Riders On The Storm

Mountain Bike Ride.

The Youth, Trainee#2.

21st November route

A small ‘weather window’ in between hours of dedicated downpours was jumped into eagerly by some Terra Trailblazers whose four day break had primarily consisted of the type of precipitation usually seen apocalyptic movies. Needless to say, our whole world was beyond damp, puddles verging on the size of small tarns and terra firma the consistency of blancmange, grey sky and a bitter North East wind made our pleasure complete. With the promise of more rain to come early afternoon, the plan was to dash round a short route and be safely in the cafe when the storm arrived.

A steady/gruelling/challenging* (*delete as appropriate) uphill start through Little Kildale and up the slippy leaf strewn tarmac of what The Bread Lad calls Three Sting Hill took us to Warren Farm, where a bit of downhill past the disused chimney in Leven Vale brought our trio to the start of The Field Of Heavy Gravity, a seemingly flat, grassy field which soon has everyone shedding gears. From the gate on the far side, it’s a bit of push/carry up to the top of Kildale Moor where nice technical singletrack leads down into Baysdale, made harder today by being wetter than the Titanic ballroom. The track ends at Three Barns where we head along the valley a little way, through a section of sodden sphagnum moss and sucking peat hags to, firmer if not much drier ground.

Better tracks take us upwards, heading for Great Hograh Head on Baysdale Moor, the atypical North East wind at our backs, making the usual slog up the featureless moor marginally easier. It didn’t make the frequent hail sting any less though. Dropping down to Armouth Wath, we turned into the wind for the ride back to Kildale. Following the Old Coal Road to Burton Howe, we picked up the Cleveland Way track above Greenhow Bank, heading north on what is normally a speedy blast, slightly downhill, passing Tidy Brown Hill to the Baysdale Road. Today it was a battle against the wind, pedalling sections which are usually freewheel cruises. The Baysdale road, normally a tarmac blast required a bit of effort, despite being steeply downhill, skin-flaying hailstones adding to the pleasure.

Minutes later we were in Glebe Cottage, at a remarkably early time (for us) tucking into coffee and food, Trainee#2’s sundae-like hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows destroying our tough, storm beating, outdoors men image and possibly hinting at some future gender reassignment for him. As we left the cafe, the weather forecasters were proved right and the rain begin in earnest, not stopping for almost 24 hours, causing floods and traffic disruption all around the area, making us grateful we had managed to grab a few relatively dry hours in the outdoors while everyone else let themselves be cowed into confinement by the forecast.