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

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Where - Slymefoot Bridge Alwinton - 1 hr 20 min from Newcastle

How many and who - 10, Ian A, Arthur, Willie, Julie, Izzy, Suzanne, Tom, Gavin, Tony and Andy

How Far - 18 miles - Time - Departed at 10.00am and returned to cars at 14.30pm - 4 hrs 30 mins

Weather - Sunny and dry

Route
• Slymefoot Bridge-Hazely Law-Windy Gyle-Mountain refuge hut-Deels Hill -Blindburn , Ups and doons

• Congratulations as Willie climbs Hazely Slack and the rest falter

• A windless Windy Gyle.

• Cracking and challenging route over the crazy paving of the Pennine way, where the offs could be very interesting especially for Suzanne

• Arthur has three punctures from thorns in 5 miles and not a bush or tree in sight.

• Lunch at the refuge hut in the sun stunning views all round ,concern grows over Arthur as he fails to appear, Julie nominates Willie to return up the boggy hill to find him, saved by the appearance of the nodding head on the horizon as Arthur pushes his not so trusty steed down to the hut

• The group gather for the Jelly baby stop at the point where Dere Street crosses the border fence. a lone rider appears in the distance, so we wait for him to catch up as Julie didn’t want to be overtaken, as the figure grew closer ,lo and behold it was our Gavin who thought his ride had been cancelled due to a front wheel problem on his car in Thropton,but it was sorted by the AA so he started the ride one and a half hours after the rest and caught us up two and three quarter hours later

• The descent down Deels hill wasn’t as fast as usual but it was nice to finish on a descent

• A big ring road ride back to the cars before coffee and cakes at Barrowburn

• Anderson gets missed out again and is left waiting for his food only to find that a certain cake monster had already eaten it and his own and a scone, we don’t need to mention names do we?

• A whole cafetiere caféteara pot of hot coffee was consumed to aid the drive home, not like the half a cup of luke warm coffee at Grinton

Wonderful day but knackered now - Thanks Tom/Willie

Cheers Ian A