Return to the Forests

The decision was made to re-open Guisborough Forest just in time for the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend. Another last minute ride was arranged for the Sunday. Rob and I arrived first, closely followed by Pete in his transit pick-up. The Pinchinthorpe Visitor's Centre car park began to fill up as Alan arrived in his egg van, luckily not too many eggs had fallen onto his bike during the journey. During the previous Thursday's evening road ride, I tried my hardest to persuade Dave Scoones to come along. His answer was, "You persuade the wife to grant me the day off and I'll be there". Cue for an e-mail I thought. So I sent Helen a message promising a mention in the Newsletter if Dave turned up. Sure enough Dave was there, along with Helen and their young son Michael. They set off on the easy peasy Blue Route whist we contemplated the horrendously strenuous and technically demanding Black Route. Our rides are now so popular we are able to provide both a fairly demanding ride and a family ride on the same day!

Luckily Tony turned up for his first ride with the S.O.C. Tony ended up being leader for the day as, a) he was the only one who knew his way around the forest, and b) he was faster than the rest of us. We finally got under way only to be stopped after a few yards by Kev who we hadn't noticed, parked on the other side of the car park.

Whenever we came to a stretch of single track I was pushed to the front. This was because I was out on my new bike with its clipless pedals, the others insisted they kept behind me so they had a good view (and a good laugh) if I were to fall off. Perhaps I should explain to the none cyclists, these are silly looking pedals that clamp to the soles of your cycling shoes. When you come to a stop the idea is you twist your foot to release it, a similar idea to ski bindings I suppose. The problem is they take a bit of getting used to and on at least four occasions I ended up in the undergrowth with bike still firmly attached to my feet. Of course the other lads were very sympathetic and concerned that I may have suffered an injury!

For a forest, Guisborough has quite a few hills to climb but this also means there are a number of good descents to bomb down. We were standing around chatting at the bottom of one such descent, when a passing dog spotted there was mud clogging up Rob's derailleur so the dog cocked up his leg and gave it a quick jet wash. Not something Shimano normally recommend but Rob's gear changes seemed a lot smoother from then on.

At lunch time Tony led us out of the forest to the local hostelry for refreshment. It was a fine choice by Tony and we spent a good while contemplating whether sitting out in a pub's beer garden wasn't a better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon than tearing around a forest on our bikes. I'll save Pete any embarrassment by not giving you details but his actions with a sachet of mayonnaise meant we concluded we should head back into the forest.

We managed to find a few more hills to go up and down before returning to the cars. With the aid of our guide we managed a 16 mile route which left us well satisfied, all except Alan that is who wished he'd gone on the Family Ride. Having said that he did accompany us on our additional ride in to Gt. Ayton for ice creams.

Alan Turner has asked me to include this message for Ian Dale, "When are the S.O.C. walks starting again, I can't take anymore of these b****y mountain bike rides?"

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Return to the Forests

Dave Neesam