Rosedale & Glaisdale Moor

For one reason or another there were only three of us today, and none of the reasons for not turning out had anything to do with the clocks having gone forward and giving us an hour less in bed!

We set off slightly later than planned (again, nothing to do with the clocks) and headed north west on the road out of the village, keeping left at the junction to Dale Head. At Hill Cottages we turned offroad to the right, up past the farm with all the nice hens. Usually here we keep going up, but this time we turned left past the farm to take the old railway.

We made rapid progress along there, pausing only just long enough to take a couple of photos before dropping down the trail through the trees, off to the left at Sturdy Bank.

Once down at the road by Dale Head Farm we turn left then take the next tarmaced right turn to head down past Moorlands Farm. Here we head offroad once more, through a gate and up the steep and sometimes rocky track on the other side. Mud at the bottom leads to a little pushing and denies any of us a "clean", but once beyond the mud we manage it with relative ease, even safely negotiating a section past a photographer with a camera on a tripod without embarrassing ourselves.

Onto the road near the Lion Inn where we turn right and head off towards Castleton. We're soon passed by a speedy bunch of roadies but soon afterwards turn off right onto tracks where they just can't venture. We take the singletrack that cuts the corner across Rosedale Head to end up at White Cross.

This is very much not-as-advertised, being nowhere near the line on the OS map - just follow the obvious trail instead. It's showing signs of wear here and there, most likely from excessive 4x4 use, with some deep gullies in some of the more peaty sections. On the whole it's a pretty satisfying bit of track though, but all too soon over and we're back on the road once more beside White Cross, or Fat Betty as she's known locally.

There's a tempting bit of singletrack heading off past this, but we're not going that way today. We're off along the road, turning left at the next junction and then pretty soon after turning right to go offroad once more on The Cut Road. We pass Trough House and make good use of the slight downwards incline to speed us along. In the distance, just cresting the hill, we spot two more riders. The chase is on (at least for Graham/Danny and me) and we up our pace, tearing along the descents and powering up the climbs. The track is great fun, especially when ridden flat out, and eventually turns to proper singletrack, cutting a narrow (sometimes almost invisible) ribbon through the heather. At about this point I capture and kill my prey (metaphorically).

A rest by the road while Graham/Danny and I wait for Tony to catch up and then we're off again, turning right onto the tarmac to follow it for 4 gentle kilometers before finally turning offroad once more, to the right. This track was quite tough in the reverse direction a couple of weeks ago and is slightly better this way. It's still not in great condition though, and a quite boggy in places, but its fun and challenging to ride.

It eventually becomes shooting track and we follow this, bearing left, for another 2k until we hit the road. Here we go straight over, onto yet another bit of singletrack that cuts across to Hancow Road. This is real proper moorland singletrack, an almost invisible ribbon of track cutting through heather that potentially hides the odd hazard.

...as Graham finds out when he hits a hidden wheelcatcher at speed and is thrown over the bars bringing nose and visor into close contact.

It's only a flesh wound

You can barely see it!

Once at the road the fun doesn't end. We quickly duck left again to drop down Hartoft Rigg, another beautiful piece of singletrack

Right on the road and short tarmac stretch to Rock House where we turn right to go offroad once more. This is a tough but rewarding climb climb up through the woods - all that great singletrack has been spoiling us, it's about time we had to pay for it.

At the top of the climb we go straight over and diagonally right onto the woodland doubletrack that is a bit soft in places and feels like riding with the brakes on.

This eventually takes us towards Allotment Farm. This has been bought by townies who didn't like people and bikes passing through their "farmyard" and have had the bridleway diverted. The OS maps still show the old way, so this leads to confusion on trail user's part and shouting on their part. We made the mistake of going the wrong way last time - this time we get it right, though personally I'd be all for going the wrong way again because I hated their attitude last time.

Once that's negotiated we come to the top of a nice woodland decent. It's quite steep and loose, but well within our capabilities and a fun final downhill.

We exit the woods, sprint across the field that declares "Bull In Field" (if he was there, he was hiding), hit the road, turn right and return to our starting point in the village.

What a fabulous ride. The weather has been great, there have only really been two climbs, and there has been singletrack after singletrack. Graham classes it a 5* ride and it's hard to disagree.

We're thankful that Graze O The Green is open again after its winter sojourn and the scones and cheese swirls go down very nicely.

Rosedale Abbey - Dale Head - Rosedale Head - Glaisdale Moor - Hamer House: 21 miles, 1800' of climb in 3'40 of which a whole hour was spent not moving (there were a lot of photo stops).

Full stats and a GPX download are available over at GarminConnect.

Rosedale Rumble

My mass advertising campaign brought no fewer than seven riders out this weekend, which is three or four more than we'd have usually got! It must have been the prospect of tackling the climb up Chimney bank that brought them all out.

We left the car park in Rosedale Abbey and headed straight for Chimney Bank, a couple of hundred yards down the road. This is (allegedly) the steepest road in the country at 1 in 3 in places. Strangely the sign at the top advises cyclists to dismount, though there is no such advice at the bottom. Good, off we went at whatever pace we could muster. At places the road is so steep it was a struggle to keep the nose of the bike down, but thankfully, despite its steepness, it's not such a long climb as some others and we were up it in seemingly no time (or just over 10 minutes to be more precise).

A well earned rest at the top and the obligatory photo and we were on our way again, off across the moor and past Ana Cross, left at the track junction to pass Redman Cross and towards the nice, rocky downhill back towards Hollins Farm.

A stop at the top to adjust seat posts and off we go. It's not too technical at first, but gets more and more so the further you get into it, so technical it has some people walking it. Eventually, towards the end,  you come to a lip with a steep plummet just beyond it. This had washed out really badly, a deep gully having formed in the centre of the trail which made negotiating it even more tricky than usual - best keep to one side.

Down at the bottom we turn right to take the lovely "1 1/2 track" (not quite singletrack, not quite double) towards Lastingham. This is as fast and flowy as ever and proves to be a real popular find with those who haven't done it before (and those who have!). At one point I slow for walkers up ahead and have to call out "coming by on your right" which leads to one of the walkers actually stepping to the right, into path. Obviously clearer communication is needed!

Eventually after almost 3 miles of fun we hit the tarmac near Lastingham. We turn left at Lower Askew, left again at Cropton Bridge and then turn diagonally right into the forest about half a mile along the road. After 2 1/2 miles of gentle climbing along the forest road we hit a junction of fire roads just above Low Muffles.

We backtrack 10 yards because we've missed the entry into the forest and set off down a nice little forest run. Nothing too challenging but a little soft and slippery, and we then emerge at a field, which we cross and eventually hit the road at Muffles Bridge. This gives us a road climb almost as steep as Chimney Bank, but thankfully it's only a couple of hundred yards long. At this point Tim decides to puncture. It's been a while.

At the top of the bank we turn right and take the road for two miles to Higher Row Mire. I love place names with the word "mire" in them, you really know what to expect when you get there! This time it wasn't actually too bad and the "mire" was no more than a dirty, but firm and perfectly rideable track. It was however the start of seven miles of almost constant climbing, albeit gentle at times. It began on the track over Row Mires Rigg before hitting the road over to Glaisdale Moor. Here we went off road once more onto The Cut Road. It had been our intention to drop down into Fryup Dale here and re-emerge further along past Yew Grain Scar, but one of our number was starting to feel the pace and we decided to shorten the route and, more importantly, cut out another killer climb.

The Cut Road is quite a nice track, especially on the few downward sloping sections, but in general it climbs. Eventually at the end of that seven miles of constant climbing we'd gained another 700ft and reached our highest point of the day, on the road where The Cut Road emerges.

That would be welcome news for Steve.

Left onto the road, then left again at the next junction and we're soon at our next off-road transition, the bridleway that descends Sturdy Bank down to the Rosedale railway. We set off down it, with me at the head, and some way down I noticed I was well off track from where I "should" have been - according to my GPS anyway. I went trudging off at 90 degrees to the visible track, in search of where I should really have been, but there was nothing visible. This is one of those places where what is on the ground doesn't match what's on the map.

Back on the visible track again, we continued down the hillside, quite a fun descent, and a good place for some photos, until we reached the Rosedale railway.

Once on the railway the tea room a Rosedale was really calling, so we hared off as fast as we could, eating up the last few remaining miles along the railway and road back to Rosedale.

It had been a good ride with a good mix of terrain, some decent downhills, some tough climbs and perfect cycling weather.

Riders: Steve, Steve, Steve, Neil, Tony, Tim & Simon.

Rosedale Abbey - Chimney Bank - Cropton - Glaisdale Moor - Rosedale Railway
25 Miles, 2600' of up/down, 4 1/2 hours (2 hours 47 of moving time).

See the route, stats and download links here on GarminConnect.

Rosedale Abbey - Blakey Ridge - Lastingham Loop

"A bit of everything" we were promised for this ride. "Downhills, singletrack, climbs, easy distance and tearooms". Would it deliver? Well yeah, the ride was pretty much as advertised.The downhills were excellent (and mostly new to us), the climbs were tough, the easy distance, well it was just sooo easy and the tearoom was spot on.

There were six of us this week for this ride from Rosedale Abbey, our four regulars, one semi-regular and the return of a rider we haven't seen in a while. It was good to see him out with us again.

We set off from the car park behind The Milburn Arms, where another couple were also getting ready to ride. Tony spotted that they were using his guide book and struck up a conversation with them. I'm not sure if he was offering to autograph the book or not, but I didn't see any pens come out so either he didn't, or they declined!

We left Rosedale Abbey by the road, heading north west to Hill Cottages at which point we turn right to go off road. This track leads up to a farm where loads of chickens and ducks congregate near the gate and at which point there is a choice of tracks, bearing left to take to the old railway or going more-or-less straight on to continue up the hill. We take the latter - it's always up with us - and follow the fairly distinct track up to the road, about a mile on. The latter part of this track is not the bridleway as shown on a map, we've never managed to follow that and find it much easier to stick to the visible track.

At the road we turn left and continue on for about a mile and a quarter. You'll pass a bridleway post off to the left quite soon after starting along the road - this is the one we failed to come up - but at the next one, a mile further, we turn off to the left. You can go on another few hundred yards to a third left-pointing bridleway sign which will bring you out at the same end point as this one. Opinion is divided as to which is the more enjoyable way down, the second seems to flow better, but the first is more technically challenging (more hidden rocks in the heather) and has an unrideable stream crossing. We took this way today and mostly negotiated it without incident, though there were a couple of minor spills at the rear of the convoy caused by getting lodged in ruts.

Whichever way you decide to go, take the bridleway and follow it downhill until you reach the disused railway at the bottom. At this point there's another bridleway that continues on downhill just a little to the right. This is a fairly fast and fun bit of track, made all the better now that the large spike that used to protrude from the trail in a bikewards direction has gone. We always had fears of ending up impaled on this. Beware of walkers here, the track is narrow and there are signs placed to tempt them from the railway down to the tearoom at the end of the track!

At the bottom turn left onto the road, follow it for about 1/4 of a mile and then turn right onto a narrow lane. Follow this past Moorlands Farm and go through a gate. A signpost points to a footpath that goes up the moor, but we're going up the jeep track that zig zags its way up the hill. This is quite a challenge, some parts of it are so steep its hard to keep the nose of the bike down and we're not that far up before Neil has actually tipped his bike over backwards. I have to drop the seat to let me get my centre of gravity low enough to stop that happening to me, but the lower riding position isn't good for the knees on a climb like this! It's loose too, and regular losses of traction make for a stop-start ascent, but eventually we're all at the top where the track joins the disused railway, a good spot to stop for some carbs. One day I'll clean this climb. One day.

Last time out this way we went right here, today we're going left. This gives us a real opportunity to cover some ground as the slope in this direction is downward, though only at the gentle gradients afforded to railways. It's enough to have you bombing along at 20mph for most of the way, the 30mph crosswind adding a bit of fun here and there as it tries to blow you off the track and down into the valley. At some point along here I manage to get a pinch flat. How I managed it I've no idea, there's no major rocks or bumps and I don't recall hitting anything with any force, but the two "snake bite marks" on the tube confirm it's a pinch flat and the others take a breather while I get down to business. It'll be another visit to nextdaytyres.com when I get back to sort out a new rear tyre. The constant flats I get with this one are getting me down (and slowing me down).

After four miles of easy railway riding we reach the top of Chimney Bank. We laugh with contempt at the sign there that suggests that "Cyclists Dismount".

We cross the road and continue on, passing Ana Cross, and a quarter of a mile after that we turn off left onto something that's a bit more "singletrack". This track leads to Redman Cross and eventually becomes quite indistinct.

We got lost in this area last time out, the tracks on the ground don't really match the map. Best advice is to download the GPX of this route and just stick with it! We press on, bearing slightly left and eventually the track widens a bit and becomes more distinct again. It begins to drop too, quite steeply in places, especially one point where it drops right off onto a very steep, loose surface with a bend in it! A challenge. We take a look, Tim cleans it and Neil and I back track a bit to get clipped in before we go over the edge. We all clean it without incident and continue on down to the main bridleway which is running left-to-right below us.

We follow it left towards Hollins Farm and then turn sharp right to take the track towards Lastingham. This is a really fast, flowing section of what once was single track. Now it can at best be described as one-and-a-half track, but it's still fun. Twists and turns, gentle undulations and unexpected rock gardens all conspire to keep it fun, while its gentle downhill slope keeps it pretty fast. I'm baulked at one point by Tim, who was backtracking to attempt a rock garden again. I think I heard him say he tried it six times in all! Eventually the track comes out at a tarmac road, where we pause a while for more carb intake.

Setting off once again, we continue straight on along the road until it gets to Lower Askew where we turn left and then turn left again at Cropton Bridge. A mile after that we turn off right into the forest for a 2 1/2 mile gentle uphill drag along the main fire road. This fire road ends up at a junction with Sutherland Road, another track through the forest, at which point we turn almost back on ourselves to take another bridleway that disappears into the woods and heads down to Low Muffles. This is a lovely, steep woodland descent that ends with a left turn onto the road at Muffles Bridge.

All that downhill means there's now another climb.Initially this is on road, and very steep. At the junction at the top of the bank we turn right and head towards Rock House. Here the map and the signpost have a bridleway going off to the left just before a greenhouse. There's no sign of it. Farmworkers inform us that it's after the greenhouse, which indeed it is. Very strange that both map and signpost have got this wrong! Anyway, if we thought the road climb was hard, what faces us now is a very tough, steep woodland climb. Thankfully there's been no rain for a couple of months and the ground is dry and grippy, so we manage the climb without too much trouble, other than aching legs and lungs! I think we're all looking forward to the teashop now.

Emerging from the wood onto Hancow Road we cross it and go offroad once more just slightly to the right. There's a choice of tracks here, the one that's marked as a bridleway on the map or the one a bit more to the left that isn't. We take the latter. Three quarters of a mile later we're skirting round the outside of the house at Allotment Farm, hoping that all the baying hounds we can hear are well chained up. A woman comes out of the house and starts having a real go at me and Neil about how this "is not a right of way". A man comes out too and is altogether more pleasant in explaining to us that the right of way has been moved and now goes behind the house rather than around it. He shows us the way to rejoin the track (presumably the old right of way way) and we wait a while for Tony and the others to join us. They've stopped to check the map, which is inconclusive. We thought they were getting their ears chowed by the woman.

Anyway, with this out of the way we come to the last woodland plummet of the day. It's such good fun that Neil gets carried away and takes a tumble at the bottom by the gate. Through the gate we go, across the field of cows (giving them a good wide berth) and out onto the road near Yatts Farm. We're on the home run now, just a mile or so of road and we're back in Rosedale Abbey.

Rosedale Abbey - Blakey Ridge - Lastingham: 23 miles, 2900' of ascent in 4 hours 20, 1 hour 40 of which was spent taking photos, eating bananas, getting lost, (and in Neil's case checking MTBG on his phone!)

Rosedale Figure Of 8

A poor showing from our regular bunch this week for one reason or another, but numbers were bolstered by a showing from some-time member Rob and first-timer (with us) Vern (kaya from MTBG). The weather looked like it could do absolutely anything, including snow, as we left the Milburn Arms car park and headed north out of the village.

We kept to the road, staying left at any junctions along the way until we passed through School Row. Just at the end of the row of houses i a phone box, just beyond which we turn off right onto a bridleway. This climbs up through a small farmyard where there are always lots of nice looking hens, just beyond which the bridleway branches. Stay to the right - we'll be coming back this way via the other branch later!

The track climbs up and over the hill, quite steeply at times though thankfully the nature of the track means there's plenty of grip and not too much drag. The track continues on until it reaches the road, a route that bears no resemblance to where the bridleway goes on the OS map. Over the years we've given up looking for the proper bridleway, there's nothing at all to be seen on the ground, and it's better just to stick to the track.

Once at the road we turn left and at this point the weather starts to turn too. The wind is blowing gale force into our faces and the black clouds that have been looming finally decide to empty themselves on us. It starts as drizzle, then becomes hail stones, lashed into us by that wind they sting the face. We have only 1 1/4 miles of road work to do but it feels like 5 or 6 riding into this weather. I look hopefully at each passing track off to the left, hoping it's the one we're going to take, that will lead us to some respite by both turning our faces away from the gale and by losing us some ground. Eventually we reach our turn off (it's the second of the signposted Bridleways, as stated just over 1.25 miles from where we joined the road).

As soon as we make the left turn and stop to wait for Neil it feels loads better. Neil arrives with a right gob on, complaining about the wind and rain and threatening to bale if it doesn't improve! We head off down the bridleway, keeping left when a junction tempts us to go right. The track starts out as undemanding double track but eventually begins to drop pretty steeply, becoming rockier and a lot more technical too. It's a fun blast down to the railway line, where I somehow manage to lose it on the last 100m, catching a rut on a fairly easy bit of track to go spiraling off into the heather.

At the railway we go straight across, following the very handily placed signposts for the tearoom at Dale Head Farm. This track is just as steep as what had gone before but is not as technical. It does have a few corners around which walkers may be lurking though, so exercise a little caution.

Once down at the road at Dale Head Farm Vern tells us of the time the tea room there was giving away free beer! Sounds too good to be true, and unfortunately it doesn't look like they're repeating the offer today so we turn left onto the tarmac and continue on our way. We follow the road a little way, pass Red House Farm and then turn right on the track down to Moorlands Farm. Here we go through a gate with a sign saying "Footpath", but we (legally) ignore this and follow the very obvious jeep track that snakes its way up the hillside. This is the longest climb of the day and fairly tough, but it's easily cleanable despite the loose surface. I say "easily", I didn't quite manage it, having one dab when the back wheel spun out on some loose slate and lost me all of my traction.

The climb ends where it joins the old railway at a crossroads - don't miss this turn, you'll do a load of unnecessary climbing if you do, but at least you'd be by the Lion Inn, what better place to be by accident! We rest for a while, wait for Rob to catch up (he'll be glad to see the end of this, the worst of the climbing on this route) and then rest a while longer while we take on some energy.

Eventually we're up and riding again, heading  north-west (i.e. a right turn) along the disused railway. It's pretty easy going from here on for the rest of this part of the loop. The railway loops around the head of the valley, its nature varying between doubletrack, singletrack and bog. Thankfully it's been very dry of late and the boggy bits are a lot less extreme and a lot less numerous than usual.

We have fun down the only interesting descent on railway and then continue on towards the old workings at East Mines. It's fairly easy trail and the slight downward slope means the pace really picks up along this stretch.

We pass Sturdy Bank where we crossed the railway line earlier in a matter of minutes and maintain the high pace right back to the farm with the nice hens just above School Row. From here we retrace our earlier steps, via the road, back to the village centre. The improved weather has stopped Neil acting like a right girl and he's happy to press on and do the second loop.

The second loop begins by heading out of the village in a southerly direction and heading as if to go up the dreaded Chimney bank - a challenge I'm relishing for another day. We climb a little way up the bank but then turn off left through the car park of the pub/hotel.

Straight through the car park we get onto the broad double track that leads past several farms and eventually comes to Hollins Farm. Here there's a whole host of different bikes lying in a pile on the grass and Neil takes a shine to a nice little full-suss trike.

 Enough of the larking around, off we go again following the bridleway around the farm and then sticking to the left fork just beyond it - we'll be returning via the right fork later. From here on the track is excellent. Its slight downward (but undulating) gradient gives you a bit of speed and the lumpy, technical terrain keeps it all interesting as you try to pick the best line to keep your speed up. There's one or two surprises along the way as unseen rocks loom around corners and over ridges and one such rock spells the end of our good run of fortune on the mechanical/puncture side. A familiar sharp thud through the back wheel tells me I've smacked a rock too hard and seconds later I'm running on wheel rim rather than tyre.

One quick change later (I'm getting good at these) and we're off once again. From now (near Hartoft Bridge) until Lastimgham it's a little less interesting as the track becomes smoother and less technical. Once at Lastingham track turns to road and we turn right to follow the tarmac into the village. In the village centre we turn right and then go straight ahead, heading north out of the village towards the moor. I make a mental note that I should have taken a photo of the very sturdy and interesting looking church - something to do next time I'm here.

We exit onto the moor via a gate and from here it's an easy but quite incessant climb up a wall surfaced track.

We continue on towards Ana Cross, bearing right at a place called (on the map) Spring Heads Turn. From here it all gets very vague for a while. The track on the ground becomes very indistinct, something that's not helped at all by the fact that heather burning has been going on which means that the usual visible ribbon of track through the heather has vanished.

We muddle about for a while, alternating between unseen bridleway and highly visible, newly laid dolomite track, before we eventually find our way onto the track we're looking for that leads back down to Hollins Farm. It's probable that we could have done it by sticking entirely to the new tracks, but we're here anyway so it's all irrelevant.

Off we go down the track to Hollins Farm, a wide, fast track that twists its way through the heather down the hillside. It throws up the odd technical section and one nice little stretch of rocks, but on the whole it's fast and relatively undemanding.

Once at Hollins Farm we just retrace our steps from earlier, exiting the track via the hotel car park, turning right to descend the foothills of Chimney Bank and rolling back into Rosedale Abbey still as fresh as daisies and ready to do it all again. If only GrazeOn The Green wasn't calling so loudly!

We pack away the bikes, get changed, say goodbye to Vern & Rob and take the cars round to park in front of Graze On The Green, one of my favourite tea rooms. The object of my desire is the concoction they call The Hill Farmer, a lovely high-protein "lite bite" (it's hardly that) of thick crusty bread topped with ham, eggs and melted cheese.

Being veggie I take it without the ham and they kindly substitute an extra egg and charge me less. You can't grumble. Neil goes for the Fish Finger sandwich from the kids menu, and I have to pretend to be his dad in order to persuade the waitress. She conjours up a man-sized sarnie that must contain a whole box of fish fingers!

Rosedale Abbey Figure Of 8: 23 miles and 2800' of climbing in 3 1/2 hours, 40 minutes of which was spent stationary.

The ride comes from an old edition of MBR magazine which describes it as "A Killer Loop". It's hardly that, it's not too physically or technically challenging to any but the least experienced of riders, but it's still a darned good ride, scenic and interesting and with plenty of opportunities for stops along the way, or even to bale out at a little over half way!

Rosedale Abbey - Newton-On-Rawcliffe - Cropton

6 of us today on a fairly pleasant winter's morning.

This route was a voyage of discovery. Obviously with Volume II of his best-selling mountain bike guide book in mind, Tony was taking us on a lot of untried sections of bridleway. I quite like exploring these untried sections, it adds a little bit of adventure to things, though not knowing what it’s going to be like also means you can’t gauge how good, bad or tough the route is going to be. This route uncovered a nice bit of downhill, a great bit of cross-moor single track and a lot of unrideable mud! This was easily the muddiest ride I’ve ever been on, with some of the most prolonged sections of shoe-swallowing clag that I’ve ever waded through.

Starting with a left turn out of the Milburn Arms car park we went just a couple of hundred meters down the road before turning left into Heygate Farm where a mad farm dog immediately grabbed me by the foot. Lucky for me it wasn’t by some fleshy, unprotected part. (Every time I’m attacked by a mad farm dog I wonder if I’m within my rights to have it put down. If a farmer can shoot dogs for “worrying” sheep can’t I have one destroyed for scaring the crap out of me?)

Once past the mad dog – who came after us for second helpings too – we were into the first mudfest of the day. A field that looked like it should be rideable but wasn’t. It looked so rideable that it kept tempting us back onto our bikes, but just a few pedals on and the wheels would be up to their centres in mud again. At one point Dave went for the world track stand record without even having to use his powers of balance – his bike was stuck fast as if parked on a bike rack! Much pushing and wading through the mud brought us to a stream crossing and then into more mud. At this point we were doing about 2kph and the ride was set to take two weeks.

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

Respite came in the form of a short road section, up beyond Northdale Farm, where we almost doubled back on ourselves and did a steep climb across the face of Brown Hill. Naturally, my chain now using mud in place of the oil that I’d so lovingly administered earlier that morning, I was stricken by chain-suck and was doomed to ride this and every other hill on the middle cog instead of the granny ring. A trip to Westbrook’s is looking very likely, but in the meantime I’m just developing ever bigger thighs!

At the top of the climb we crossed straight over the road and onto a delightful section of typical moorland single-track. Little used by the look of it, it was no more than a few inches wide as it cut through the overgrowing heather which served to obscure one or two nasty little wheel-catcher holes! Looking at the GPS log we went a bit off the actual right-of-way, but we did follow the track as it exists on the ground, which eventually brought us back to the road. Something of a miracle was that none of us ripped our rear mechs off in the heather. Usually we only have to say the word "heather" and someone's off to Westbrook's for a new mech.

Excellent moorland singletrack

A left turn just past the trees took us onto Hartoft Rigg and a gentle descent down to the road again near Low Wind Hill. An hour and a half gone and only 7k covered. We were going to need tents and sleeping bags at this rate.

A bit more road work took us to Pinewood View and a sharp left back towards Muffles Bridge where we crossed the river and went on to Low Muffles. At this point I have marked “shit” on my GPS log, so I presume we’d just passed through mud once again, though it’s faded from my memory already. A slow climb up 100m of ascent took us onto Muffle Rigg and a bit of easy (and clean) riding on the forest trails eventually brought us to High Muffles. From there 170m of descent down forest tracks, road and bridleways eventually brings us to Taylor Hill. From here another section of mud-laden track brings us out at Middle Farm and a section of very satisfying downhill, the only technical descent on the route. Going across Stony Moor it’s a bit muddy, a bit rocky, has the odd tree thrown in here and there and ends up, after 70m of descent, with a stream crossing. So nice you could almost go back and do it again.

As has been said before here, what comes down must go up, and in this case the up proved to be an unrideable slog up Newton Banks to bring us out in Newton Under Rawcliffe. It would possibly have been rideable, given the luxury of a granny ring, if not for the churned mess that had been made of it by horses. Who says that Mountain Bikes destroy the terrain?

Half way round now in three hours (our usual total ride time) – those tents were looking more and more likely. Salvation came in the form of a brisk 6k of road work, covered in barely 20 minutes. Great stuff this tarmac.
After that it was just a meandering route through the forest, exiting at Hartoft Bridge, and a 5k road ride back to Rosedale.

Highlights: the mud, which was so bad in places that it really was funny, the cross-moor singletrack and the descent off Stony Moor.
Lowlights: The route took too long for us to be able to go for scones! Sacrilege.

All in all it was 24 miles and the first half took 3 hours, the second only an hour and a half, due to it being mostly on road & forest track. A good route with some bits that are definitely worth doing again and some other bits that would hopefully be good riding in the summer.

Rosedale Abbey - Newton-On-Rawcliffe - Cropton
24miles, 2500' of ascent, 4 1/2 hours.