Mountain Bike Rides
The Daily Express weather Armageddon has still not arrived, although we live in fearful trepidation for the day alarmist tabloid headlines actually come true, we force ourselves to keep on riding. Especially while the weather is mild and mainly dry.
Our first ride was from Kildale station car park, just assembling bikes left us filthy before we even started riding, it is very ‘rural’ for a car park. Howard joined us for this ride, his first since the 2015 Xmas dinner ride, naturally he played the unfit card before we set off - I wish I was that unfit, we spent most of the ride looking at the back of his head. Our route took in some of Guisborough Woods’ finest and slippiest tracks, there is a plethora of mud about at the moment, we chose as wisely as possible but some sideways action was unavoidable. Sadly, when the bottom of the woods is reached, the only way is up and we hauled ourselves slowly upward to the top of The Unsuitables, from where we headed to Gribdale to extend our suffering by ascending the fire road to Captain Cook’s Monument - into the freshening wind. Too cold to hang about at the top, a swift retreat was called for and 500 feet of descent later, Howard was sampling the best Glebe Cottage could offer, managing to out-eat us as well as out-ride us. Well, he’s a growing lad.
The following day, we swapped a Howard for an Oz and Kildale for Sheepwash - a North Yorkshire countryside amenity for Teessiders who like to enjoy the great outdoors without actually losing sight of their vehicles. One of our old three loops rides being dusted off for today’s ride out, trying to keep away from the squelchier regions. The first loop, a quick circuit of Scarth Wood Moor, went well, pretty much on firm tracks the whole way and it was not long before we were passing through the car park again to cross Cod Beck and take the path beside the reservoir. Trainee#2 attempted to give us a demo of his uphill skills on the initial steep bank but poor gear selection let him down, unfortunately right in front of the camera. The climb up to High Lane inevitably followed just so Trainee#2 could descend the lumpy slabs back to the ford at Sheepwash, which were conquered with more success for some than others. With age comes wisdom - or wimpiness. The second loop finished with crossing the ford, a short bit of tarmac took us to Clain Woods for the descent of The Steps Of Doom, worrying combination of loose gravel and wet wood; the more mature took a circumspect approach, while youthfulness did not even hesitate - we remember when The Ginger One was like that, until a few crashes crushed the courage.
Continuing through Scugdale to Heathwaite, we began climbing again, up through Live Moor Plantation, shouldering the bikes to scale the greasy steps to reach the singletrack which traverses the hillside through Faceby Plantation, speedy and predominantly dry, it was over too fast, no doubt owing to our downhill dexterity, or maybe, skill compensating bikes. From Bank Lane, on the outskirts of Faceby, we turned left to cross the fields beneath Whorl Hill and found ourselves caught up in the local hunt, beagles on the scent, totally dedicated to their task, completely ignoring us and demonstrating their fence hopping skill. The horse people seemed to do more waiting waiting about chatting than we did when The Captain used to come biking with us. Although biking with us would be a bit of an exaggeration, he was usually so far behind he could only be seen with a Tardis. We followed the hunt toward Whorlton, where they paused for another sit about, while we continued through Swainby and (bit of poor route planning here) rode up Scarth Nick, where the tortoises left the hare in a way which would have made good old Aesop proud.
For the second day running, a ride culminated in three grown men - some admittedly more grown than others - mud-splattered and starving, which was handy because we had a new cafe to try. Swainby’s Rusty Bike Cafe qualified as a Terra Trailblazers’ eatery, mainly by the virtue of being actually open - not a popular concept amongst a lot of cafe’s nowadays. Anyway it was very pleasant, some cycling memorabilia scattered about, original paintings (or perhaps prints. Do I sound like Brian Sewell? Let’s hope not.) on the walls and a log burner pumping out the heat. Drinks and cakes at the moment but hot food is in the pipeline. I can recommend the date slice.
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