Another 6 months Of This Please...

and the trails will be perfect.

The start of another week and the weather looks magnificent, to be honest, it is colder than it looks and windy but everything is drying up nicely. Me and The Breadlad had a Hutton village start, working our way up through the woods, slipping in the odd trail here and there. At one point we pushed up (!) the SOW track, mainly to see what condition it was in. The push up made us appreciate how steep some of the sections are, anyway, it is drying up a treat, apart from the bottom section which has some deep ruts and puddles, we’ll give it another few weeks before we ride it. We made our way to Highcliffe Nab via Percy Cross Rigg and Sleddale to descend through the woods on a variety of trails, detouring to the Branch Walkway Cafe for the inevitable toastie before heading back to our cars.

Could've Done Without The Diversion.

As I might have mentioned before, the most difficult part of riding three of four days every week is thinking of where to go. I’ll never be the sort of person to ride the same place day in, day out, so the thought of something different is always appealing. It came to mind we hadn’t been over the stepping stones in the river Esk near Glaisdale for many months; a route was hastily cobbled up and me and The Breadlad (again) found ourselves riding along Scaling Dam as the wind formed whitecaps on the reservoir, another few mph on the wind speed and there’ll be surfers. Old testpiece The Slagbag was dispatched in fine style, well, sweary sweaty, puffy panty style anyway. A bit of roadie stuff took us through Stonegate and onwards on the road toward Glaisdale, at our turn off for the stepping stones, the track which passes through West Banks Farm, was a notice informing us the path to the stones and the bridge alternative are both closed. Dilemna time, the notice was 18 months old, we could take a chance but if the crossings were still closed we would be looking at a big climb back up from the river. Discretion became the better part of valour and we stayed on the tarmac, downhill into Glaisdale, passing the ancient Beggars’s Bridge, very picturesque but not where we wanted to be because we are all too aware of Glaisdale’s main street, which ascends 300 feet from the river to the village green, where things level out again. A detour we could have done without but we gritted our teeth and got on with it, afterwards making our way to Lealholm by the riverside path. The Breadlad exercised (or should that be exorcised?) his bowels in the facilities while I loitered outside like the ghost of George Michael. More of that nasty tarmac stuff followed, all the way to Danby Beacon, from where we had the unmitigated pleasure of the Roxby Moor singletrack, with a tail wind - what a way to finish a ride.

Be Gone Unwelcome Wind

The novelty is wearing off...

Another sunny but windy one today and a lonely one as The Breadlad returns to keeping the nation supplied with crumpets. Birk Brow turned out to be a lot windier than the forecast suggested but I carried on regardless, crossing the road to gain the Quaker’s Causeway, the powerful gusts made things challenging to say the least and I found myself in the heather more than once. By the time I reached Robin Hood’s Butts, the wind was at my back, the track was mostly dry, apart from the giant puddles which have reappeared and I made good progress to the Sis Cross turn off. About eight hours of rain yesterday afternoon and evening have left the track soggier than a Florida swamp, I left it undisturbed, continuing along Robin Hood’s Butts instead, before descending towards Danby on the Pannierman’s Causeway, which was in reasonable condition, apart from one mire which tried to swallow my bike. The Pannierman’s Causeway took me all the way to Danby Park, after which it was back on tarmac for the long climb back to the Quaker's Causeway. At least the wind was in a more favourable direction, not quite a tailwind but enough to push me up the hill and across the causeway in the direction of a much needed cheeseburger from the Birk Brow van.