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Sunday 15th February 2009 was another of those "should we?-shouldn't we?" ride days as the Committee met at the Cave to make their possibly fateful decision. Stewart, Chris D, Ricky (down again from his Broomhill abode), Ian M, Steve B, Keith, Tim and the Gollum had a fairly lengthy discussion as they waited around for any more prospective riders. With Stewart not looking forward to being a car passenger he opted to take his own motor so was joined by Tim, while Keith loaded Steve's bike into the Batmobile and took him as his Robin. Incidentally, the GollyMobile is back on duty after another traumatic week for its owner.
Off we trolled a good half hour over schedule, but really that was down to the indecision about the venues available and how much snow they were under. Our saviour was Ian M who just happened to have a mate staying over in Cumbria. One quick phone call to him and Ian confirmed that the area was snow-free. Now it wasn't til we were under way that we discovered his mate was staying at the opposite end of the Lake District to our intended trail at Whinlatter!
When we got to Hexham we couldn't believe the lack of snow on the surrounding hills, and the further west we travelled, the greener they became. The outlook got even better as we neared Keswick, with obvious tracts of white stuff on the loftiest peaks, but no real snow fields. Pulling into Whinlatter Visitor Centre at about 10:20 it could have been a typical autumn day, with 7 degrees displaying on Keith's heads-up windscreen display. That brought about a change of clothing for one or two of us, and further stripping off at the top of the initial climb.
The trail itself was extremely wet and muddy, and the shards of slate treacherous but hey, here we were, with the totally unexpected prospect of a proper manmade trail blast at long last. The air remained full of the sound of a Gollum complaining about his tyres lack of grip all the way around, but his thoughts were shared by just about everyone else, except they didn't whinge on about it. The conditions made that first off-camber, sloping hillside traverse even more potentially dangerous than normal but luckily we all leaned into the hill at crucial times and no-one fell to their deaths. I'd have to say though, that the trail builders better keep an eye on the final section of that first ascent because like bits of Dalby and one or two other places it will not see out the winter, especially as more and more riders discover there's another trail to rake.
We continued - upward, ever upward. Looks like we have unearthed another whippet in the shape of Ricky, flying up the climbs no problem on his Giant Trance. He was joined by Chris making his Mongoose climb almost as well as his own Trance X. The rest of us caught them up at intervals. Couldn't help but notice that Keith, even after he'd prepared a story in advance, was getting up there fine on his new steed, lack of practice or not. We stopped for a rest and a wee bite before the long, super downhill finish to the North Loop, then Stewart shot ahead to take up a good camera position. He planted himself on the exit to that first, deep, fast left hand berm just before you get thrown into the amazing series of triples on the run down to the Visitor Centre. Tim went first followed by Chris with a decent gap for Stew's flash to recharge.
Time for Golly to go. With the others watching from up top, he decided to take the highest possible line around the berm to give Stewart something a bit different to focus on. He pulled that off OK, but on the exit was j-u-s-t a few millimetres too high, and the front tyre immediately lost it's normally useless traction (whinging again) and he blew out over the top of it, almost collecting Stewart as he was catapulted off the side of the Trek and started bouncing down the hill. Luckily the bike stayed up top and the scrawny one was able to scramble back up, with the ego suffering more damage than the currently shattered arm muscles. The others managed to complete the descent with considerably less drama due to possessing somewhat more skill, although good old Ian M continues to maintain his long-running record of falling every time out. More blood evacuation from those poor knees of his! Get blogging for a suitable nickname for him.
We headed up to the cafe and sat at an outside table in the remarkably mild air eating our lunch. Following Chris' revelation that his chain kept jumping off, Golly decided to take the law into his own hands and fix it. Out came a couple of links and back in went the Powerlink. "Oi! Fool!" came a cry in that familiar Irish twang. "You've put a twist in me expletive deleted chain, ya expletive deleted prick!" it continued. "Rubbish" retorted the Gollum, until he moved closer and witnessed his super cockup for himself. Oops. Another few seconds fiddling about and all was well with the world. Chris didn't seem to suffer any more chain-off episodes for the remainder of this ride, at least.
Fed, watered and rested Keith got us all ready again and pointed us over the road to the start of the South Loop. With Tim leading we had a full-race blast through the trees up to the start of the first climb, but only because this bit was flat. Great fun trying to miss the trees along the side of the path at the limits of your tyres adhesion though. That pleasant little scurry brought us to singletrack Climb Time again, but it's at least an interesting one under the tree canopy, and one of those like a few notable Scottish centres (Ae, Kirroughtree) that make you feel you're not really climbing at all. Reaching the final fireroad, however, leaves you in no doubt about the few hundred feet you've just gained.
We arrived at what should have been another fireroad climb to the start of the South Loops downy bits only to find it was closed for Forestry work. Nuts. Keith was toying with the idea of ignoring the signs, but as Chris and Golly were displaying Club Colours those two were definitely not interested. After a short picture halt again, the Gollum took off down the legitimate route which consists of some very wide, sweeping bends and berms together with more little staggered doubles and triples. Up top it is nowhere near being bedded in yet, and I'm sure most of those following me down stuck to the muddy brown ribbon about a foot wide down it's centre, for safety. The Gollum stopped after a good blast took him back into the trees on firmer ground to attempt to get some decent video of the others coming through. See result below.
On reaching the end of this there were only a few hundred metres of fireroad left and a little tract of singletrack which deposited us back where we started, and again we blasted it back to the road at the centre. Job well done, perfect weather conditions, just enough grip to permit proper fasties and for once Golly was glad he hadn't dismissed Keith's ride suggestion out of hand. Still think it's a miracle there was no snow here though! And it IS a long way to go for a ten miler (or 11.5 when it's all open).
Photos here Videos here One Two Three Four More pics from Stewart here
