Somehow we keep unearthing new chunks of trail everywhere we go. It's happened on every ride this year bar one, and that was Glentress as we cut it short, but I'm sure Ian B would have produced another unknown section if we'd stayed and Francis hadn't undone himself.
This wasn't an "official" Club outing but rather a fill-in for those with free time on the Bank Holiday Monday, with the previous day's normal ride cancelled for Go-Karting, which didn't work out. So six riders - Jeff, Ian B, Ian A, Steve B, Justin and Terry K left the Cave at 1003 and travelled south by devious means (including a prickly, dead end loop in the Rising Sun!) to the Tyne Tunnel where Tim was waiting to take over the reins at the far side.
He started by apologising for the tarmac stretch ahead but it was only four or five hundred metres before he had us diving down a steep, very slippery grass bank to the River Don and our second dead end of the day! Looking for a way out of the stinging nettle fields, it was Terry who set off in search of a bridge but failed to find one, necessitating a slightly damp stream crossing on stones and old fencing. Somehow nobody fell in although a few socks got wet.
We then followed Tim as he searched out the goodies along this seemingly everlasting stretch of riverside greenery alongside Monkton Burn where we were constantly dipping in and out of copses and unexpected slices of singletrack. Through Jarrow Town, Primrose and Monkton we maintained a more-or-less south-westerly heading hitting handy bridleway connections as we went, and hardly a sniff of tarmac anywhere. This was good!
Across the open spaces of Monkton Fell we hit the edge of Wardley and through a stinking bog through which Terry led with the others very reluctant to follow. And on the way through it was Steve who toppled over to suffer a very smelly left hand as it got submerged in the filth but saved the rest of him! This put us on the old railway tracks which still remain in place under the road at the White Mare Pool. We rode along them south through the old Boldon Fell opencast site and then deviated west along Folingsby Lane before rejoining the track again. Terry got his eye on a singletrack running along the foot of the embankment and tackled a steep drop to get on it, followed by Speedy and Steve, the others choosing to continue risk-free up top until the trails joined half a click ahead.
This deposited us nicely behind Tim as he soon located the super little singletrack the absent Mick discovered for us on our last Wearside Wander and pumped us through to Usworth Hall. We stopped near it for a well deserved lunch at about 1330 in the pleasant sunshine, out of the cutting wind. From there we fiddled our way up to Wrekenton Village and onto the bridleway heading west to the Angel of the North. On the way Terry again found a clump of trees to investigate, but it produced only a very short interlude before we retreated again.
We played in the old quarry behind Eighton Banks before plummeting down through the fields to hit Dunkirk. We failed to find what we thought should be a trail down to the rust pile and ended up on the road, but again Terry diverted the septet into the fields beneath Ravensworth Golf Course and we blasted the grass before humping the bikes over a fence and stopping while Tim searched for a bolt for one of his cleats. With that fixed and the last food consumed we headed back out to the road and down to the Birtley roundabout on the A1.
Photo opportunity took us ten minutes under the Angel and then Ian A pointed south at what looked like a trail! And to be sure, it turned out brilliantly, with a superb wiggly tree-lined singletrack, at least Grade B, and when we'd finished that there was a massive straight blast down an old railway track to the Team Valley floor awaiting. Except this time, Tim wanted to forego that in favour of some trees on the left. Once again the jungle stretch was pretty short, but there was a second a bit further on, then we were finally forced out back onto the straight drop. At the end of that, however, there was yet more singletracking to be found with Terry finding the source and once more we were on good stuff, completely unexpected down in this neck of the woods.
We emerged at Allerdene and climbed up into Low Fell before joining the old A1 at the top of Bellevue Bank. After we'd stopped to try and get some sugar into a suffering Tim, we hit the old Gateshead College site where Ian A took over up front to treat us to the regular maze he employs through the town centre and he had us dizzy by the time we reached South Shore Road. Tim made his getaway there, staying south side to head home to Jarrow, while the rest of us polished the steps at the Baltic before crossing the Millennium Bridge and seeking refreshment at Gregg's on the Quayside. Lovely cakes and pies, and extremely hot tea and coffee! Oh, sorry Tim, did you miss it then?
Ian continued to dazzle us with his head-spinning route through the Swan House underworld before we hauled it up to New Bridge Street at Manors lights. He still wasn't finished though, as we swooped through the new University Campus buildings and out into Sandyford. It was around here that at least one of the party developed an intense bout of saddle-soreness, so the miles must have been mounting up.
We made an easier ascent than normal to Heaton Park and did the west end singletrack drop before heading along the Ouse Burn and into the Dene under Armstrong Bridge. The place was swarming with those pedestrian types and their dogs and kids today, difficult to miss them. We were quite good though, honest.
Popping out at South Gosforth we did the Bluebell Woods singletrack before Steve headed off into Gosforth, but as dusk was approaching (nah, not quite) we shortcutted across the top of the Golf Course through into Longbenton where Justin left for Wideopen, then Ian got off at the flyover in Forest Hall with the remaining three of us getting back to the Cave for 4:30 or thereabouts. Jeff clocked up 34.7 cool but dry miles on the trusty Garmin GPS. Groan.