The Day After Doris

Mountain Bike Ride

The Youth

24th February route

The day after Storm Doris dawned dry and bright, the morning sunshine lightening the darkness of a country devastated, nationwide cataclysms filling gigabytes of news media; we drove into Great Ayton cautiously, expecting a dystopian nightmare of collapsed buildings and fallen trees. The river was faster than usual and a bit browner - otherwise no change. We rode coatless in the warm sunshine, in February, passing through Fletcher’s Farm and climbing upward, through the farmyard at Aireyholme Farm where things became muddy. The long drag up to Roseberry Common was also thick with the brown stuff but the view of a well-populated Roseberry Topping took our minds off the struggle. Half term and sunshine a combination to lure the day people, our usually solitary tracks comparatively thronged with those enjoying their brief liberation from the education industry. We shouldered the bikes and joined the hikers for a few minutes, walking up the steps to the gate onto Newton Moor, which is a NSP (natural stopping point), so a quick breather and a bit of chit chat with a friendly walker was in order before we moved on to fling ourselves down a couple of Guisborough Woods’ finest downhill tracks; the first two sections of Les’s were in far better condition than they ought to have been considering they had spent all day yesterday being dumped on by Doris. Not precisely dry but mud was not the cloying mire we’re becoming accustomed to and progress was as brisk as it can ever be for someone approaching middle-age with marginal bike handling skills and an aversion to (any more) broken bones.

A bit of fire road plodding followed, culminating in an ascent of The Unsuitables, that direct but somewhat demanding route back to the top of Guisborough Woods which we seem to drag ourselves up at least once a week. Pausing at the top to wait for The Youth to catch up, I refrained from mentioning the thirty six year age difference as he panted into view, making his excuses between gasps. We carried on down Black Nab on the paved track, splashing through standing water until the fun ends at a gate, from where we climbed gently to the Codhill Heights track. The wide, fast descent to Sleddale was, again, a lot less muddy than would have been expected and some fine speeds were recorded as we hurtled down the track like Danny Hart and Guy Martin - in our imaginations at least. The climb back up to Percy Cross Rigg once again sorted the men from the boys, just saying like. At the end of the tarmac section of Percy Cross Rigg, we returned to offroad for a trip around the Lonsdale Bowl,  Fingerbender Bank, today a gentle rivulet tinkling picturesquely down the rock slabs. Finger’s safely unbent we arrived at Gribdale, beginning to realise, despite the odds, we’d had a decent ride and it was all downhill to the cafe, a downhill, even if it is on road is always enjoyable, especially if it’s steep and a little greasy on the corners.

Arriving at Dikes Lane, surely a name from a Carry On film if ever there was one, we hung a right, then a left and, keeping with the downhill theme, began to reverse our outbound route, although with a quick detour into Fletcher’s Farm cafe for necessary sustenance before returning to Great Ayton.