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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
| > Home > Newsletter > Cycling > Hah! Who Needs Mountain Bikes? |
Hah! Who Needs Mountain Bikes?After the heady excesses of leading my first road ride of the year, (which was also my longest ride of the year!) I managed to obtain a weekend pass and join the cycling section for the trip to Edmundbyers Youth Hostel. I was waiting in the car park at Woodhouse Close leisure centre when I was warned of the imminent arrival of the Fencotes and Brian by the loud laughter audible even before they had appeared around the corner. Once Peter had arrived, drank his tea, and unloaded his bike we set off avoiding Bishop Auckland town centre (yes it has one!), and once over the Newton Cap viaduct we turned off onto the Bishop Auckland to Brandon trail, and made steady but largely uneventful progress until Brancepeth where we came across a small tree fallen halfway across the trail. The tree rebelled against John's attempts to move it off the trail, by attacking him and dragging him into it's clutches - only swift and decisive action by Mick and Bri saved John from the evil clutches of the tree fairy! The excitement continued with the very dicey descent down to the river Browney. Mick, John and Peter seemed to make it down, but Brian made a tactical decision to walk the last bit after he saw me fall off into a large nettle patch after skidding on the loose surface. Once safely over we had a break at the "cyclist's roundabout" at Broompark. This is where 3 rail trails intersect - The B.A. to Brandon, the Deerness valley, and the Lanchester Valley. We headed along the Lanchester valley to Lydgett's Junction outside of Consett, pausing for some lunch at Lanchester. Once at Consett we dropped off the trails and stopped at Safeway for some supplies, and some unsolicited advice from the trolley attendant who warned us that "Edmundbyers is full of loose women"; judging by his worn haggard look - I suspected that he might have been speaking from experience! After several anxious minutes waiting for JS to return from the cop shop where he'd gone for directions. We headed off in the right direction at last, not because of the Police's directions (which were hopeless!) but Brian had flagged down a motorist who was also a local cyclist who gave us the correct directions! We dropped down to the river Derwent, passing a very unhappy cyclist pushing a heavily loaded bike up, and then started the long drag back up the other side to Snods Edge and the A68. Once at the A68, we headed off and cycled anticlockwise around the north of the reservoir to the Hostel. Once in, we met up with Paul, Liz and Ralph - who had all cycled by road from Northallerton. Once everybody had showered, drunk several mugs of tea, eaten a few chocolate biscuits, and listened to the warden's life story they headed across the road to the pub. I was dismayed to find that they had changed the menu and no longer did the legendary mixed grill! Ralph who had been caught out by the complete lack of shops in the village, begged the bar staff until they took pity on him, and sold him half a loaf of Mr Warburton's finest white loaf! much to everybody else's amusement. After the meal John went and practised his Polish by chatting to the 3 Polish girls who were also at the hostel - after he came back Ralph went over (does he speak Polish as well?) accompanied (chaperoned?)by Liz! The following morning all the blokes in the main dorm were rudely awakened by the sound of a steam train under attack from Indians at 6:30am! JS had decided to treat everybody with a rendition from his new toy - an 18in long model American steam loco alarm clock. after hearing it I'm surprised it never took the express route out of the window! Everybody completed the usual morning activities, eating breakfast and drinking gallons of tea. Brian also acted as touring advisor to the 3 Poles, giving them some useful pointers on where to go in the U.K. After the obligatory photo in front of the hostel Peter, Paul, Liz, and Ralph headed off, sticking to roads (Wimps). Myself Brian and the Fencotes headed off and started the long 4 mile ascent up to Stanhope common. Just after we turned off the road onto the Waskerley way part of the C2C we came across the conversion of the old Station Masters house into a B&B cum cafe cum C2C info point. Being supporters of this type of enterprise we stopped for a chat, and more tea of course.… Once refreshed, as the climb had given us quite a thirst, we headed off down the C2C, with the journey being punctuated at frequent intervals by one or more of us stopping for a pitstop. This carried on all the way over the Hownes Gill viaduct, onto the Lanchester Valley trail, and back into Lanchester, where we stopped for supplies at the local Spar buying up their stocks of reduced sarnies ready for an alfresco lunch at the picnic area about 2 miles down the trail. Prior to Lunch we had decided to go the whole hog and try to spend as much of the return leg off-road as possible. Hence from Lanchester, rather than head over to Wolsingham, we stuck to the trail, attempting to scare ramblers with our steam loco alarm clock - a bicycle bell would be so much easier! Once back at Broompark, we took the Deerness valley trail past Esh Winning, and then onto Stanley Crook, where we hit the 2nd tarmac leg. Downhill 2 1/2 miles into Willington, and then back onto the B.A. - Brandon trail back to Bishop. We had a quick detour to the Bishop of Durham's residence at Auckland Castle, before I split from the other 3 to head back home. Thanks to Mick and Brian for organising another great weekend, and to everyone else for being there. The return distance from Mick's was 85 miles, with 65 off-road. I think that makes it the longest off-road ride this year, without a single mountain bike - isn't life strange! Gary Dawes |