Scaling Dam Dawdle

Another month over and the start of a new one, me and La Mujerita took ourselves off to Scaling Dam for a gentle pedal across the moors. Nothing out of the ordinary, making our way to High Tranmire Farm, up The Slagbag, down to Green Houses, following tarmac along Oakley Walls and up to Danby Beacon, returning to Scaling Dam via the Roxby Moor singletrack. A nice route, which comes in at less than a thousand feet of climbing in just under a dozen miles. Everything is beginning to dry up nicely and we had the burger van to look forward to at the finish. Could life be any better?

Absolutely Magnificent.

Me and The Breadlad today, setting off from Sheepwash, which appears to be the epicentre of dog walking for the whole universe. It was looking like a grand day, certainly better than the grey clag blanketing the area on my last visit. The Breadlad suggested Thorodale, which is a hidden valley off the Hambleton Drove Road, which only means one thing - The Mad MIle, for me the second ascent in just over a week. At least we have a three mile warm up from Sheepwash to Square Corner to get our lungs opened up, although halfway up the 400 foot ascent, they didn’t feel very opened up. I could have feigned a problem with my seat post to gain a sneaky rest, like The Breadlad but some of us are made of sterner stuff and I battled my way to the top. Mercifully, once the cairn at the top is reached the remainder of the Drove Road is relatively flat, as befits an ancient highway running along a moor top. We soon reached the turning for Thorodale, the track changing from wide gravel to grassy singletrack before an exciting drop into the valley. The flat valley bottom features a couple of stream crossings before a short but brutal climb to enter Thorodale Woods, which is part of Lord Mexborough’s estate, overseen from Arden Hall, which is where we exit the woods. The track through the woods has had a bit of work done on it and is no longer the muddy hell we slogged through in the past and some of the trees may well have been planted by my grandad, who worked for the estate in the 1940’s. From the hall, we had to regain the Drove Road, which meant Arden Bank, a beast we haven’t tackled for many years - for good reason, the initial section climbs steeply to a gate; steeply is inadequate a word to describe the lung-wrenching, leg-bursting torture to reach the gate, like saying The Breadlad has a few holidays a year. From the gate the track is looser but less steep eventually rejoin the Drove Road at the top of Kepwick Bank (another ascent we must be due to reacquaint ourselves with - any takers?) We turned right, retracing out tyre tracks along The Drove Road, reclaiming our investments in the gravity bank with a descent of the Mad Mile, following the continuation of the Drove Road - High Lane all the way down to the ford at Sheepwash and back to the car park. Weatherwise, we’d had a superb day, blue skies and dry trails all the way - let’s hope it keeps up

Snowdrops - The First Sign Of Spring

Not quite as good a day as yesterday but still pleasantly lacking in moisture, me and La Mujerita again today, she’s becoming one of the most enthusiastic regulars on the Terra Trailblazer’s circuit. Another Great Ayton start for us, this time with a road warm up to KIldale, then up The Yellowbrick Road to Percy Cross Rigg and across Codhill Heights to Guisborough Forest. La Mujerita’s dislike of singletrack is well documented, suffice to say our spin around the forest was predominantly fire road based but none the worse for that. Passing through Fletcher’s Farm on the way back to Great Ayton, we paused to stroke some friendly pigs, looking warm and cosy in a straw-filled barn. Back in Great Ayton, snowdrops are beginning to show through the grass near the river; the first sign of Spring?

A Bit Off-Piste @ Hammers

The deterioration in the weather continues, Hamsterley Forest cold, dull and grey but still staying dry, me and Simon T. embarking on yet another variation on our hot lap. Just to liven things up, we thought we would slip in a few off-piste sections in place of some of the regular routes. We did our normal start, past the Skills Loop (only so we can ride the seesaw really) and up to Windybank Road at the top of the forest. Section 13 was our first route, followed by some pleasantly dry off-piste tracks, which took us to the Grove Link. The slog up the hillside to Polties/K Line hasn’t got any easier but it is worth it for the Quintet Of Quality: Polties Last Blast, K Line, Transmission, Accelerator and Nitrous. A quick blast along the road from the Grove and we were soon climbing again, this time to Pike’s Teeth, possibly the easiest black route in the history of black routes. Some more off-piste exploration finished the day off - the dryness of the trails is quite surprising considering it’s only February - taking us back to the road, from where a steady pedal leads back to the car park and another seven quid in the machine. Must get around to renewing my parking pass.

Clicking on the route names will take you to the Strava page for the route. Where you can marvel at how slow we are.

Another Year Over: A New One Just Begun.

Too many words? Video here.

New year: new intro. Cast in order of attendance during 2022, attending twice is the criteria for featuring in the intro - so, if you are not in there - get your finger out. The Youth has already guaranteed his re-inclusion with an astonishing two rides in the first week of this year.

January is not renowned for being the balmiest of months, this year the temperature barely scraped into double figures on any of the days. We had cold and sunny, cold and snowy, cold and misty, cold and windy, not forgetting plain cold. Frozen mud made for easier riding some days, unfortunately it didn’t last and many rides saw us slithering and sliding through the slop. Plenty of riding was done though, maybe not massive mileages but I was out fourteen days and only six of them alone, which is probably a result of the nationwide January Exercise Spike. This month’s top attendee was Simon T., who managed to drag himself out four times. International jet setting playboy, The Breadlad, only managed a couple of rides, spending the remainder of the month raping the planet with jet fuel, performing his duties as Cultural Attache for Crumpets and Bagels, spreading the Warburtons word around the world.

The remaining two rides of the month are blogged below,

Out On The Wild Windy Moors.

And boy was it windy, not gale force, push you off your bike windy but constant velocity, never relenting type wind. Owing to some mediocre route planning the latter half of the ride was spent battling into it. Things started well though, from Birk Brow car park and I rode along the Quaker’s Causeway like a cycling god, lulled into a false sense of achievement by a helpful tailwind. Once I reached the road, tarmac was followed to the Sean The Sheep bus shelter, where Robin Hood’s Butts begins (or ends depending which way you’re going) . Mr. Tailwind once again gave me a helping hand, at least as far as the turn off for the Sis Cross track, a ribbon of singletrack cutting through heather on Danby Low Moor from Sis Cross Hill, punctuated by the peat hags and boggy puddles. In reasonable condition for January, a bit wet and claggy in the occasional spot but mainly rideable. From the road where the Sis Cross trail ends, I made a deviation, across the moor above Danby, which eventually brought me back to the road. Following the road brought me to the other end of Robin Hood’s Butts, which I rode in its entirety, that previously helpful tailwind now firmly in my face, coupled with a damp, draggy track meant no records were broken today. I was content to amble along in the sunshine with only curious sheep and vocal grouse for company; eventually Sean The Sheep came into view for the second time today, signalling the end of today’s off road riding. The return to Birk Brow was via Stanghow rather than the Quaker’s Causeway because there were a couple of spots I wanted to check out on the way, not because I am one of these riders with an arse like a delicate peach who can’t face the buttock-battering causeway twice in one ride. It wasn’t long before I was back in the car park indulging in the delights served by the butty van.

A Good Drying Wind

Another windy one, but pleasantly sunny. Me and SImon T. arrived at Hutton Village to find numerous other people also avoiding the Pinchinthorpe parking charges. I think the teachers were on strike or something, as history repeats itself and we find ourselves in another winter of discontent - a phrase noticeable by its absence from the media this time round. I was a teenager back in the early seventies (which makes me on the verge of middle-age now), when everybody and his dog went on strike, Opec cut oil supplies to the west and the government took drastic measures to prevent the country collapsing. There was a three day week for those not on strike, speed limits were dropped to 50mph, scheduled power cuts occurred daily, business boomed for candle makers but not many others. Imagine the effect nowadays, no WiFi for two or three hours every day, there would be a meltdown. Then again, it’s not like teachers can ever hold a country to ransom like other workers and all the kids I know are less than devastated at the disruption to their education. That seems like an awful lot of words to say Hutton Village was busy. But we got parked and rode into Guisborough Woods to have a scrounge about the trails, most of which are drying up nicely considering less than a week ago they were a frozen mass of ice. There are very few people in the woods, which makes us wonder what everyone parked up might be doing. Not bothering us, that’s the main thing. After a couple of hours shredding a carefully curated selection of trails, in between inevitable bouts of climbing, this is Guisborough after all, if you’re not going down, you’re going up, we headed back to (a now largely deserted) Hutton Village to enjoy our tailgate picnic.