A Couple Of Short, Damp Ones.

Mountain Bike Rides

The Bread Lad, The Pensioner

16th December route

17th December route

It’s been raining; a plethora of persistent precipitation has moistened the moors, tracks without the benefit of a bit of surfacing are becoming soft or submerged. We’ve been let off lightly compared to The Lakes, which is suffering badly, it won’t be long until Penrith B&Q starts stocking gopher wood and breeding pairs are being rounded up.

Our first ride set off from KIldale and featured an appearance by The Pensioner, fortunately the weather was in a better mood than he was and stayed pleasant all day, a little sunny and not a drop of rain. The Pensioner’s own personal black cloud followed him for the whole ride. We still ended up drenched, however, owing to the amount of standing water on the trails. The route utilised some parts of yesterday’s Xmas dinner ride, the section from Roseberry Common to the A173, then back up to Newton Moor via Aireyholme Farm, still bearing our tyre tracks. Another puncture in my new tyres slowed us up a bit, that will be 50% of the rides with the Chunky Monkeys which have resulted in thorns stuck in the tyre. A lot of hedge cutting has been going on and the adjacent thoroughfares are littered with prickly detritus making every ride a lottery. At the road, The Pensioner opted to make his way back to Kildale via the highway, while me and The Bread Lad reverted to offroad splodging our way across Newton Moor, back down to New Row and directly to Glebe Cottage, where we found a mud-covered pensioner lurking in the car park.

The following day me and The Bread Lad had an earlier start from Danby, repeating a previous route, parts of which were new to The Bread Lad. Unfortunately it begins with an ascent of Ainthorpe Rigg, which is becoming somewhat soggy despite the extensive resurfacing and improvement sanitisation. The drop down the other side was worth the pain. A few miles of road took us across the valley and up Oakley Side, which despite our best efforts did not let us ascend dab-free, too loose, too wet, too weak from two previous days of mountain biking. The Clitherbeck bridleway was essentially a canal with a few linking tracks, giving us a thorough soaking, Robin Hood’s Butts was in similar state, puddles the size of small tarns, a raft is beginning to look like an essential accessory. Turning off onto the Siss Cross Road, a ribbon of singletrack heading south across Danby Low Moor, we could see it glistening into the distance, the whole track smeared with water like the trail of a monstrous snail weaving across the moor. We followed the narrow trail upwards toward Siss Cross, the high point, from where it heads - yes, you’ve guessed it, downwards, never particularly steep but gravity assistance is always welcome, the track narrow and winding with a few swampy mud traps to punish overconfidence from those who think they can blast mindlessly downhill. From the end of the track it’s all downhill to the door of The Stonehouse Bakery which is the way every ride ought to finish.