Alwinton Circuit - Sun 26th April, 2009
A baker's dozen of dry bottomed Muddy Bums met at Alwinton National Park car park on a beautiful sunny, clear day. (Willie, Julie, Gavin, Terry, Dave, Michelle, Graham Mc, Ian A, Nico, Kevin, Arthur, Gary and Mark - with Tom joining us later).
Following a frenzy of wheel attaching, gear changing and bag packing the group sped off up through Alwinton, eagerly anticipating another superb day in the hills. The warm up was through Clennel Hall and the bridle up to Biddlestone. Here we stopped to view Biddlestone Chapel. Tucked away in a sunny clearing in the forest - this is a beautiful and unique catholic church built in the 19th C onto the top of a bastle.
From here the route soon takes a sharp upward direction towards Singmoor, which quickly sorted the Mountain Goats out from the Mere Mortal members of the group. The climb of 200metres was initially on a landrover track but soon became almost trackless fellside. Here the dry tussocky grass resembles velcro, so riding up hill can be very hard work indeed (unless you are a Mountain Goat). So with some regret, the hard upward slog was soon followed by a steep grassy descent to a small burn crossing, then straight up again to Gill's Law. Any Muddybum who studies the map at this point will discover that Willie (the ride leader and Chief Mountain Goat) was clearly intent on ignoring the bridlepath that the map shows as contouring beautifully level around the hill side, and instead opting for a roller coaster trail that was either steeply down or steeply (and very slowley) upwards. Once reorientated, we set course for Puncherton Farm.
Puncherton nestles in a fold of the hills and is the start of a "secret" route along the north side of the Puncherton Burn and along the Eastern flanks of The Dodd. With the farmer's blessing, we started down this sublime trail, snaking through a tight, steep sided, typically Cheviot style valley. A short snack stop was permitted here to savour the magic of the place - although Julie instructed us to not eat anything with bread in it. Suitably snacked up, the descent to the Alwin Valley finishes with a lovely rocky trail down a steep ridge.
From the valley floor the route took us up past Whiteburnshank, where the Mountain Goats (Willie, Terry, Dave, Nico, Ian and Julie) showed just how fit, skilled and determined they all were by clearing the climb. The remaining mere mortals toiled up, huffing, puffing and pushing. The welcome sound of the lunch bell now rang so much scoffing ensued.
The route then took us down to Fairhaugh, before an up and down to the tea room at Barrowburn. Here we were met by Tom (who had been on the Border ridge). The very friendly cafe then served us assorted delicious cakes and teas/coffees/hot chocolates (Julie couldn't decide what to have so had one of everything!). Returning to the fell climbs came as a bit of a shock after that peaceful interlude but once back at Fairhaugh, the singletrack through to Shilmoor made all the work more than worthwhile. This is a beautifully scenic and interesting route that even the skinned lamb carcasses could not spoil. From Shilmoor the last big climb of the day up Pass Peth (aka "the Ski Slope") presents a truly testing challenge of hill climbing. The Mountain Goats all had a good try at it, but only Willie, Nico, Terry and Dave cleared it - well done guys !
The descent to the road gave us one last lingering look at the spectacularly beautiful Cheviot Hills and Valleys - another splendid day out ! Mark
THE MUDDY BUMS (aka "the Clarty Ars#ses")
MOUNTAIN BIKING IN NORTHUMBERLAND AND BEYOND
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