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

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Lad’s day out

Where Belford for the Holy Island ride Jan 9th 2011

Travel time For future reference 1 hour from Forest Hall

Facilities Toilets adjacent to the town square

How many and who 9, Tom, Arthur, Ian S, Ian A, Gavin, Kev, Steve G, Andy and Nico

How Far 22 miles Time Departed at 10.00am and returned to cars at 15.25pm = 5 hrs 25 mins

Weather Cold dry and a light breeze all day

Route

• The usual route with a couple of additions a climb from Craggyhall Farm just after the regular toilet stop across the top of Sunnyside crag with a nice drop off back down to the gate into Square Wood, once the single-track climb up over St Cuthbert’s Cave was achieved we rode to the two prominent high points on Greensheen Hill with a lovely and partly icy single-track descent towards Holborn before picking up the Shiellow Wood road and rejoining our regular route past Hunters crags.

• To end the ride we rode into Detchant and through Sunnyside farm chicken sheds and Llama pens which felt like a gentler finish if not a couple of miles longer

Highlights

• The descent from Greensheen Hill which added a little extra distance but a good climb and avoided the bulls

• The footpath through Shiellow Wood which we nearly missed

• A minutes silence was held to mark the lack of females

Lowlights

• Beal Café closed :- (

• The Bridle way across the field at Heather Law just after Fenham Le-Moor. it looked very much like frozen tracks across the field until we got half way and the mud began to stick like the stickiest glue it gathered and increased, and expanded the first thing lost was the ability to pedal, then the back wheels failed to turn sh@t and there is still a field to cross, the bikes are too heavy to lift people weren’t happy the only way to get forward motion was to slide the bikes like a sledge until we reached solid ground by the fence. The nearby bush was stripped of small branches to aid mud removal prior to setting of again.

Coffee at Purdies for the remaining 5. Cheers for turning out a great day.

Ian A