Mountain Bike Ride
The Ginger One, The Fireman, Disaster Dan.
Eight days from our last venture from the windswept Square Corner, we find ourselves here again, shivering in the curious micro-climate as we assemble bikes. The Ginger One managed to drag himself away from his action-packed life as a sport’s spectator and see what it might be like in the real world, outside of 16:9 ratio screen, although not without his iphone to catch up on things during rest moments. The Fireman and MTB virgin Disaster Dan completed our quartet.
A downhill start, just to give Dan a wholly false impression of what mountain biking is all about, took us easily to the SIlton Woods downhill track, which we despatched with our customary style and grace, as usual, clocking Strava times amongst the slowest ever recorded. But no casualties despite the mud and the slippery rocks. Continuing through the forest, we took back roads for a while, into Kepwick village, eschewing Kepwick Bank for a change and continuing through Cowesby until we reached Brickshed Cottage, where we switched to pushing mode for an ascent of the bridleway to Cowesby Moor, now used as a descent by the Sutton Bank Red Route. This would best be described as arduous, however the track across the moor is a delight nowadays, compared to the actual swamp it used to be, having been resurfaced by the Sutton Bank crew. Climbing steadily upwards, we rode through Boltby Forest on fire roads until we reached the Hambleton Drove Road near the boundary stone at Steeple Cross, where we paused to regain our breath, a more elegant way of saying panting, swearing and stuffing our faces with calorie-dense snacks.
Eventually we made our way to Sneck Yate and along the road to the turn off opposite Wethercote Lane which leads to the path above Boltby Scar, where we headed toward High Barn, taking in the fine views from The Escarpment before riding the best bit of the Sutton Bank Blue Route, the singletrack which goes through down past Boltby Scar and continues downward, our route managed to take in the highlights of the descent before we cut our losses and hiked back up a more direct bridleway to regain High Barn.
Heading North on the Cleveland Way, signs began appearing for a tea room at High Paradise Farm, we would be passing through the farm yard, so it would be rude not to try it out. More signs whetted our appetites, until the final notice which informed the tea room closed for winter at the end of September; the fact that people are hungry in the middle of October obviously irrelevant. Never mind, we swallowed our disappointment and pedaled onward, retracing our steps through the top of Boltby Forest and back on to the Drove Road, pausing only for a play in the bombhole as we left the woods.
A steady drag along the Drove Road, unusually against the wind, began to take it’s toll on our newest recruit and he found himself trailing behind some blokes twice his age. The Ginger One led the way, finding a sudden burst of energy as he realised the quicker he turned the cranks, the sooner he could be back in front of the telly. We regrouped at the top of the Mad Mile, happy in the knowledge it is quite literally - all downhill from here, a glorious descent, somewhat sanitised from previous incarnations but not without the odd interesting section. The Ginger One led the way, speeding off like Danny Hart, for the purposes of filming I brought up the rear, before going into downhill mode, passing Dan, then The Fireman, both riding with caution and common sense as befits people employed in the safety industry, around a bend I went, picking up speed after the loose rock section, clumsily jumping water bars, The Ginger One was in sight, now looking more like Miranda Hart as he pushed his bike dejectedly down the track, victim of another Mad Mile pinch flat. Some rather ungentlemanly sentiments were expressed, verbally and nonverbally as he was overtaken.
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