything from grassy downhill to loose rocks, I was almost jealous of my companion, Rod, who was riding this for the first time. All that fun must be paid for and the road between Langthwaite and the quaintly named hamlet of Booze is definitely expensive, a piece of road so steep it made the national news after the local postman refused to ascend it - in his van. Ever upward, we plodded on until we were at a wide track on Peat Moor Green, at a bifurcation we continued upward, looping around, following the track eastward. The grouse shooting season began yesterday and this part of the moor was alive with the sound of 12 bores, salvos of buckshot being directed at jinking birds and maybe the odd recalcitrant mountain biker determined not to have their right of way obstructed by posh kids on corporate jollies. Soon we were spinning out in our highest gears, speeding down the Moresdale Road toward Schoolmaster Pasture, an officially pensioner approved track being wide, open and devoid of hazards, pure speed and big sky views, going on for a few miles. All good things, as they say, must come to an end, we made our way to Goats Road and followed it to Hurst. Not a single goat was spotted.

Storthwaite Hall descent

From Hurst, we returned over Marrick Moor, regaining the top of Fremington Edge for some payback, withdrawing from the gravity bank all the way back to the cafe at The Dales Bike Centre - another highlight of the ride.

A Ride From Scaling Dam

Mountain Bike Ride.

The Bread Lad.

26th July 2015 route

Another cool and breezy start, it has been a very poor attempt at a summer this year. August, depending who you believe, is going to be a wet and windy washout or hotter than Barbados. Is being a weather forecaster a real job or does it have about as much credibility as being an astrologer? About as accurate.

Shivering slightly at Scaling Dam does not have the same ring to it as busted flat in Baton Rouge but it was a bike ride not a Janis Joplin song and the next line would have to be, just waiting for a Bread Lad, not a train which doesn’t scan at all. Eventually said Bread Lad arrived and we ventured forth onto the moors, utilising our standard Scaling Dam start, High Tranmire Farm and The Slagbag to Green Houses, then road to Lealholm. Lealholm being in a hole, it’s always going to be a battle against gravity to leave it behind, we chose the longest, up Shaw Hill to Glaisdale Rigg and ever onward to leave tarmac behind at Cut Road, or as we know it the Trough House path. Once rated as one of the best rides in the North York Moors, it has now been sanitised beyond recognition, although still worth doing for the spectacular views around the head of Fryupdale. Pausing briefly at Trough House, we sheltered from the cooling wind and had a quick snack while considering our options. Having never done the George Gap, we decided to give it a try even though it might mean retracing our steps. No Pensioner to react with abhorrence at such a concept, so we turned left onto the road and followed it around Seavey Hill above Rosedale before picking up the bridleway to George Gap. The path begins as a track through heather and grass, turning to a paved section heading gently downward, a little smoother than the Quaker’s Causeway above Danby but maybe a little narrower. Some gaps break things up a bit and catch out the unwary, as evidenced by my slow motion over the bars moment which left me laid on the floor, tangled up in Stumpjumper while my companion rode off oblivious to the comic potential behind him.

Back on the Trough House track, the Glaisdale Corkscrew was ahead of us but we decided to return to Trough House and follow the road downwards to the Round Hill bridleway which we have not ventured onto for quite a while. Judging by the bracken not many others have ventured down here either, eventually we gave up trying to ride and struggled through the head height greenery on foot until we reached open hillside and remounted for a speedy ride to the quaintly named Fairy Cross Plain. At Stonebeck Gate Farm, another bridleway, complete with yappy, snappy Jack Russell terrier, led us to Crag Wood and Crag Farm before we commenced another mammoth climb, eventually topping out at Danby Beacon, we were starting to feel the pace now, a quick check on the GPS told us we had ascended over 3,000 feet.

The Roxby Moor singletrack came next and it was just perfect, flowing across the moor, dry and fast, augmenting our mediocre skills until we were cycling gods, totally in the flow, gliding through the heather, men and machines in perfect symbiosis - in our imaginations anyway. Euphoric, we reached the road and returned to Scaling Dam, our day made complete when we realised the burger van was still serving. An unusually arduous mountain bike ride for us, almost 24 miles and 3,400 feet of ascent.

July video

Click

A pretty poor attempt at a summer. Except for the 1st, which was our first day at Gisburn and it was a scorcher, the second day was a bit cooler and ended with rain, something which set the pattern for the remainder of the month. The odd bit of warmth, a lot of rain and some disappointingly cool days.