April 2019 Round Up and Video

April 2019 Round Up and Video


Click here for video.

And that’s another month gone, not too bad as April’s go, a bit chilly but mostly dry and then an Easter Bank Holiday weekend to rival the Mediterranean. Perhaps a little too dry there were a few wildfires, which caused some damage around the area, particularly the east side of Guisborough Woods which lost a few acres of young woodland. Plenty of riding was done however, all of it blogged, except for a local ride on the cross bike yesterday, which brought April’s total mileage to 270, with 22,000 feet of ascent in 17 rides. The mountain bike is all packed up ready for a week in Spain, our annual sojourn to Sierra Cycling on the Costa Del Sol, ready for cerveza and montañas, sunshine and tapas.

And There Goes Another April.

It is surprising when you stop to consider I've had fifty nine Aprils in my life so far. Doesn't seem that many, I feel quite young now.

Cross Bike Ride

La Mujerita
Monday 22nd April 2019 route

Leisurely Local Legstretcher

And so it came to pass that Easter Monday, the celebration of Jesus rising from the grave, as he predicted from the cross, when he spake in a commanding voice to his disciples gathered below. Spake, not spoke, perhaps there was a tax on O’s in those days, anyway he spake to them. “Don’t touch my Easter eggs, I’ll be back on Monday.” And when the disciples returned to the cave, someone had rolled away the stone (Mott The Hoople 1974) and though they searched, their Lord and saviour had done one. And when I went to get the bikes out there was no sign of any two thousand year old messiahs in my shed either. This Easter is predicted to be the hottest one since 2011 but not as hot as Easter Saturday in 1949 when the temperature topped 29 degrees centigrade - blame global warming for that one. Me and La Mujerita have planned what she has began to think of as our Big Ride, cycling from the sparkling minarets of the chemical factories in the flatlands of Teesside to the wild and windy moors, staying in a suitably rustic hostelry overnight before riding back the following day. Probably about 35 miles each way, not exactly Big Ride territory but a pleasant way of wasting a couple of days. Bank holidays, sunshine and being free from work means the day people completely lose their shit and swarm to anywhere everyone else is going - safety in numbers or something, filling up the roads and clogging car parks across the land. A bit of environmentally sound pedal power, training for the Big Ride, seemed in order and we were soon turning a shade of pink riding along cycle tracks and minor roads. Sun cream in April? Who would think of that, this isn’t Spain you know. There were plenty of people about as we made our way through Stockton and Ingleby Barwick, some cycling, most strolling about in the sunshine, as is customary, each was greeted with a polite hello or a smile of greeting, which was blanked by about ninety percent of those we passed. Look straight ahead, don’t speak, don’t smile, don’t make eye contact with the madman on the bike. Perhaps they were in a chocolate coma from scoffing so many Easter eggs or something; one of the nicest days of the year and they are walking about as though they are in a Mexican shanty town on Grab A Gringo Day. Leaving the russet tones of the cyclepaths behind, we crossed the road at the Fox Covert and took to country lanes, through Hilton towards the wind turbines, turning off onto the Hutton Rudby road and turning again to follow a minor minor road to the prison at Kirklevington. Continuing down the hill into Yarm and coffee, sitting outside in the sunshine, watching folks enjoying their precious time off by shuffling up and down the High Street, dressed in their best clothes, looking in shop windows.

From Yarm we headed back to Stockton Riverside, stopping off at The Talpore for further refreshment, this time of an alcoholic nature, multitudes concurred and there was no room at the inn for two weary travellers but there is plenty of grass overlooking the white water course, where we could watch canoeists doing their splishy splashy thing. Or could have if the water had been turned on, not a brightly coloured perspex torpedo in sight, hard to understand. One pint of Spain’s finest cerveza later, we were back in the saddle, returning home by a slightly different route. Just short of 30 miles, all quiet gentle, barely any ascent but it’s a bit of training for the Big Ride and it was warm and sunny, so what’s not to like?

Relive 'Leisurely Local Legstretcher'

Mountain Bike Ride

The Breadlad.
Wednesday 24th April 2019 route.

The Rosedale Round Revised

A bit of a late start today owing to us both having appointments, me with a young lady who has a fascination with x raying my teeth and The Breadlad doing something car related. We met at Bank Top, on Blakey Ridge separating Rosedale from Farndale, The Breadlad’s first ride for a few weeks owing to an unfortunate fork in the eye incident, not the Moe Syzslak special from The Simpsons but a bicycle fork. Anyway, here he was raring to go because this was to be the inaugural voyage of his new bike, losing it’s off-road virginity to the trails of Rosedale.

Our route was the basic Rosedale Round with a slight variation. We began as normal, following the old rail track to Chimney Bank Top, passing the odd reminder of the area’s industrial heritage on the virtually flat track. The good weather from the start of the week is cooling off but it remains sunny although the wind is cold enough to remind us it’s still April.

After crossing the road, our next objective was Ana Cross in the near distance, from where it is downhill all the way to Lastingham on a mixture of hard-packed mud and gravel. A great start to any route, miles and miles of downhill but all good things and all that meant we were soon climbing, gradually on the singletrack, past High Askew Farm (ghostly titter from The Pensioner), above the River Seven towards Rosedale Abbey, cautiously through Collarbone Breaker Gully, an unfortunate incident back in 2012 which rewarded me with my first ever broken bone, at the grand old age of fifty two. Emerging at The White Horse Hotel, we would normally take the road down into Rosedale Abbey but today, for a bit of a variation, we crossed over the road and headed for Thorgill, then across fields, eventually ending up at the self-service cafe at Dale Head Farm. which was surprisingly empty despite their being a few ramblers wandering about the valley.

From the cafe, a brutal climb takes us back onto the rail track on Rosedale East Side and continues around the head of the valley, the most technical section of the whole ride, where railtrack turns to singletrack at a section where the railtrack is lost to bog. Once this section is circumnavigated, it is back to the cinders, as we climb gradually back to our cars.

Relive 'The Rosedale Round Revised.'

Mountain Bike Ride

The Breadlad
Thursday 25th April 2019 route

The Sky Is Leaking

Early start today, me and The Breadlad offloading bikes at the (to us anyway) unfeasibly early hour of ten o’clock, as other people are finishing their ride/run/walk and heading for home. Don’t these people have beds? Are they sleeping rough in the forest? Despite a bright start to the day, it has now clouded over and the temperature is heading back toward the seasonal average for April. Mediocre in other words. We took ourselves off for a ‘gentle’ ride around Guisborough Woods, taking in a few of the dry and dusty trails before climbing to the east side of the woods for a look at the fire damage, the charcoal spread a little further than last week following a flare up, but not too far. 

As we headed toward Pinchinthorpe Visitor Centre, or more importantly, the cafe, via further dry and dusty trails the unthinkable happened. Water began leaking from the sky, teasing us with barely-there droplets, an ethereal moisture embracing our skin, gradually increasing in volume until we could deny it no longer and stopped to don waterproof coats. 

The trails soaked up the water like The Ginger One having his first pint after the two day abstinence he calls night shifts but the roots soon became greasy, rejecting knobbly tyre caresses by firing wheels in random directions as we made our way down the last trails of the ride. The rain has driven everyone indoors and we managed to grab the last two seats in the cafe amongst the throng of dogs, toddlers and ladies who lunch.

Relive 'The Sky Is Leaking'

Mountain Bike Ride

The Nissan Nomads, The Ginger One.
Friday 26th April 2019 route.

Pre-Spain Ride From The Costa Del Sheepwash

The Nissan lads have once again escaped the urban paradise of Sunderland and today headed down the A19 to Sheepwash for a pre-Spain friendly. The temperature is continuing its nosedive back towards to winter, the wind is pushing and shoving like a playground bully and some clouds on the horizon are flexing their muscles, ready for the sort of action we could do without. Coats are donned for the start of the ride, the wind is that cold, and we take the pleasant path along the reservoir before climbing up through the woods to High Lane, heading for Square Corner and the Mad Mile, it’s intimidating verticality plunging down the shoulder of a brooding Black Hambleton. Luckily we only tackled the foothills before turning off into Silton Woods, or what is left of Silton Woods and making our way to the downhill track, with only a slight bit of misdirection. In my defence it all looks different without the trees. 

Our quartet galloped down the track with all the style and aplomb of four blokes on the verge of middle age, wheels barely, if ever, leaving the floor, bone-breaking velocity avoided because “we’re going to Spain in 6 days.” Happy with our endeavours, four riders safely to the bottom without so much as a bruise between them, we made the heinous fire road climb to Square Corner and continued back to the woods above Cod Beck. The track we call Rod’s came next, initially weaving between trees before timber gives way to gorse on a narrow downhill track, the lads wearing short sleeves emerging looking like they had been mauled by some particularly camp tigers. Apparently my fault. And then we climbed again, all the way to the top of Scarth Wood Moor, for one of our favourite runs, through the woods, blasting between the conifers on a brown ribbon of spongy pine needles. We climbed the moor again, back to the high point, ready to take on Olly’s Folly, rocky and steep to start, then a grassy cruise back to the car park, a brilliant finish to the ride. 

We did consider an extra loop to do the rocky slabs down to the ford but after a look up from below, “we’re going to Spain in 6 days”, discretion before valour and assorted other craven cliches spewed forth and we retired to the more genteel surroundings of The Rusty Bike for coffee and pies.

Relive 'Pre-Spain Ride From The Costa Del Sheepwash.'

Here Comes The Summer?

Mountain Bike Ride

Monday 15th April 2019 route
The Ginger One


The “Somebody Set Fire To The Woods” Ride.

The easter holidays are upon us, our usual quiet car parks, half-empty cafes and deserted trails have been infested (in the words of The Ginger One) with day people, that curious sub-species of wage slave, who all start work at the same time, sit in the same traffic jams, leave the same time, sit in more traffic jams, home, food, telly, bed, alcoholic oblivion every weekend. People that get excited at the thought of a four day break. How we laugh; four days off is the minimum shift worker break, which is hurried through in anticipation of the next ten day break, only surpassed in terms of excitement by the eighteen day break, only two of those per year though, shame. With this in mind me and The Ginger One met at a rapidly filling Gribdale car park, with bikes and a little post-ride picnic to avoid having to squeeze into an overflowing cafe. The newly refurbished track up Nab End is again shown to an unbelieving cyclist, from rocks and waist deep ruts to a steep but easily rideable highway to Percy Cross Rigg. The weather is following the usual bright but cool wind trend it has for the last few days, despite being warm from our climbing exertions, losing the windproof left us chilled. Oh, the dilemmas we face daily, I don’t know how we manage.

We managed to climb our way up and over Codhill Heights to Guisborough Woods, ready and eager to let some of Guisborough’s finest tracks ease away our troubles and woes. Heading eastward, we came to the much-publicised devastation, allegedly the devil making work for idle hands and all that, a couple of acres of new woodland reduced to a Hollywood dystopia of blackened trees and scorched earth, carbonized heather still smouldering, the brisk wind fanning the hot peat into little spurts of flame. The Ginger One used his special man hose and a tank of recycled John Smiths to douse the flames. It hardly mattered,  everything that could burn has burnt. It seems the popular Eston pastime of setting fire to the hills may have spread to Guisborough, let’s hope not - for the arsonist’s sake, many people are passionate about Guisborough Woods, not only the cyclists and trailbuilders but equestrians and dog-walkers, ramblers, ornithologists and everyone who, knowingly or unknowingly, likes a bit of shrinrin-yoku, forest bathing in Japanese, taking in the forest atmosphere, a cornerstone in healing and preventative healthcare in Japanese medicine. It’s not inconceivable that twisted firestarters could become battered firestarters one day.

Leaving the scorched earth behind us, we took in a few more of Guisborough’s finest trails, okay, easiest trails, heading in an uphill and down dale fashion back west, eventually reaching Roseberry Common from where we carried our bikes up the steps onto Newton Moor, just to avoid a an uphill tarmac finish back to Gribdale. Instead we squeezed in the Lonsdale Bowl, Fingerbender Bank and Andy’s Track before returning to the cars for our picnic, the deceptive blue sky belying the fact it was actually colder than a woman proved wrong.

Relive 'The "Somebody Set Fire To The Woods" Ride'

Mountain Bike Ride

Tuesday 16th April 2019 route
La Mujerita

Swainby Shorty

The following day was equally cold and sunny, me and La Mujerita found ourselves panting up the bank to Whorlton Castle for the start of a little ride around the area. We rode through the hamlet of Whorlton and continued through fields to Faceby, everywhere pleasingly dry and climbed up into the plantation, following the bridleway through the trees which eventually popped us out at Heathwaite in the Scugdale valley.

The infamous Cowshit Farm was our next objective, although it is a completely different place to fifteen years ago when The Ginger One wobbled while riding through a farmyard of knee-deep slurry and was forced to put his foot down into the mire, wearing shorts too; remarkably he did not contract Weils Disease or Foot And Mouth. Nowadays it is a clean ride through the farmyard and across grassy fields to Clain Woods where La Mujerita was introduced to the Clain Woods steps, a seemingly interminable incline of wooden steps, part of the famous Lyke Wake Walk (other long distance walks are available), a push/carry/swear all the way up, for us mere mortals. Howard managed to ride it the other week, throwing the gauntlet down to the rest of the Terra Trailblazers. And there it remains to this day, covered in mud, horse shit and rambler’s footprints.

We climbed up Scarth Wood Moor on the paved track before entering the woods to find a route back down to Swainby, still a few fallen trees, casualties of the winter storms blocking the trails but everywhere mostly bone dry. We passed the crenellated house of Scarth Wood Farm and rode through fields of newborn lambs, bleating loudly at the intrusion as their mothers’ stood by indifferently chewing grass. The Rusty Bike cafe was strangely quiet for a holiday week but we weren’t complaining.

Relive 'Swainby Shorty'

Mountain Bike Ride

Wednesday 17th April 2019 route
The Youth

Coatless At Clay Bank

Another day: another bike ride, as the saying goes and this time it was The Youth and an old classic, the Tripsdale Round, a quicky because he is still constrained by that curious pastime known as work, I can’t see it catching on myself, and needed to be home by mid-afternoon. And as we stepped from the car in Clay Bank car park, we were assailed by a curious feeling - heat, coats were packed into bags, “just in case”, hopefully to remain there until November. Despite the shortness of the route, it has some gruesome climbs, starting with the Carr Ridge steps and continuing up to Round Hill, as we all know, the highest point on the North York Moors.

From here it levels out a bit and wide, sandy tracks are taken across the moors, with a few ups and downs until we find ourselves high above the Tripsdale valley, salivating at the thought of almost a mile of descent, culminating in some steep hairpins to cross the stream in the valley bottom. Today it was magnificent, dry, dusty, loose and rocky, like a spring day in Spain, The Youth vanished into the distance, only the odd puff of dust rising from his back wheel to mark his progress. The more circumspect member of today’s team made more sedate progress but all too soon we were facing the equal and opposite reaction to a marvellous downhill, the abominable uphill, equally steep, loose and rocky, we climbed up like a pair of escaping sloths, slowly reaching the sanctuary of Nab End Moor.

Following the track northward to Medd Crag, we enjoyed another rapid descent to Bilsdale Hall farm, where we were greeted by the sight of two shirtless youths lifting weights in the farmyard, which prompted The Youth to tell he how much he could ‘bench’. He might as well have said wench or trench for all I cared, I’ll only be impressed when he can ride up a hill faster than somebody who is rather closer to his seventh decade than he’d like.  A couple of miles of warm tarmac and we were back in the car park, another day successfully wasted.

Relive 'Coatless At Clay Bank'

Mountain Bike Ride

Thursday 18th April 2019 route
The Nissan Nomads

It’s Grim Up North

Two companions from the arid trails of the Costa Del Sol, Ian and Charlie, have ventured south from the northern utopia of Wearside to sample the arid trails of Guisborough Woods and the surrounding area, on a day which wouldn’t disgrace midsummer. We met by the river in Great Ayton, a popular spot for duck feeding, dog walking and rolled-up trouser water-splodging, with or without the aid of a fishing net. Still relatively empty this early in the day. Introductions remade, we begin on tarmac, passing Fletcher’s Farm coffee shop, thronged with the morning coffee crowd and continuing to Aireyholme Farm, climbing to Roseberry Common. It soon became apparent that my companions were not on their fourth mountain bike ride of the week and I was soon relegated to the status of fat lad at the back, as their fresh legs spun casually up the climbs. I’d actually sat down and planned out a route today, maximum tracks for minimum climbing but it still involved a lot more uphill than is usual for a retired process operator. Having a feeling I’d be regretting this later, we embarked on our first track, the relatively gentle and (since the trees were felled) popular, Hanging Stone, regaining the fire road before a stiff climb took us to a trail that may or may not be called Lazy Adder, one of those weaving through the woods, mind the handlebars sort of things, never too steep but enjoyable nonetheless. More of Guisborough Woods’ finest fireroad followed until we reached Snakebite, in perfect condition today, dry roots and packed earth all the way to the Blue Lake. What goes up must come down, a short climb took us to Stripes 2, another easy but fun trail dropping us down to the bottom of The Unsuitables. Rather than climb said track, we continued into Hutton Village and up the tarmac road back into the forest but not before I had demonstrated my proficiency at somersaulting over the handlebars when a wooden drop off turned out to be a somewhat higher than I expected. 

At the top of the tarmac climb we turned left and climbed some more, up to the junction of tracks beneath the imposing Highcliffe Nab, ready and eager to take on our next track, Lover’s Ledge, the lengthiest trail so far, transitioning from woodland singletrack to open hillside via berms, mini-jumps and mercifully dry tree roots, in places steep and technical with the added distraction of the fine view across Hutton Hall and Guisborough to the North Sea behind. “Like being in Spain.” opined one of my companions, where we will all be in thirteen days time. Of course, this little slice of pure pleasure was followed by an ascent so gruesome it made colonoscopy look inviting. Further, more gentle climbing brought us to The Nipple, a well known landmark on Codhill Heights, renown amongst mountain bikers for the descent down the other side, Scalextric, the Wearside Wanderers soon found out how the name was coined, locked into a network of ruts making up the descent, it’s just a matter of pointing the bike downward and trying to avoid scraping the side walls and being flung off into the heather. They found it to be the most challenging trail of the day but not as challenging as I found the climb out of Sleddale when we had already climbed in excess of two thousand feet, or to look at it another way, something in the region of seven thousand feet of climbing for me this week. The Lonsdale Bowl, Fingerbender Bank and Andy’s Track took us to the road at a pretty full Gribdale. Weary, hot and hungry we continued to Fletcher’s Farm, where in a reversal of the normal conditions, all the outside tables were taken, forcing us to sit inside, sweltering and doubtless giving off an aroma more suited to a genuine barn than a busy cafe.

Relive 'It's Grim Up North'