The First Week Of March
Mountain Bike Ride.
Friday 1st March route
The Ginger One, The Youth.
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| Dale Head Farm |
It's been a while since we visited Hawnby and The Ginger One is keen to once again sample the daily special - which was actually the same every day for about ten years. Locally produced pork and apple burger, with or without chips. With this in mind, we assembled at Square Corner, shivering in the Square Corner microclimate, which usually renders this small patch of gravel ten degrees colder than the ambient temperature. We cycled past the remains of Dale Head Farm, well past the status of fixer upper ( as many have tried during the years) and fast becoming random pile of stones in a field. The Dale Head singletrack was in winter condition, slightly moist but mostly rideable. The road section which follows seems steeper than we remembered but eventually we reached Moor Gate and returned to off-road, passing the remote Hill End House and down through fields and woods to the River Rye, crossing on what we still call the new bridge, despite it being in place for well over a decade. A stiff climb took us to New Hall, where my dad lived in the 1940’s, from here it is all downhill to Hawnby, The Ginger One was devastated to find the daily special is no more, a bowl of homemade soup soon cheered him up.
We all took aboard vital sustenance ready for the ascent of Murton Bank, something The Youth had been dreading since the start of the ride. It’s been a couple of years since we rode up this beast and all I can say is it hasn’t got any flatter and The Youth hasn’t got any faster at going uphill, this seems to be a common trait amongst gym rats - just saying like. Only a few miles of The Hambleton Drove Road stood between us and the Mad Mile, helped by a tailwind, the miles passed pleasurably and soon we were regrouping by the cairn, ready to for a mile of pure pleasure. The Mad Mile appears to have overgone more sanitisation, there are less loose rocks and the slabby sections are covered by gravel, which takes out some of the fun but will probably make it easier to ride up.
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| The Mad Mile. |
Monday 4th March route
La Mujerita
The start of a new week saw me and La Mujerita at Sheepwash, ready for a few loops around the area, the weather has reverted to seasonal, unfortunately, around fifteen degrees cooler than last Monday. We had a quick scoot along the shore of the reservoir, then ascended through the woods to High Lane, only to drop down again on what we call Rod’s Track, weaving through the trees and gorse bushes to Cote Ghyll. From Cote Ghyll, a longer climb took us to Scarth Wood Moor, ready for another woodland descent and a bit of steep drop training for La Mujerita, where she learnt from the mountain biking mantra, “If you’re not falling off, you’re not trying hard enough.”
It took a few attempts but I got her to fall off eventually; sessioning a steep, muddy drop, festooned with slippy roots, something she wouldn’t have even considered a few months ago. It’s always nice to see progress. We made our way back up the moor on the paved bridleway and continued along the top, making a detour to The Lady Chapel, a church hidden amongst trees on the hillside, which has been there for centuries, falling into ruins for many years before restoration began in 1959. A detailed history is available on The Lady Chapel website.
A track took us back to the outskirts of Osmotherley and road back to the reservoir, which looked picturesque now the sun had decided to put in an appearance, blue sky, blue water, white fluffy clouds; another grand day to be out.
CX Bike Ride.
Tuesday 5th March route
Local ride for local people.
Another local outing on the cross bike, headwind, rain, chain came off. About sums it up.
Mountain Bike Ride.
Thursday 7th March route
The Breadlad, The Youth
Waiting in the main car park at Hamsterley for The Breadlad to arrive from the trail-burglars car park at Bedburn, it was cool and dull but looked like we might stay dry, despite a brief drizzle shower. We headed directly up to Windybank Road on forest tracks to introduce The Breadlad to the trail known as The Pensioner. Unfortunately The Pensioner wasn’t in the mood to play nicely, yesterday’s rain leaving the whole trail muddy and slipperier than a jellied eel in a bucket of grease. It wasn’t a successful descent but showed The Breadlad the potential for a drier day.
Climbing back up to the Descend car park gets no easier but Section 13, being an all-weather sort of track, rode well despite the odd puddle. Continuing in a generally downward direction, we bypassed Boneshaker in favour of Swiss Tony, another unofficial track, rejoining the sanctioned routes to do Special K and Brainfreeze. All without incident. Crossing the river we climbed upward, to (eventually) arrive at Pikes Teeth, a track we’ve been bypassing lately in favour of continuing onto the moor and Doctor’s Gate. The Youth descended as though he was being chased by the hounds of hell, at a pace us gentlemen on the verge of middle-age couldn’t compete with, no doubt he is overcompensating for not being able to keep up with someone thirty five years his senior on the uphills.
The off-piste tracks are all suffering from the weather, so we stayed on the main tracks, continuing to Oddsox chased by a rain shower which forgot it was meant to be a shower and accompanied us for the remainder of the ride. Dampening everything but our enthusiasm. The long drag to Transmission was no easier and K Line is closed for a few days, so we after a very brief stop at the table - it’s no fun sitting about in the rain, we did the Triple Tranny, as the the three routes are known, Transmission, Accelerator and Special K, returning to the valley bottom with aching forearms and mud-splattered faces, no longer concerned about the rain as we made our way back along the road to the car park, me and The Youth content, knowing our ride was in the bag and The Trail Burglar still had another climb to punish him.
Mountain Bike Ride.
Friday 8th March route
The Breadlad, The Ginger One, Oz.
The following day dawned bright and sunny, pity it couldn’t manage to stay like that; by the time our quartet of pedalling prevaricators left Great Ayton it was grey and dull with a biting wind. Ever upwards we pedalled past Fletcher’s Farm and Aireyholme Farm to Roseberry Common, then shouldered the bikes for the steps up to Newton Moor, discussing how someone new to mountain biking might view this start. The consensus being most modern “snowflakes” would never be seen on a bike again but more stoical (i.e. old) people, unaccustomed to the instant gratification culture of the millennials might realise pleasures are always sweeter when earned. And it was, we did Les’s One, The Hanging Stone and a few more of Guisborough’s finest trackage package before ascending the full length of The Unsuitables from Hutton Village to the top of the woods.
We were unsuited to it, apart from The Ginger One, whose recent performance increase would, at any organised event, have him pulled aside to fill a bottle with his John Smith’s tainted urine. Whether it’s secret training, pharmaceuticals or he’s sold his soul to the Devil is uncertain but his nickname from the early days of the Terra Trailblazers, Grannyring Robson, no longer applies. Black Nab and The Nipple came next, followed by Fingerbender Bank and Andy’s Track, down to Gribdale, yesterday’s rain caught us up again. The Ginger One’s extra loop up to Captain Cook’s Monument proposition was greeted with the disdain it deserved and five minutes later we were dripping mud in Fletcher’s Farm tea room amongst dog walkers and ladies who lunch.
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