Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, I don’t know about the mellow fruitfulness, unless you count the sloes for my gin, but we have had more mist than a 1970’s Hammer horror. Some of the rides over the past fortnight have had less visibility than Mr. Magoo (only people of a certain age) buried in a snow drift.
Mountain Bike Ride
All alone.
12th November 2018 route
Monday. Ironically the first ride of the week was bright and sunny but quite cold, I took my lonely self for a spin around Guisborough Woods, starting along the old rail track, then up the concrete road and back along the top of the woods to Highcliffe Nab. It is fair to say things are getting muddy out there, anything remotely off-piste is no longer the flowing firmness we enjoyed a few weeks ago, now more a skittering bagatelle of sliding tyres and unplanned dismounts. Descending Codhill Heights on the gravel bridleway was better despite a headwind; a steady pedal around the Lonsdale Bowl, then across to Les’s 1, which is now suffering from withdrawal of investment by the Forestry Commission, a couple more tracks and I was back on the fire road, heading for the cafe, slightly damp, slightly muddy (me, not the cafe) but glad to have squeezed another ride in before the man with the scythe comes calling.
Tuesday. Supposed to be a rest day but I ended up riding to Middlesbrough and back on the cross bike while my car had a visit to the sick bay.
Mountain Bike Ride
The Little Woman
14th November 2018 route
Wednesday. Me and The Little Woman (look, she’s not even five foot, what am I supposed to call her? Lofty?) went to Hamsterley for a bit more skill training. Beginning with the amenable Gruffalo Trail, which I believe is classified as a green trail, we continued along the Grove Link (blue) to, yes you’ve guessed it - the Grove. Behind the Grove, we plodded up the steep hill, then the long drag to the start of Accelerator, a red graded trail but without any steep drops or rock gardens for my trainee to contend with. We did Accelerator twice, The Little Woman was taken unawares by the amount of speed which can be generated on a seemingly flat trail, some inappropriate language may have been heard by the squirrels and deer. She sessioned (just like the young people) the little drop at the start of Nitrous, the trail after Accelerator, after some hesitation, she managed whole of the initial rocky section, an area where more than one, fully-suspended, weekend-warrior has came to grief, so a good effort for someone on a hardtail with V brakes who has barely ridden off road before. Reversing the Grove Link, we began the zig-zag climb up to the start of the Skills Loop, she declined to have a go on the see-saw near the start of the climb, close to the top we startled a pair of roe deer which bounded away into the forest, camouflaged out of view within seconds. The Skills Loop proved a bit trying in parts but she enjoyed the flowing finish more than the steep, rocky bits and came away with more confidence in her abilities.
Mountain Bike Ride
The Youth, Rod.
15th November 2018 route
Thursday. Managed to scrape together a little crew and arranged to meet at The Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge. In a similarly disappointing fashion to last week, The Lion Inn was barely visible through a thick shrouding of mist, in fact, we almost drove past the car park, visibility was so poor. A mile lower down the countryside languished in bright sunshine and five degrees more warmth, a fact not lost on us as we shivered in the car park, wishing we’d brought more clothes. Rather quicker than usual, we were on the bikes and away down the road, riding on the grass verge because we didn’t have a light between us until we reached the first bridleway of our route which we plunged into gratefully, glad to be off the road and the weather-induced myopia of the drivers. Some pleasant, technical riding took us across the head of Rosedale to the Knott Road, which we crossed straight to the next bridleway, which begins beside Fat Betty, not the old dinner lady from my school but the remains of a moorland cross. Slightly longer than the first bridleway but with more downhill, dropping below the mist as we reached the road, after a longing look at the sunshine, illuminating Castleton, down in the valley below, we turned back toward the mist and rode up the road, into a brutal headwind, the two more mature gentlemen leaving the supposedly fit Youth somewhere behind. At the Westerdale turn off we gained a bit of respite from the wind and a bit of welcome downhill, even if it was on tarmac. Leaving the road, we made our way down into the valley, picking up the B.O.A.T. passing beneath Esklets Crag on a wide downhill track before the, frankly, grievous, climb up to the old railway track which runs between Bloworth Crossing and Blakey Bank top.
We followed the rail track back to Blakey Bank top, crossed straight over the road and plunged downhill to the unique cafe at Dale Head Farm. This cafe is self-service in the winter months, self-service extending to making your own drinks, choosing your own cakes and leaving the money in an honesty box. It’s a fantastic set up, a wooden hut with tables, chairs, sofas and a badly out of tune piano. Outside is a tea garden with views down Rosedale and up to Blakey Ridge, in one corner of the cafe is bike repair section, with tools and spare parts for on the spot bike repairs, stocked with lubes, inner tubes, gear cables and loads of other stuff.
We lingered far longer than we ought to have and the half mile bridleway, uphill to Rosedale East side proved somewhat trying, slippy with mud and steep. Luckily it is brief and we were soon on Rosedale East side, pedalling the old rail track which is part of the Rosedale Round. It’s a steady grind back to Blakey with a few boggy sections to keep us alert and for the last mile or so we were headed back into the wind but at least the mist had risen a bit, we could actually see The Lion Inn from the car park, which was an improvement on four hours ago.
Mountain Bike Ride
The Breadlad.
16th November 2018 route
Friday. The Breadlad, freshly returned from his latest globetrotting adventure, standing in theme park queues alongside huge Americans, who probably thought he was Benjamin Button or some kind of Caucasian/pygmy genetic experiment. We met at Lordstones, where, if anything, the mist was thicker than yesterday, probably not the best day to try and find a track we had only seen on a photograph, which is not marked on the OS map, the location of which we’d been directed to in the vaguest of terms and a glance at Google Earth, which confirmed we were looking for an unmarked track, through some heather, off the top of a hill. Duly, we plodded to the summit of said hill and took the first track through the heather, visibility was limited, to say the least and progress was slow while we checked out offshoots from the track, with no certainty we were even heading in the correct direction, the visual reference points we were relying on hidden by the mist. The peaty singletrack suddenly dropped down the hillside and turned into a rock-strewn enduro track, which we rode cautiously, although it did turn out to be easier than it looked, traversing the moor before dropping into some woods, all nicely bermed to keep the flow going.
We popped out onto a fireroad, muddy from churning vehicle tracks, pleased with ourselves to have found, at least, part of the track. Our trail Guru, Rod, told us there are other sections but it looks like we turned the wrong way on the fireroad, a fifty fifty chance and we got it wrong, this is why I don’t do the Lottery. The fireroad, naturally, was uphill, although only low gears and panting confirmed this as the mist thickened around us, things improved towards the end and we enjoyed a brief downhill through some shale tips. Objective achieved, we could have headed straight back to the cafe but for the fact we’d not even clocked up three miles, albeit in almost an hour of blundering about. Ten minutes later, we were carrying our bikes up the steps to the summit of Cold Moor, only to ride down again seconds later, taking the bridleway down into Garfit Gap, which was wet, muddy and deceptively fast because we had no way of gauging the slope.
With only minor injuries, we made it back around Cold Moor and followed the track to Beak Hills Farm and then the road to Raisdale Mill. After the cottages, we began the long drag up to Stoney Wickes above the Scugdale valley, then the narrow track of peat, rocks and heather to Brian’s Pond, still and eerie in blanket of grey. Despite not having reached double figures with our mileage, the climbing was beginning to tell on us, my fifth day in a row and The Breadlad’s was either jet lagged or suffering withdrawal symptoms from portions of cake bigger than his head, by mutual agreement the bridleway lured us back to Lordstones. In three hours or so of myopic meandering we had only seen two other human beings - and there was us thinking we were the only ones daft enough to be out in this weather.
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