Fremington, Pinseat & Old Gang

It's been a couple of months months since I was last out in the Dales and almost 4 since I was last at Reeth. A combination of bad weather, other commitments and the odd ailment conspiring to make me miss every ride that's been over there within that time, so I was really looking forward to today's ride.
The weather was pretty iffy when I left home, pouring with rain and just looking miserable, so I put on my full waterproofs. Within about 15 minutes of setting off from Reeth village green this proved to be a mistake. The weather was turning brighter by the minute and by the time we hit the climb up to Fremington Edge I was overheating big style. This led to an enforced stop to shed the waterproof trousers and let the legs breathe and cool a bit!

Barely 200m further up the hill I was forced to make another stop, this time for mechanical reasons. My rear brake had gone and the spring clip was clicking against the rotor as I pedaled. Barely 5 minutes were needed to change the pads over and I was off again, thankful that I'd found out about that brake on this climb, and not on the descent through the old quarry later on!
Once at the top of Fremmy Edge it's David's turn to be bike mechanic, as he discovers that his brake rotor is loose. A quick application of the torx driver on my multitool is all that it needs, and once that's sorted we continue over Marrick Moor to Hurst, enjoying the fast, stoney blast down to the road.

Left at the road and a short while later we're back offroad and onto the track that leads through Hind Rake and on to Fell End Lead Mine. The descent through the old mine workings/quarry is one of my favourite, fairly loose to start with with some decent step downs and good little hairpin, then getting a bit firmer and faster as the track becomes more grassy. Unfortunately the grassy bit had become a bit sodden, especially near a braking point where the track darts between a couple of walls. A total lack of traction led to two offs from other riders and in me taking it sideways, speedway style, and lucky to stay on.
At the bottom we hit the river and track along it to Langthwaite village, where the pub always looks very tempting - but never quite tempting enough!

From Langthwaite we took a route we'd never done before, turning left onto the main road then right onto the first bridleway off it, just before Arkle Town. This proved to be a right royal slog, steep and soft, not soft enough to make riding impossible but enough to make it feel like the brakes had locked on. I plodded on up it in granny gear all the way, happy to make it to the top and look back at the rest of the gang straggled out behind. I was more than a little surprised to see Doug right behind me!

A short but very welcome bit of tarmac now, down to the ford crossing at Fore Gill. This was the first of very many ford crossings we'd make today, all of which Tony wanted to video - "Sealskinz in action". This meant we all splashed through it as fast as possible, spraying as much water as we could. Most of it ended up all over us, and a good deal on Tony too.

We spent a good while after this messing about with Tony's forks. I made the mistake of "trying his bike" and found that the forks didn't seem to compress at all, like riding with lockout on. Somehow he hadn't noticed... We oiled them, let air out, put air in, nothing seemed to really work. We put it back to how it was - if he hadn't noticed anything was wrong, perhaps he still wouldn't...

Further on down the tarmac then off to the right up the track to Surrender Ground and Great Pinseat, another slog of a climb, but easier for being on stone track rather than grass. As we started the climb the sun was out good and proper and it was a real glorious day. Great, because this is one of my favourite areas and it looks way better in sunshine.

Half an hour later we were at the summit, the lunar-landscape looking pretty spectacular, and the promise of a good descent just over the rise.

The descent through Forefield Rake is one of my favourites. Steep enough to give you a good blast of speed and not technical enough to make you have to take undue care, the greatest danger comes from the looseness of the surface as the track snakes its way down the hill. The rear end twitched once or twice as loose corners were taken at high speed. The downhill fun ends at a gate, beyond which was yet another ford that Tony wanted to video us through.

By now my socks were quite wet enough - one thing about waterproof socks is that when water DOES get in, it doesn't get out again! And it's only a couple of hundred meters to the next, but still by no means the final, ford of the day, beyond which the downhill fun begins again with the very high speed descent down the course of Flincher Gill, Hard Level Gill and Old Gang Beck. There's usually nothing more than a bit of loose stone and your own lack of skill or courage to deter you from going flat out down here, but today extra excitement was added in the way of some washed out gullies that have appeared, running left to right across the trail at regular intervals. A bit of high speed jumping is all that is required to clear them and in no time (about 2 1/2 minutes) we're at Old Gang Smelt Mills for the requisite photo stop.

Downwards still for the final dash to the road then it's straight over and past the smelting mill, except that in my excitement I've gone and picked up the footpath rather than the bridleway so we have to track back across the moor a bit to get back on course. That course takes us to the difficult crossing of Bleaberry Gill. Coming east to west it's at least rideable down to the gill, with a difficult push up the other side. Coming west to east, as we were now, it was just a difficult push both down and up - and crossing the gill presented its own challenges too.

.. all of which pales into insignificance compared to the stile-in-the-wall at the top of the bank, requiring us to team up and shuttle the bikes over the top one by one.

Not much left to do now. We cross a damp and muddy moor and head for Thiernswood Hall, descending across moorland that we've climbed several times and thought "this would be a better downhill". While that is true, it's actually not a very exciting or rewarding downhill and pretty soon we're out at the road, with what used to be my least favourite road slog, the 1 1/2 miles back to Reeth from Helaugh. I didn't mind it today, my legs felt empowered and the distance passed in no time.

Afters, as usual, at The Dales Bike Centre where Bren has baked a double batch of scones for us. Not one to pass up scones Tony has one there and takes two home with him. Most of the rest of us have one each, and the baked bean toasties go down well too.

Reeth - Fremington Edge, Hurst, Langthwaite, Pinseat, Old Gang, Helaugh: 17 miles, 2946' of climb in 4 hours dead, with a whole hour and a half stood still fixing bikes, videoing puddles and shuttling bikes over walls.


Full stats and GPX download available on GarminConnect.

Ice Road Truckers

Yes, I know I've used the title Ice Road Truckers before but there was nothing more appropriate to call this ride - Ice Road Truckers summed it up perfectly.

The snow of the last few weeks had led Tony to design a route that involved quite a bit of tarmac, the plan being that the tarmac would be easier than the snowy off-road sections and give us a decent ride in a decent time. Overnight rain and sub-zero temperatures put paid to that plan - what we found instead was roads that were sheet ice and barely rideable, and in such a treacherous state that progress even when going downhill was painfully slow.

Four of us set off from the parking area at Marske, leaving till later the obvious problem that the van was not going to get out again given the amount of ice, and headed north out of the village. This is generally uphill, and difficult going in the ice, but the occasional downward undulation proved even more tricky.

On the first downward section I couldn't control my speed at all with the rear brake, the back wheel just skidding on the zero friction surface. As my speed built I decided it would be best to bail before things got too fast, so I laid the bike over and slid down the road on my side. This was my first (and thankfully only) off of the ride, but it was an early indication of how bad it was going to be.

After almost three miles we turned offroad, left into the woods and onto tracks that were much more rideable.

There hadn't been much through there ahead of us, mainly deer and rabbits by the look of it, but we got good traction on the soft, virgin snow and made decent progress. Until Tim noticed he had a puncture...

... which turned out to be 2, front and rear. 20 minutes later we were on our way again, leaving the woods and crossing open countryside on nice, frozen tracks that felt very safe after the ice sheets on the road.

We crossed the Richmond to Kirby Hill road and went straight ahead back into the woods on the opposite side. We passed a forestry worker in there who told us we were mad to be in there, with all the ice that there was. We told him it was preferable to the tarmac and continued on our way - he wasn't the only person that day who'd tell us we were mad.

Emerging from the woods we continued on for a bit before taking a left fork and emerging back onto tarmac hell at the outskirts of Washton. At this point we'd done 6 miles in exactly 2 hours - slow progress and not boding well for our 20 mile ride! Would we get back before sundown?

We climbed slowly and carefully up to Kirby Hill then descended just as carefully back down the other side, through Gayles and towards Dalton - 7mph top speed on a downhill tarmac section!! After that, two miles of continual climbing that gained us almost 800 feet.

The higher up we got, the more the ice turned to snow until eventually we were riding in nice soft stuff a few cm deep!

Somewhere on this climb "Mr Angry" stopped and had a word with us. We were totally irresponsible being out in these conditions - and what would happen if we fell off in front of his car? We waved him cheerily on his way as we continued on our way, not bothering to ask him what would happen if he was to skid off into a ditch or through a wall.

Eventually the road ended with a choice - bridleways to left or right. We plumped for right, which took us across a totally virgin field of drifted snow, a foot to 18 inches deep.

There was no option here but to push, until eventually we got to the point where the ground began to fall away and the drifting stopped. The snow became shallow enough to ride and as we descended further all but vanished. Eventually we emerged at the road once more, turned left and followed it, undulating at first before plumetting quite rapidly down to Helwith. At various points down there we hit the heady heights of 17mph - Yee Ha!

We crossed the river via the bridge and were then faced with the long, steep push up the snowy bridleway on the other side. This was the most arduous part of the ride but thankfully was soon over, after about 15 minutes of pushing.

Back in the saddle once more it's now down hill (more or less) all the way back to Marske. I couldn't resist one last photo...

 That pretty much summed up the ride!

First job back at the car park was to push the van into a position where we could swing it round without ending up in the river. We did it without much effort, thankfully! Unfortunately there was to be no post-ride scones, or refreshments of any sort, the Tea Rooms in Marske being shut (presumably all winter?).

Marske - Washton - Dalton - Helwith: 19 miles, 4 hours 50'. It would be considerably faster in better conditions.

Route, stats and download available on GarminConnect.

The Calf

We'd had this ride planned for a while and there was no telling how the weather would be by the time the date came along. The previous day had been totally dire so we didn't hold out much hope for the day of the ride, but how pleasantly wrong we were!

Five of us set off from Sedbergh to tackle what could well be our toughest ride to date, covering 25 miles and with 4000 feet of ascent, a lot of it all at once at the start of the ride - well at least we'd be fresh for it.

We headed north then west out of Sedbergh, heading for Lockbank Farm where we wound our way through the farm and went offroad. The track up the hillside is long and steep and on a draggy grassy surface which started to sap our energy straight away. The track looks almost mowed into the hillside, giving a clear view of where we were going to be headed, and it looked a long, long way. This put me in two minds as to whether I should slog my way up some of the steeper slopes or take it more gently (and even walk) to conserve energy for later. Riding won out, except for where that was impossible, my leg muscles much preferring the cycling to walking!

By the time we had our first break we were about half way up and 40 minutes into the ride. The route ahead looked no less challenging than what we'd already done, and ominously we couldn't even see the summit. The scenery was spectacular though, in the directional light that the combination of sun and cloud was giving.

We pressed on, eventually crossing a saddle at the head of a valley which served to funnel the wind to more than gale force. No wind like this was forecast, and it was so strong it made riding totally impossible at times, and coupled with the steep gradient and dragging grass slope it meant that occasional hike-a-bikes were unavoidable.

Once this saddle was out of the way the wind was never quite that strong again, though it did still howl at times. We were glad to reach the cairn at Calders where the ground leveled off and the wind eased and got behind us a little. The ride from there to the summit of The Calf was a lot quicker and easier.

We had another break at the trig point on The Calf. Sam needed to relieve himself and for some reason decided to go and  do it in the small tarn/large puddle that was nearby. We think he took delight in peeing in what could end up as Tony's drinking water, though I'm sure that it would be filtered through several beds of peat before it ended up anywhere near a tap.

"All downhill from here" we thought, having climbed 1800 feet in the last 4 1/2 miles, and our eyes seemed to back up what our minds were telling us. The trail stretched out seemingly forever, shadowing Bowderdale Beck all the way down the valley in what must be one of the most beautiful pieces of singletrack going.

If we thought that meant it would be easy from now on though, we were in for a nasty surprise. After the initial plummet, which was largely gravity driven, though technical and requiring a lot of concentration and a modicum of skill, the trail eased off quite a bit, and while still being largely downwards required an awful lot of pedaling to overcome the obstacles in the trail.

The most annoying of these were the constant array of minor fords that we had to cross, caused by the dozens of streams and springs that flow off the hillside. The amount of water that was around from the previous day's rain also meant that much of the trail was like riding in a river, or at best a constant trail of mud.

Progress along here was nowhere near as rapid as we perhaps expected it would be, though the weather was holding and the views were still gorgeous. The trail's difficulty meant we also kept getting strung out, our various degrees of skill and fitness meaning a fair few breaks to regroup.

Eventually we exited the moor, emerging on the road at Bowderdale. There followed a few miles of the least interesting part of the route, a combination of tarmac and pastoral bridleways that took us from Bowderdale to Weasdale to Ravenstonedale. I have to say that I was impressed by the look of Ravenstonedale, and the two pubs there looked very tempting!

We pressed on, taking the tarmac out of Ravenstonedale towards Adamthwaite. Progress was pretty good along here (well, it's tarmac after all) but just after the bridge over Gais Gill there's a steep section where I was hit by the dreaded chain suck. My drivetrain had been lubricated by nothing but mud for a good few miles now, and it was starting to show. No one had any lube with them, so a bit of lateral thinking from Sam had me trying out Gatorade as a chain lube. It worked!

Chain suck banished, we continued up the hill and on towards the point where we went offroad once more, on the bridleway towards Murthwaite. This looked like it would be a muddy, sodden morass, but although wet it was firm and well rideable. There was even time for some real gravity-driven fun down a rocky/stony section of the track where we finally hit the heady heights of over 20mph!

A bit more field-crossing, past some of the famous "wild horses", and we find ourselves in a particularly lovely little woodland descent. It's tricky - small sharp stones are hidden beneath slippery leaves, and a stream appears to be running down the entire length, but it's as fun as it is challenging as it is picturesque! Biggest grin of the day so far.

After that there was a succession of bridge and ford crossings that have all blurred into one! I know I got my feet wet more than once, and was thankful of the best efforts of the Sealskinz socks to keep my feet dry and warm.

A final ford and bridge crossing over Cautley Holme Beck, and a short wait for Tim to fix the day's only puncture, took us on to the final fun part of our ride, a few miles of nice singletrack as good as anything you'll find.

This was no more easy to ride than the section in Bowderdale, being just as wet and having almost as many obstacles en-route. It was good fun, but by now the legs were beginning to feel weary and mistakes were creeping in, and I found myself on my back more than once.

Eventually at Crook Holme we exited the bridlway early via a short section of footpath, so that we could hit the road and drop Tony and Ian at the B&B they were staying at. The promise of dozens of gates on that final stretch also had a bearing on our route choice, our weary legs and the diminishing light meaning that stopping every couple of hundred yards for gates was the last thing we wanted. We must go back some other time and complete that last mile of singletrack.

Back in Sedbergh we changed out of wet and very muddy clothes and hit the cafes. We were about to go into the well known Cafe Sedbergh but they put up the closed sign as we were about to step into the door. Their loss was Cafe Duo (next door)'s gain, and maybe ours too. The hand-cut cheesy chips that Sam and I had really hit the spot, I've rarely had nicer chips. A good big pot of tea too.

The Calf (Sedbergh, Bowderdale, Ravenstonedale, Murthwaite, Narthwaite): 25 miles, 4000' of ascent in 6 hours 20 minutes, of which more than 2 hours was spent eating, resting, photographing, fixing punctures and waiting to regroup.


Riders: Steve, Ian, Tony, Sam, Tim


Full stats and download available on GarminConnect.

Reeth - Bunton Hush - Gunnerside

The weather couldn't really decide which way it was going to go today as we set off from Reeth. Dark clouds loomed, but sunshine never looked far away either. I set off in my lightweight rain jacket and hoped that I'd soon be taking it off.

We started out along the road to Healaugh, passed through the village then branched right onto the minor road that leads to Surrender Bridge. A short way along here and we turn right again, through some gates and up what appears to be someone's nice gravel drive. In fact it is someone's nice gravel drive (Thiernswood Hall), but it's also a bridleway. Last time we were here we lingered about a bit, wondering if it was the right track, the "No Entry, Private Road" sign being slightly off putting. I'm not sure whether he'd ever be allowed to close and lock those nice iron gates of his.

Up the gravel path we go, straight ahead at the hall and into the woods for a few yards before emerging at a gate. Through this, up a small bank to another gate and then we're cutting diagonally up the hillside on a nice grassy track that's steep and draggy, thank goodness it's not also wet! It's a fair old slog to the top, but once there we're onto more level ground as the track heads west towards the delightfully named Cringley Bottom. Part way along we have a fairly lengthy wait for Tony, so long in fact we're just about to set off back and look for him when he emerges over the brow of the hill. He's had another of his falling off sessions, and judging by the delay not a trivial one. (With the state of his back and joints no falling off is trivial any more!)

A little further on and the bridleway passes through a narrow ladder stile in a wall. This is bizarre, as there's no way you could get a horse through there and as such it must surely count as an obstruction to the right of way. The reason is probably because the slope down and up beyond the stile are treacherous for horses - but they look fun for mountain bikers! We pass our bikes up and over the stile and head off down the hillside, zig-zagging our way down to Bleaberry Gill.

Once across the gill we have to lug our bikes up the other side - it's way too steep to ride and hard enough to walk. No wonder they don't let horses through this way any more.

Once at the top there's a nice stretch of moorland singletrack, a narrow ribbon through the heather that's probably not seen many bikes. This eventually comes out by some old smelt mill buildings that we've not visited before where we stop for a few photos.

All our photographing done we continue on, climbing the road from Surrender Bridge towards Fore Gill Gate. Tony has left us at this point, he's taking the shorter, less hilly route to Bunton Hush by going straight up alongside Mill Gill (Old Gang Beck). The rest of us are going up and over Surrender Ground. It doesn't start too well as I miss the bridleway off to the left and we go a couple of hundred yards too far before tracking back across some grassy hillside to rejoin the correct track. This is a loose stone and dirt track, typical of a lot of the tracks in this area, and it climbs relentlessly upwards, gaining 600 feet in 2 miles.

Once at the top there's a lovely blast back down to Level House Bridge. This is fast and furious, and the track is dry, stony and dusty, which equates to quite slippery and the back wheels are snaking about a bit at times. We blast down Forefield Rake and turn left to follow Flincher Gill, at which point a conveniently located ford, an enthusiastic buddy and a load of good luck provide me with one of my best ever action photos!

At Level House Bridge we turn sharp right and head back uphill again, past Old Gang mines to eventuall meet up with Tony again at the top of Bunton Hush. He's been waiting for us for 10 minutes and has used the time to scope out the approaches into The Hush.

Bunton Hush is amazing, a rock garden on steroids it's a huge gorge full of rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes, all of them sharp and dangerous looking. You have to wonder if there's a rideable route through all of this debris, but eventually your eyes pick up the tracks that have been worn smooth and cleared of a little of the debris.

We drop into the hush and pick our way gently through it, taking it in a number of small sections, each one separated by a period of scoping out the route for the next bit. The landscape in the lower section has changed since we were last in here, winter obviously brought some kind of land slip.

Eventually we all find our way to the bottom, no one having crashed or even banged their bikes (last time up here I bent some teeth on my chainring) and end up by a finger post. Tim has got the downhill bug and heads off down the bridleway off to the right before anyone can stop him. It's the wrong way, we should be going left. It's left to me to go chasing after him to call him back. On my return I'm so taken in by the awesome look of the Hush that I spend too long looking at that and not at the trail ahead. Next thing I know I'm face down in the dirt again, my front wheel having been swallowed by a bit of landslip that I didn't notice. The slow, uphill speed meant no harm was done, and soon we were all off once more, heading in the right direction (i.e. left) alongside Gunnerside Gill.

The scenery here is truly amazing, a mixture of natural beauty mixed with the "ugly beauty" that the years of mining have brought to it. We track along Swina Bank Scar and up along Winterings Scar, the track clinging precariously to the side of the hill at times. Evetually it opens up into a wider trial and loses some height as it passes Winterings, meaning you can really open the throttle. This bit of track is beautiful - fast, undulating, twisty, with the odd bit where you need to pedal to keep your speed as high as possible. It's a shame when it ends by the gate at Barf End Gate.

The view from here is as lovely as it gets.

The fun isn't over though - through the gate is a wide, grassy track that looks like it's been mowed and rolled,  reminiscent of riding on a golf course. This works its way at a fairly high pace down to another gate in a wall. Normally we go straight ahead through this gate, but today we're in for a real treat, a new entry into the Top Descents section. We cut sharp right at the wall and drop down the bridleway to Gunnerside, a plummet that loses us 500 feet in about 3/4 of a mile! It has a bit of everything - swooping grassy track, loose stony stuff, a few drops, some nice humps that you can get a decent jump off (you've got to love Stewart, he can't help but shout "woo hoo" every time he grabs some air, so you know what's happening even when he's behind you), narrow sections of track between walls, even a few walkers thrown in to make it "interesting" (caution advised at all times!) It all just flows so well, you never want it to end. It's all over in three minutes.

After this it becomes relatively boring, though never entirely so in this part of the world with its stunning scenery as far as the eye can see. We head south from Gunnerside to cross the Swale and then turn left onto the road to Crackpot, another of the wonderful names you find out in these dales. Two miles of roadwork takes us to Crackpot where we turn left and do another three miles on road and "track" before turning off road again proper, to the left, just past Browna Gill Bridge.

For much of this last section of the route we've been just above the river, this next section takes us right by it. A fast descent down a good grassy track that traces the side of the hill brings us to within a few feet of the river and a lovely bit of riverside single track that skims by trees and judders over roots. Briefly it becomes a cobbled pavement that rattles you to the core before eventually becoming singletrack again.

Eventually the track branches away at 45 degrees to the river to cross a field (just before you get to the picturesque suspension footbridge that crosses the river). Through a few gates and across a few more fields and we emerge on the road into Grinton. Left in the village, over the river and back to Reeth via the road. It's been a fantastic ride, one of the best we've done in an area that has a load of great routes!

Reeth - Surrender Ground - Bunton Hush - Gunnerside:
21.5 miles, 3000' of ascent in 4 hours dead, 1 1/2 of which were spent stood still!

Castle Bolton - Carperby - Redmire

Our luck with the weather was back to normal this week as Sunday was a bit cold and grey compared to the previous few days. At least it didn't look like it was going to rain and the preceding dry spell meant there was unlikely to be much mud.

Four of us set off from Castle Bolton car park, amongst us Dave who had somehow forgotten his helmet and was going to have to take things very easy, especially on the descents. "Fortunately there aren't any tricky descents" we were told, not something I really like to hear.

Leaving the car park we set off due west along the very obvious track. This passes through several gates and splashes across no less than three small fords (which were in fact almost totally dry) before passing though one final gate and becoming a more grassy track that heads off across the moor.

We go straight on at Low Gate and take a sharp left before we get to New Pasture. This takes us down a fairly steep grassy hillside that shows up very well on the elevation profile graph of my flashy new Garmin Edge 500. In fact it shows that up ahead is what looks like a vertical drop!

After 200 yards of pretty steep hillside we arrive at the edge of Ponderledge Scar and what would be - if you went straight on - a vertical drop! Amazing stuff this technology. You have to hook right and come back across diagonally to get down it, but what followed was still full-on steep, though being entirely on grass it wasn't too dangerous or tricky - unless you have no helmet!

A few hundred yards on from the base of Ponderledge Scar we made our first mistake of the day. We should have hung left to stay with the bridleway but stayed straight ahead instead on what was a pretty obvious track. This took us to the wrong side of West End Farm whereupon we were accosted by the farmer who asked us "had we not seen the signs" (we hadn't). In the end he was OK, probably because we're such reasonable people - if we'd have been bolshy we'd have no doubt gotten his goat up (farmer - goat... I should be on the stage). So we cut 100 yards or so left across his farmyard to get back on track - if you're following this route, don't make the same mistake, and if you do, don't get bolshy!

So out of the farm and onto the road at Carperby, just in time to see the Heritage Bus passing through.

A right onto the road followed by a couple of left turns have us on Low Lane which eventually we leave for a track that cuts under the old dismantled railway. There's what is quite obviously an old railway bridge taking the track bed over us a little way down the trail.

The section of track from here on is pretty good, once you get through a few more gates. It becomes quite narrow and "singletrack-y", though it's penned in between a wall and a fence and has a load of twists in it around which may lurk horses or walkers, so we can't open the throttle too much.

Half way along we make a slight detour of exploration, taking a look at a bridleway that leads down to the river (Ure) to a crossing via stepping stones. One of those "something for another day" options that we suss out from time to time. It's not very promising as the bridleway actually doubles as a stream, with plenty of inopportune rocks and low branches thrown in for good measure. We abandon the exploration and get back on track.

Bridleway or stream?

Our nice narrow green lane eventually ends at Low Thoresby and we continue on through Low Bolton and on to Redmire. We turn left up through the village and keep to the main road up and right to begin climbing the lung-busting hill up to the top of Preston Scar. This gains us 500 feet in just over a mile and we're happy to rest in the huge Tank Turning Area at the top for Go Bars and Brazilian Mix.

A slight downhill then, as we continue along the road, but it's short-lived as we turn off to the left onto the track up to Cranehow Bottom and beyond. This is a long, long drag uphill, but thankfully not too steep and not too loose.

At Cranehow Bottom we (I say "we", but I mean "Tony") make our second mistake of the day. "We" decide to try out the track that goes over to The Height Of Brownseat. It's one of those tracks that he's never done before and always wanted to. Well, after a mile or so of heather-bashing with no visible track in sight it ends up in the corner of a moor between two walls. Beyond each wall is yet more heather and still no sign of a discernible track.

Heather bashing.

There are, however, some quite queer animal traps perched at intervals along the wall. Smallish arched cages with an entrance at one end and a spring trap - like a mousetrap but bigger and stronger - in the middle. I set one off with a twig to see what it was like and it disintegrated the twig. Really evil.

We tracked along the wall for a while until it came close to the road, lobbed our bikes and ourselves over it and got ourselves back on track. For Tony & Dave that meant a left on the road then right at the next track along to Dent's House. For me and Sam it was the longer trip, right on the road, down to Ridley Hush then turn left onto the track up to The Heights Of Greets. Second time I've done this climb in 3 weeks and it doesn't get any easier. Drier than last time but still by no means dry, it's an energy-sapping drag up the moss, grass and water covered hillside.

Thankfully it's all downhill after this (well, almost). A full speed pelt down to Dent's House, down that weird track I described last time that seems to somehow defeat your suspension and give you loads of kickback. By the time we got to the end of it I had vibration white finger and cramp in my thighs.

A slight climb now to the top of Black Hill and then it's full speed ahead. Plumetting down the grassy track from the summit for what must be one of the fastest off-road descents around, a few muddy bomb-holes and a large group of walkers being the only cause of consternation as we descended all the way back to Castle Bolton.

We didn't much fancy the tea room at Castle Bolton so it was off to Leyburn and The Posthorn for afters. Friendly service as always, scrambled eggs on toast, chunky scones fresh from the oven and a huge pot of tea. Lovely.

Castle Bolton - Carperby - Redmire
16.7 miles, 2100' of ascent in 3hrs 22mins, of which roughly 1 hour was spent stood still, either eating, being chastised by farmers or trying to find a way out of dead-end tracks.