THE MUDDY BUMS (aka "the Clarty Ars#ses") MOUNTAIN BIKING IN NORTHUMBERLAND AND BEYOND

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Where : Edmondbyers, Sunday June 20th

Travel time : For future reference 1hr from Gosforth (Edit - I can do this in 40 minutes !)

Facilities : Toilets and a pub with no beer in the village (Edit - the beer has arrived !)

How many and who : 9 : Julie, Tom, Willie, Arthur, Suzanne, Izzy, Kevin, Ian A and Sheelagh

How Far : 25 miles

Time : Departed at 10.00am and returned to cars at 15.50pm : 5 hrs 50 mins

Weather : Warm dry and sunny all day

What a perfect day for mountain biking what could go wrong!! The initial climb was as good as it gets the single track terrain and frequent minor obstacles totally distracted the rider from noticing the ascent, the trails were dry and the scenery was spectacular. The riders moved along at ease with only one slight stop to realign a misshaped rear mech to Suzanne’s super light Stumpy.

The descent to Rookhope saw the majority reach the 40mph mark, it’s a good job we had our crash resistant fingerless gloves and shorts on.The climb to the winding sheds was event free unfortunately there were no CTC targets to pick off only each other for competition. Once the summit was reached a brief lunch stop before a gently downward sloping 3 mile high speed descent to the Waskerley Cafe, for birthday cakes and coffee provided by Arthur (49 he told the waitress in the café).

Smiddy Shaw reservoir saw Kev somersault down the steepest incline of the day and as usual he just smiled and carried on, whats the fuss? Cushat Leazes gave Kev a second chance to improve his dive score with a triple salko as he managed to ride into one ofonly three rocks in the field, no matter, crack on. Muggleswick park and Barkers Well saw the remaining eight reach home slightly sunburnt and ready for another cup of tea at Redwell Hall Farm,proper china cups and tablecloths a great end to the day. Remaining eight what happened to number nine? A very nice lady with the best of intentions and probably felt totally embarrassed and as out of her depth as say paddling over the Mariana trench (6.86 miles deep). Its fair to say Sheelagh probably wasn't quite ready for so much offroad action and sensibly retired early.

A great ride, it’s a good job it was sunny, thanks to Julie for her patience (and lovely Yorkshire dumplings), and all the other riders for your words of encouragement and knowing looks. Thanks again Willie for the secret route.

Cheers

Ian