A Good Couple Of Hours Exploring
Alone
Just one of those leisurely days when little used avenues could be explored, see a path, follow it and look out for trails left and right. And it worked out pretty well, finding a few trails whose existence had been hitherto unknown to us but someone has been busy with the logs, crafting some nice drops and berms on trails winding down the hillside at the far end of Guisborough Woods. Even the weather kind of played nicely apart from the unseasonably strong wind, which made hard work of the ride back to the car.
Relive 'Morning Aug 19th'
Droning On
Alone
Another ride scrounging about Guisborough Woods and surrounding area, this time starting from Gribdale. The wind is forecast to be a bit more gentle today, so I thought I might give the drone another chance to behave itself. A few miles later some bloke on the verge of middle-age could be seen riding in and out of a trail while glancing skywards and swearing profusely. The plan was to launch drone, set it to active track, follow mode, ride trail with customary style and aplomb while drone follows filming magnificent aerial footage worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. The reality is more prosaic, drone up, active track engaged, start riding along moor to trail entrance, drone follows nicely, turn into trail and begin descending, realise the buzzing of the motors is no longer audible, look back, drone is hovering at trail entrance, looking baffled and no doubt saying “Where’d he go? Where’d he go?” in drone-speak. Push back to top of trail, start the whole process again, after the third attempt it manages to film the top part of the trail, unfortunately without the rider. Low battery and it’s time to land, so that was twelve to fifteen minutes filming resulting in about 20 seconds of useful footage. Such is the wonderful world of drones, I considered that a good result.
Deciding to save the second battery for somewhere more scenic, I packed up and rode on, deciding Highcliffe Nab might be a good spot for some more aerial manoeuvres, the wind however, had other ideas, gusting so strongly the drone would have struggled to film smooth footage and I might have struggled to ride smoothly. Not too worry, there are a couple of other locations in mind, unfortunately all of which turned out to be equally windswept, so the drone stayed in the bag and I enjoyed the ride.
The car park is lower and more sheltered, so after I had my little picnic, it seemed an idea to use the remaining drone battery to grab a few general views of the area, B roll as they call it in the movie business. Launch drone, fly it a few feet and it randomly decides to disconnect itself from the app which is supposed to be showing me what the camera is seeing, I can still fly the drone and control it with the remote control but cannot start the video or see what I am filming. I land the drone and go through the whole start up and launch procedure three times,with the same results, not able to get the magical “Go Fly” notification at all, then as the drone is hovering and I am trying to think of a way out to make the stupid thing work, it suddenly does, everything back to normal. Why? How? No idea. Begin filming, beep beep beep “Low Battery Warning - the device will land in ten seconds.” Frustration isn’t strong enough a word.
Relive 'Morning Aug 20th'
Round The Reservoir Quicky
Wednesday 21st August
La Mujerita
A little ride out with La Mujerita today, driving to Square Corner through a minor cloudburst, which thankfully passed by the time we had got the bikes off the car. Square Corner is, as usual, suffering from its own micro-climate, where it is half as warm and twice as windy as the surrounding area, it was a relief to be on the bikes and heading down the road towards Chequers - the former coaching inn, not the prime ministers country house, which is in that region of Britain which deserves to be only ever passed over at 35,000 feet on the way to somewhere much farther south.
La Mujerita likes her trails like her men, smooth and picturesque, which is, obviously, why she chose me; we took route 65 down through the forest to Cod Beck Reservoir, fire road all the way but the weather had improved substantially, so it was a pleasant downhill blast in the sunshine. We crossed the road after the reservoir and rode up to Scarth Wood Moor on tarmac, a steady climb but nothing too arduous, a brief rest at the seat and we rode down the other side, a long descent, mainly paved with slabs of rock, giving way to gravel tracks lower down, with fine views across Whorl Hill to Roseberry Topping.
From the road, we pedalled back to the reservoir, passing the throngs at Sheepwash, all getting a bit of countryside, safe in the knowledge they are only metres from their cars in case wild bear descends from the trees looking for an easy meal. Crossing the dam for the second time today, we reversed our outbound route back to Square Corner, now languishing in sunshine, only a short route but it appears to be the new favourite of La Mujerita.
Relive 'Morning Aug 21st'
It’s Having A Go At Being Summer
Friday 23rd August 2019
Rod
In a change to the usual programme, we had an afternoon ride today because Rod is one of those unfortunate people who work days not shifts, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend and he is giddy with excitement to have an extra afternoon to add to his whole three days off. Hutton village is again the starting point, Guisborough Woods the venue and it’s having a go at being summer; sun, sweat and flies. We climbed to Highcliffe, more or less directly, not the easiest start but efficient in a brutal way. Continuing to the far end of the woods, we explored some trails which we had never ridden before, someone has definitely been busy, building berms, drop offs and jumps on a variety of tracks, we even ‘sessioned’ a few bits, just like young people do. One structure, which might be loosely described as a bridge, has obviously been constructed by someone too young to have discovered the pleasures of beer and kebabs and flexed alarmingly when crossed by some more mature gentlemen.
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| Dodgy bit of bridge building. |
Returning to the Highcliffe area of Guisborough Woods, we sniffed out some more trails which Rod had seen on a video somewhere, these were more natural than the previous ones, following an established but well hidden trail through the trees. The last trail popped us out on the bottom track which leads to Hutton village, despite the brevity of our route, it was getting late, so mindful of the rush hour traffic we would have to endure (something shift workers find astounding, “They do this every day?”) we called it a wrap and headed back to the cars.
Relive 'Afternoon Aug 23rd'
Like the routes vids, reminds me of a rat in a maze, but of course yiu lot are amazing. My old aching bones warm up to your adventures. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteAll the best from Flanders.