Midaircrisis Geordie Mountain Bikers update September 2006

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You may recognise the map below from the main Kielder page, coz it's the same one! On Sunday 1st July 2007, in this lovely long, baking dry summer we're having (not!) there were only three of us turning out. Derek, Jason and Terry had waited until 10.00am for two prospective new riders to turn up but they didn't show, so we put the trailer back in it's resting place as we didn't need it for only three bikes (bit of a pain, really). Maybe the recent weather put them off, or our ride last Thursday.

Anyway, back to the map. We started at Kielder Castle car park and rode out on the thick red line up the Forest Drive, turning into the trees first left as shown, at Jason's request. Up, up we went to Greyhound Law, as we did last time, and round the loop shown. This took us back down to the road again as there's just a closed loop here, so we decided to backtrack along the Forest Drive and go up the first turn for a second time in search of juicy new Red Trail sections, as there was due to be an "official opening" the very next day (Monday 2nd).

Derek strips for action

We ended up circling around Ravenshill, almost back to the start, until we came across some newish-looking Dolomite trail sections. We "investigated" them for a while, and then followed our instincts to the bottom left hand corner of Ravenshill Moor, just left of centre of the map. We were then faced with what seemed a multitude of choices at a multi-junction of fireroad, singletrack and new trail. Gollum couldn't see the sun because of the cloud cover, and his GPS didn't have a compass active today, so he was about to stick his ear on the ground to listen for inspiration when Derek announced he was carrying a real compass! Wow, someone's taught him well. He also had his map today and that came in quite handy once or twice, as did the Gollum's PDA maps. As soon as we knew where North was, we were able to select the right trail and off we went.

Where've they gone?

Unfortunately for the little old man, this led us up, up, and further up. Home territory for Derek, and since the Trans Scotland, home ground for Jason aswell. In fact, this tortuous, straight-up climb to the summit of Deadwater Fell was only cleaned by the Brown Ale Rep, with even Derek having to dismount on a couple of tricky, near-vertical sections. Well done Jay. But s*d you both for leaving the poor Golly huffing and puffing as he pushed up most of this 1860 feet horror. We rested a while at the top and took a few scenic shots of the earth miles below, with Kielder Water in the far distance.

Bike for display purposes only Notice we walked all the new stuff as requested

Derek puts up a new trail sign Note the snaking trail past Jay's right ear

Off they go up Deadwater Fell without me the view back down to Kielder water

The peak is reached by Jason the Edge of the World Basking in it!

The drop from the top could have been done at ridiculous speeds on the wide open fireroad but we were hoping to catch sight of dark yellow ribbons leaving the side of it. However, we were disappointed as there were none, and we ended up back at the junction we'd started the climb at some time ago! From there, however, we couldn't do anything but tackle the new singletrack and when this thing is tidied up a bit it'll be superb, if a wee bit short. It has most of what the good Scottish trails have but somewhat narrower, and maybe more dangerous in places. I don't want to criticise what may become my new MTBing "home", in the most fantastic county in the UK, as there's a heck of a lot of graft gone into the trailbuilding here, but call this more of an observation - the hairpins (OK, switchbacks) are very, very tight compared to other trails and I think they may chew up with brakes being jammed on hard by novice riders (we didn't do that, see!).

Don't worry about the bullet holes

After a good bit of fast descending we hit the top of another new section and that was very similar to the top - rock gardens, drop-offs and rock steps are aplenty, almost a miniature Dalbeattie in places, with absolutely loads of opportunity to wipe yourself out. Derek thought some of the trees were a wee bit too close for comfort, and Jason agreed with both of those points of view. Still headed for a 9 out of 10, I reckon. I just wish we'd managed to help the Kielder Trailreavers (spelled like that) as they are now known, but their work schedules just don't fit with our free time, unfortunately. Pathetic, but a fact.

We ended up emerging from the forest at Kerseycleugh just outside Kielder Village on the north side, and a short pedal got us back to the car in a few minutes after deciding not to jump onto the old railway line to get back. That proved to be a sensible move, as the Heavens opened just as we were loading the last bike onto the car. So we avoided a soaking by seconds. We got changed in the car, somehow, and Jason drove us along the lake to Tower Knowe where we stopped for afternoon tea at the Visitor Centre, and where we held the second Newcastle Mountain Bike Club committee meeting, taking some major decisions which could affect the future of the Human Race. Back home about 6.00pm after having to reverse out of Bellingham due to four feet of water lying on the road just west of Redesmouth. After Jay did a very accomplished six-point-turn without crushing the bikes (well, Derek's Specialized, which was nearest the dry stone walls!) we left Bellingham out the north side to West Woodburn, and even that somewhat higher road had a great deal of the wet stuff on it, some pretty deep but obviously passable. Can't beat a diesel under water!

Jason's bike PC said 27 kilometres, ride time about 4 hours.

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