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

27th December - As an alternate ride to the Lakes this Sunday, 3 of us gathered once again at "scenic" Morpeth Railway Station for another roll over the frozen landscape and environs of the Wansbeck Valley. It had been planned to head for the frozen forests of Harwood and Simonside, but roads everywhere were bad with severe black ice so Nico, Ian S and myself stayed local and we set off gingerly at 10am, where Ian promptly landed on his @rse, ....heh heh karma for his schadenfreud last week.
 

The plan was to head off along the superb single track by the river all the way to the coast but
10m into Bothal woods and it became immediately apparant that it was a no-go'er due to the ice, so we decided to save it for the return journey when it may have thawed a little. So it was a XC roll NE via the old opencast and mineral road and waggonways to Linton again and on into Ellington Dene and a really sweet liitle singletrack we have not ridden before.

Weather had been superb up untill now, but unforecast rain started and just got worse so cold set in so we cut out some planned sections and headed for the return up the Wansbeck Valley. From Sheep Wash to Bothal it was superb track and we got some shelter but being totaly soaked we now missed out the second section and took up Ian's offer of hot coffee and mince pies round the kitchen table at Hepscot. ...... Nico got a lift to his car and I rode the last 2 miles home utterly frozen. Thanks to Ian's better half Franca for putting up with a soaked, bedraggled, frozen mess in her kitchen. Another good local ride for us and some unridden single track bagged for a ruturn in Summer. ~ GavMosstrooper