So new that, with Andy's navigational skills, we managed to lose an hour getting there as York loomed ever larger in the windscreen and we did the scenic tour of Yorkshire on the way. Finally we arrived and were on the bikes at 12.25pm on a fantastic clear, still but cold morning at around 6 degrees.

There must have been bucket loads of rain here in the previous days as the ground was very wet in all but the best-drained places. We chose to do the 15 mile Red Route on this trip and leave the 6 mile Black for our next visit, depending on what we made of the place this time. It began with one of those climbs that gets the blood squirting from your eyeballs, but it was technical enough to keep you occupied most of the time without thinking too much about reaching the top.

It was pretty tricky around here with a lot of standing water, a great deal of muddy goo and plenty of natural obstacles in a mixture of man-made and "natural" trails. The trail builders have obviously learned well from either visiting or being part of the trail teams at other centres, and have incorporated features from just about everywhere. There are plenty of rock steps, very tricky when mud-covered, little jumps, drop-offs, and some excellent razor-width singletrack that eventually caught out Jason and John towards the end of the ride. A bit lacking on berms, or maybe that was just me too tired to attack them!

Andy had the only puncture of the day in the middle of a rising-and-falling singletrack section. Like some of the Seven Stanes trails, they've been quite clever here in arranging the switchback and other climbs so that you're never going up all the time, with little snippets of downward relief every so often to cheer you up if your not an uphill grinder like Andy. I'm convinced the only toy he had as a kiddie was a climbing frame.

Half way around there's a skills loop like a BMX track with some tabletops and high berms, and we saw some Black sections full of North Shore sticks and logs. We had a go on the skills loop, too tired to thrash it, but only tackled one very short Black section when Jason took a wrong turn while leading. It's easy to take a wrong turn at the skills loop - some sweetie has removed all the signs from every post at this point, see pics left.

Here's an example of the clag we came across, John getting stuck in this particular trench

There are also some very entertaining downhills right under the trees where it's pitch black and you need radar to get through unscathed. Us old stagers (me) managed it without drama (well, I stayed rubber-side-down!) but the young'uns had trouble in the dark, deep mud. The final steep descent before the singletrack return run was also very dark, as the sun was approaching the horizon, but I've never had this much fun in ages as we slithered down it's slalom course just able to make out the contours of the chutes. Great stuff.

Here's the kids waiting for Dad to show them the way down:

With Jason and Gollum on their Coilers, Andy on his new Scott RC20 and John on the Kikapu Deluxe there were two distinct groups doing the route which became apparent every time we hit a climb, with Andy and John skedaddling up ahead leaving Jason and I to struggle or walk. What we didn't do is ponder on why we were riding six inch rigs. We were doing that because they're better and faster at dealing with the gnarlier bits of mountain bike trails. No argument. At last, John had his new Kona on a proper ride and the result was just what he'd hoped for. At a full 17 pounds lighter than his previous "starter bike", the Saracen Awol, and with suspension and brakes that actually worked he had no problems zooming up the big climbs and none coming down either.

We finished the 15.3 mile ride at 4.00pm, around 3 and a half hours (2hrs11m mounted) with plenty of stops, loads of laughs and really, a thirst for more, my puny max speed 25.8mph. Jason was the quietest afterwards but I'm pretty sure he felt the same as the brethren - that this was a great ride and in fact could become a regular for us. The one drawback is that far from being an all-weather trail this one is anything but, being impassable (to mere mortals - not MidAirMen) in some places, so that was disappointing. Fantastic in the dry though (and a bit more dangerous).

Bike2Work

 Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk