Tough Day Out!

We did a route much like this back in June, it was 27 miles long and had 3500' of climb. I was dead at the end of it, it was long and it was tough. At only 20 miles and 2500' of climb, this shorter route somehow managed to be no less tough and I ended up feeling no less dead!

Seven of us set off from Square Corner (where we are greeted by the sight of no less than 14 MTBers heading off up Black Hambleton - we wonder if we'll bump into them again) and headed back down the road towards Osmotherley, turning off road (to the right) by Solomon's Temple to take High Lane. A few yards after the gate we turn 90degrees left to go through a cattle grid/gate that leads into the woods and down to the reservoir. An early chance to get a bit of speed up, though it's almost ruined by a playful Golden Retriever who thinks retrieving mountain bikes looks like big fun!

Over the head of the dam and out onto the road on the other side. Six of us turn left, one (Tony) turns right - the climb to the top of Beacon Hill will be a climb he doesn't need, so he's giving it a miss. Probably a wise move, last time up there he almost got mated by a frisky bull.

The climb up to Beacon Hill via Swinestye Farm is uneventful, not too tough and thankfully there are no frisky bulls today. A chance for some proper speed now as we head down the Cleveland Way across Scarth Wood Moor. I love this bit of track, it's nicely flagged in places where it needs to be (though these can be treacherous when wet) and the drainage channels are not too huge. You can get a fair lick of speed up if there are no walkers about - and today there aren't!

Once at the road we do a left, then take a right after about 500 yards to head into Clain Wood. A gentle tootle through the wood brings us to a scenic viewpoint on our left, beside which is a set of widely spaced wooden steps that drops down the hillside. These were a nightmare on my hardtail, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Sparky handles them. I shoot off, Neil close behind, and it's fantastic not to feel every lumpy bump as we shoot down the steps. The descent is one long blur of speed until finally it's over and we're at the bottom. I stop to take some shots of the others coming down and realise something ain't quite right... My front quick-release has jarred itself loose and the front wheel is just sitting in the cups! Lucky there wasn't another dozen steps or it would have been another job for The Great North Air Ambulance!

Right at the bottom we follow the track between the fenceline and the edge of the woods, keeping more-or-less straight ahead until we emerge into fields of sheep. We track directly across these, encountering our first (but certainly not the last)  gloop of the day as we approach Harfa Bank Farm. Swinging a left here, we continue on the track past Harfa House (what use is Harfa House? geddit?) to eventually emerge at the road. We turn right and follow this up to Raikes Farm and Scugdale Hall, where Neil decides to have a flatty. Prepared as ever, he has tubes but no pump because "he knew someone else would have one". Oh, if we all thought that way... It's quite a quick repair, about half the time it took him last time, and we find the mother of all thorns (and half a branch) embedded in his tyre.

On we go, ignoring the first bridleway that comes down at 90degrees from Barker Crags and go a bit further on to swing left onto a track that looks a bit like it says No Cycles but actually says No Vehicles - Cycles.
The No Vehicles portion of the sign has obviously been ignored big-style because the whole trail is really churned up, either by 4x4, Quad Bikes, Scrambler Bikes or all three. It's a right mess, quite sad to see really, and prompted me to start a new section of this blog "Most Damaged Trails".

And This Is The Good Bit!

We trudge up the hill, having to push almost the entire way, avoiding trenches that are almost a foot deep in places to eventually emerge on Barker's Ridge.

A brief stop here for Go Bars, sheltering behind a wall from the icy gale that's sprung up, and then we're off again, semi wind-propelled as we tackle Barker's Ridge, eventually bearing left at a three-way junction to Green Howe. This is the highest point of the ride and the slight downward gradient beyond it gets the better of us and we have to track back to a missed turn-off. Not that missing it was any great surprise, there's absolutely no trail to see on the ground. This is where the bridleway crosses the shooting track at Wether Hill. Neil and I go for it, just following the GPS track while the others track further back and try to find something more obvious. A few minutes of heather bashing eventually brings us to a more obvious bit of trail - the map here doesn't match what's on the ground at all.

This is a sweet little descent down to Head House. Narrow singletrack with the odd hidden rock and pothole to keep you on your toes.

From Head House it's a brief plummet down the track to the valley bottom then the long drag back up to the top again, bearing round to the left as we go and eventually joining the track that we just left some 30 minutes earlier. Sharp right here and we're into another section of ruined track, though this one's ruined for a purpose. They're currently digging it up and laying drainage pipes in it, which will help in the future but for now it just makes for an unpleasant quagmire of mud.

We stay with this track right up to Bilsdale Transmitter. Finally we're here, a landmark that we have seemingly been approaching for hours without it ever getting nearer.

At this point we meet the 14 MTBers who'd been going up The Mad Mile. It turns out they're from Swaledale Outdoor Club, and although one of them asks us if we're The Muddybums he doesn't go on to explain why he thinks that or what the relevance of his question is. It leaves us wondering. How did he know...?

Leaving the transmitter we head down to Low Thwaites, a steady descent though into the face of a howling gale that saps your speed and has you pedalling even though you're losing height! At Low Thwaites we turn off the main track, sharp right to take a bridleway none of us have ever done before. It falls steadily down the hillside on a track of grass that appears to have been especially mown to show where the track is.

It's not too challenging, though there is the odd unexpected drop, but it gets steeper, trickier and altogether more "interesting" as it approaches the stream in the valley bottom.

Feet get wet as we ford the stream and push our bikes back up the the other side. We mount up again, but there's consternation. A gaggle of riders has gathered around Neil's bike. all taking a close look at some kind of problem. Has "Bike Maintenance Neil" struck again? Well I don't think he could be blamed this time, no amount of lube, cleaning and preparation was going to stop his frame from cracking! Yep, yet another cracked Commencal frame.

A short road section takes us from Lane House to Locker Low Wood. At this point 3 of our group decide they've had enough fun for one day. Neil's busted bike, Sam's cramping legs and Howard's In-Laws provide sufficient excuse for them to take the easy route home, staying with the road all the way back to Square Corner. For the rest of us the delights of Locker Low Moor await. It's renowned as "a bit of a mare" when wet, and wet is how we expected to be. We were pleasantly surprised, damp but not too wet, its long but fairly gentle technical climb was quite enjoyable. I still think I'd enjoy it more as a downhill though.

Passing through Dale Head, now being heavily restored, it's an easier, less technical trail but my legs have just about had enough. Having stopped to take one last photo I find it impossible to catch the group up again, not even Tony. Yes, it was that bad.

The track eventually emerges back onto the road where it's a left turn and a gentle last half mile back to the car park. Nowhere really to go for scones around here since Chequers closed. Osmotherley is the only option but that's just way too packed. In fact just driving through it was a nightmare of constant reversing and squeezing by. So straight off home for a bath and a rest, my thighs aching as I drove back, telling me just what a tough ride this had been.

Square Corner - Scugdale - Bilsdale - Locker Low Moor:
20 miles, 2600ft of ascent, 4 hours.

Apedale The Wrong Way

Another lovely sunny Sunday saw us over in Reeth for the first time since we ventured out in the snow back in late December. The lovely weather had brought out the crowds and Reeth was teeming, unfortunately it hadn't brought out many of our squad and only three of us were doing this ride! Apparently we'd done much of this ride before, more than once, but always in the other direction. Today we were doing it "the wrong way", just for a change.

We started with a short road section from Reeth to Grinton, just long enough to warm up the legs ready for the slog ahead. Taking the Grinton to Redmire road we climbed and climbed and climbed. It seemed like it would never end, every time a welcoming looking bridleway left the road we'd pass it by and continue climbing. It was a climb to sort the men from the boys, and fortunately only men had turned up, the boys had decided to stay at home today.

Eventually, after about 1.5 miles of road climb, we took a bridleway off to the right. This didn't make life any easier, as the gradient stayed the same but was now on damp, slippery, energy-sapping grass instead of lovely tarmac. Eventually, after a total of 1100' in 2.5 miles, we reached the summit at The Height Of Greets. 1100', that was half of the day's total climbing done on the first hill!

Well, if this was the summit then the only way from here was down! Down we went to Dent's House, 500' of descent on fast, stony double track. There was some strange undulation going on here, a series of small, sharp bumps that reverberated through your arms despite the fork's best efforts and it felt really wierd. I guess I don't have my fork set for optimal small bump compliance, and Neil reported the same sensation.

First photos of the day at the bottom of this descent and then it was off again, though not straight back up as I'd expected, but a right turn and a little bit of (almost) flat before the climb steepened again up to Apedale Head.

From Apedale Head it's another fast plummet, not quite as fast as the last one because of the twisting nature of the track (though it looks straight on the map!) but all the more interesting for that and with a nice little splash through a ford near the end. The attention I'd paid to the "How To Keep Speed In Corners" section of the Dirt School DVD had obviously paid off as I had to wait a fair while for Neil to arrive at the bottom. Nothing compared to how long we waited for Tony. I had my phone out and was calling Dales Mountain Rescue when he eventually appeared, quoting "loads of photo stops" though knowing Tony this probably meant "fell off".

A brief lunch stop and then off again, taking the tarmac to the right as we followed the road to Grinton for about half a mile before taking a bridleway on the right. This starts off quite easy going but eventually turns into a right slog as you work your way at 45 degrees through a field towards a gate in the far corner. It's uphill, riddled with molehills and covered in half dead vegetation. It's horrible. Beyond the gate it doesn't get much better and soon we were all off and pushing as we trampled through the worst of the heather on a barely discernible track.

Glad to be able to get back in the saddle (I hate pushing) we joined the main track running along to Harkerside. Half a mile of easy going brought us to Blue Hill where we were saying goodbye to Tony for now. I was going to introduce Neil to the delights of "The Pipeline" and given Tony's variety of skeleto-muscular problems and his propensity for falling off, he'd decided not to risk this part of the route. So off we went, another lung busting climb (though thankfully short at only a couple of hundred feet) took us to the start of the bridleway to The Pipeline. This is just about the most indistinct bit of track we ever ride, and even locked  onto the GPS trail we still had no idea where we were supposed to be headed. Sam has an uncanny knack of being able to ride straight to the start of the descent, without him Neil & I weaved about a bit until we found the cistern, the man-made landmark that marks the starting point.

Seats down and off we went. The pipe seemed even more vicious than usual, determined to send you off in directions you didn't want to go as you switched sides to keep away from the worst of the rocks. Part way down we hit an unexpected hazard - snow. A shady gully harboured a patch of soft, deep snow that came up to your nadgers and meant that cleaning The Pipeline was out of the question today.

After a bit of a lark about in what is hopefully the last snow we'll see this year, we set off again. I got an action sequence of Neil taking on one of the tricker, rockier sections of trail, one of those bits where you just know that any sort of fall is going to hurt. A lot. I love the way his facial expressions seems to change from coolness to concentration to panic in the space of a few seconds.

Coolness

Concentration

Panic

He admitted later that "he was a bit scared". The Eston Mountain Man, scared of a few sharp rocks! Off we went to complete the lower section of the descent, nothing sharp in the way anymore, just a nice, fairly speed heather singletrack with a few hidden boulders. The whole thing was big fun, I love The Pipeline.

Nothing left now but the road back to Reeth, starting with the almost 40mph tarmac downhill to Grinton. If not for the narrow bends and the danger of cars coming the other way this could be one of the fastest downhill sections anywhere.

A quick change back at the car then for me & Tony it's off to The Dales Bike Centre for scones and a latte. For Neil it's off to work, no rest for the wicked. First scones of the year for The Bike Centre, and a damn fine effort.

Reeth - Apedale - Harkerside:
14.1 Miles, 2262' of up/down, 3 hours dead.

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Sunny Sunday In Danby

Finally we got some good weather this weekend. All week it had been lovely and when that happens you usually just KNOW it's going to be rubbish come Sunday. But for once the weather surprised us, and we got full sun from start to finish. This really brought the crowds out and we had 10 people on our ride, including 2 first-timers (first time with us anyway) and no fewer than 3 long-term absentees making a welcome return to the fold.

We set off from Danby Moors Centre and began with the climb up Park Bank towards Danby Beacon, a nice tough road climb to get us all warmed up.

We turn off left for a traverse along the moor by Castleton Pits to eventually come out at the road past Clitherbeck Farm. We then turn right onto the road and follow it for a short way to the point where it bears sharp right, at which point we turn sharp left. Here we come across an example of the harm that taking 4x4s onto the moors can do. The track here is so deeply rutted and filled with water that it's impassable, even by 4x4s, so all vehicles, bikes and people have started taking wide detours to the side, leading to more erosion off the actual trail. The "pond" was actually totally frozen over. I was hoping Tony would try to ride it.

"Not thick enough", said Sam.

"Tony or the pond?" I enquired.

So having negotiated this obstacle we track across Gerrick Moor to eventually reach the road at Three Howes Rigg where we go straight across, initially staying on the road before swooping off onto the bridleway that leads down towards the railway near Commondale station.

We follow this, staying parallel to the railway, all the way to Castleton where we hit the road once again. A Left/Right at Castleton puts us onto Wandels Lane, around the back of Danby Low Moor. A left turn from this takes us onto the bridleway to Rowantree Farm and some exceptionally sticky mud. We'd done well to be largely mud-free up to now, a result partly of the ground still being frozen in some of the potentially muddiest places. No such luck here though, the mud stuck with a vengeance, increasing our tyre diameters by a couple of inches and dragging against the crowns of our forks. Once off the track and into the farmyard we bounced our bikes along, practicing bunny-hops in a desperate attempt to shed the extra few kg's of unwelcomed weight we'd just gained!

Eventually we came out at the Danby-Ainthorpe road. Here we lost 3 of our group, 2 who were having mechanical problems and decided to take the quick way back to Danby, and another who was feeling the pace a bit in his first ride with us for quite a while. The rest of us turned right for a few metres of road work before turning right once more for the technical climb up to Ainthorpe Rigg. This track was noticeably more difficult than usual, having suffered a good deal of erosion since the last time we did it.

Once we made the top, what lay ahead was one of our favourite descents. Steep, rocky and droppy at the top it turns narrow and technical a bit further down before finally opening up into a fast and furious finish down to the road. It made a good spot to take some action shots (click for larger images).

At the bottom we meet a bunch of motorbikers who are headed UP the bridleway. Illegal and potentially very damaging, it made me realise it was probably more than just the weather to blame for the poor state of the climb we'd just done.

A short section of roadwork took us onto the bridleway into Walker's Plantation, another potentially unrideable mudfest that was rescued by the fact that the wall at the side of the track cast a shadow, meaning that half of the trail was frozen. We stuck to that half.

A traverse along the edge of the moor here took us to Danby Crag where we left the moor onto the ridged, concrete farm track. We followed this till it reached the road then continued downhill for a while before realising we'd missed our turning. Back up the hill then, and back off road once more onto a short section of bridleway that brought us back onto the road back to Danby.

By now no one could be bothered with the final steep road climb that would reward us with a fast but unchallenging downhill back to the very same road we're already on. The lure of the scones was way to strong, so it was just a couple of miles of roadwork back to the Moors Centre. The weight of mud on the bikes and the drag of our tractor-like tyres made this a real slog, except for Laurie who seemed to get some extra energy from somewhere to go sprinting off ahead. The lure of the scones, indeed.

It was a largely uneventful ride; No one fell off, conditions were excellent and Neil didn't break anything on his bike. Not much for me to write about then!

Oh, The Dales Centre was out of scones! Damn You!!!

Danby - Commondale - Castleton 16.6 Miles, 2034ft up/down, 3 1/2 Hours