Black Hambleton Ride

Certainly not a record turnout but word must have spread as a total of eight gathered at the Black Hambleton Car Park for my next ride. Having now been on quite a number of mountain bike rides, Len is really getting into our way of thinking and stopped at the cafe before the ride even started. There’s still a few weeks before you can say summer has arrived but Geoff couldn’t wait any longer to show off his new bike. Word of my brilliant rides must have spread as far as Stocksfield as the Gravenor’s made the trip down. Nice to see Pete out on his second ride with the group. There was only one returnee from my last ride, yes you’ve guessed correctly, me old mate Paul. After a short(ish) wait for Liz to arrive we were off.

We headed east along the bridleway which runs parallel with the Hawnby road. This is quite technical in places, one of these places being the scene of what was to be a regular occurrence of Len toppling over, pedals and feet still attached. We continued along this track to where it meets the main road at Hall Lane. The sight of the steep hill ahead wiped smiles off a few faces but the smiles soon returned as we turned left to Low Cote Farm (I’m getting far too soft). After the couple of hundred yards of tarmac to the farm we were off-road again heading north-east along Arnsgill Ridge. We made such good progress along this section that when we arrived at the Barker’s Ridge/Chop Gate fork I wasn’t convinced we had cycled that far. After perusal of the map and short trip in the wrong direction, we were soon back on track.

At the north end of Barker’s Ridge things become a little awkward for us mountain bikers. There’s another bridleway at Barker’s Crag (this Barker fellow must have been important to have both a ridge and a crag named after him) a mere half a mile away but only connected by a footpath. The S.O.C. Mountain Biking Section never ever cycles along public footpaths so we headed east along the green lane known as Mill Lane. The erosion caused presumably from motorbikes, made cycling this section quite interesting, some enjoyed it but others didn’t and were glad on arriving at Raisdale Mill. The bacon butty odours from the cafe at the top of Carlton Bank spurred us on to travel the two miles along the main road at breakneck speed (well fairly quickly anyway).

The cafe was a very welcome rest halt but after being fed and watered we were all very keen to get back in the saddle! At the top of Carlton Bank, as the Cleveland Way is a footpath at this point and we never ride on footpaths, we took the bridleway which runs close to the Gliding Club (we ended up at their front door, another wrong turning) and on to Scugdale Hall. After another couple of “topple overs” from Len, we arrived at Brian’s Pond, was Mr. Barker’s Christian name Brian I wonder. Anyway, on arrival at his pond we had a choice of tracks, Len suggested the one marked “bridleway” which I must admit seems rather obvious now I’m sat writing this but I was convinced we should head down one of the unmarked tracks and as I was “Ride Leader” that’s the way we went.

We came across a deep narrow gully which surprisingly had two foot of drifted snow in the bottom, too deep for even us to ride through but we had fun trying. On finally reaching the other side of the gully, we found ourselves within sight of the end of Mill Lane, where we were an hour ago! Also a sign on the far side of a gate told us we had just ridden along a private road, oops! We never ride along footpaths so the only option was to return to Len’s bridleway, sorry Len.

Liz, Barbara and James still hadn’t emerged from the snowdrift. Worried that they may have been caught in an avalanche, we hurried back through the 1ft. 11in. deep snow. Our worries were over when we saw them busy fixing a puncture on Liz’s bike. We finally reached Barker’s Crag where we faced the enjoyable descent to Scugdale Hall. We had a rest bite as we cycled along the tarmac road turning left to Hollin Hill. At this point Barbara’s tyre decided to deflate, not only that but we had trouble removing the wheel but brute force and ignorance saved the day. I may take the wrong turning now and again but when it comes to brute force and ignorance I’m your man.

After Hollin Hill we turned right onto the Cleveland Way which was now a bridleway. On reaching the Swainby junction we had a head count and three were missing. Liz and Barbara, our two puncture victims, were helping Len our latest victim. At least this gave everybody a chance to rest before the steep climb, complete with log steps, up to the viewpoint in Clain Wood. Most resorted to pushing their bikes but Pete was up in a flash.

Our next obstacle was the ford at Sheepwash quickly followed by the deeply rutted bank. Most resorted to the footbridge (the mountain bike section is becoming far too soft) and the ruts were too much even for Pete. It was plain sailing from now on along High Lane back to the cars, then into the Chequers Cafe for refreshments.

I was impressed the way everybody coped on what was quite a tough ride and I hope you all enjoyed it. For the statisticians in the club, the ride was 21.53 miles long, actual riding time was 3 hrs. 18 mins. 44 secs. at an average speed of 6.5 mph, max. speed being 28.0 mph, guess who’s splashed out on one of those mileage computer thingies?

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Black Hambleton Ride

Dave Neesam