Jeff

Chris D

Fergal

Ian B

Terry K

Tom

The once again surprisingly small band of five left the Cave at Holystone seconds after 0900 and were just entering Alwinton Village when Terry thought he recognised a car at the side of the road, with it's driver offloading a bike. Turned out to be our old mucka Tom of Reivers fame, and he decided to tag along with us for the day. The other surprise was the unexpected return from premature "retirement" of Ian B, out on the Commencal 66 Beastie Bike after getting a day pass from the missus. We appreciate, however, that his dogs are now first but it'll always be great to have Ian out again whenever he can swing it.

We left the village heading uphill (see Jeff's GPS route here, thanks again Jeff, and his pix here) away from our proposed Clennell Street finish, with Ian and Tom catching up with each other and recollecting old times. The climb hit Terry hardest as he struggled to keep up and that was just on the first mile of tarmac! As we headed onto our first bridleway it got a lot steeper and even harder to keep the others in sight.

Eventually though, there was another climb to make. I jest, of course. You only cover another half a mile or three before being confronted by the first extremely fast grassy dual downhill of Pass Peth that sets you off in the direction of Shillmoor Farm on a very picturesque traverse of the lower edge of The Knocks. Made it that far OK.

Time to hit the valley and follow the Usway Burn for four beautifully landscaped miles as it weaves northwards, stopping for a short breather at Hosden Hope, a spot we've enjoyed many times over the last 5 or 6 years. Jeff and Chris were pointed under the trees and led us off through this fantastic but all-too-short stretch of silent, pine-needle-carpetted singletrack cavern. An awesome stretch of trail, this is. Then we had to cross the little wooden footbridge at Fairhaugh after a breather stop before tackling the steep forest firebreak up towards Middle Hill. We decided to have lunch under the trees at the top, Ian and Tom suggesting this was the last decent cover for a good while. It also started raining a bit while we were at the troughs, so we saw off the worst of it before moving again.

Terry led around the tricky off-camber skinny eastern edge of Middle Hill with Chris, Jeff and Fergal tailing, while Tom and Ian chose to tackle the hill full-on so they could reap the reward of the descent on t'other side, literally flying back down to meet us, see video here.

A short discussion here and we were off to the crossroads at the foot of Hazely Law before climbing around it's west side and up, up, relentlessly up to the Border Ridge. There wasn't much time for a proper stop there with the tops looking dull, grey and maybe a bit dodgy, so we got on with it. Jeff and Chris again led Ian and Fergal up the flag stones of the Pennine Way while Tom and Terry stopped to take a few photies. Just shy of Windy Gyle's imposing 619 metre summit, Chris battered the Trance into the leading edge of one of the high stones and burped his front tyre. The tiny leak proved quite difficult to locate with the noise of the breeze and the jeers of the crowd, but we found it eventually and the good old gas cartridge and Stan's fluid did their job. Long Live Tubeless. Quite cool up here today, with Cheviot to our right still wearing some snow around his neck.

After a few posy pix at the summit the fast lads shot off on this amazing rocky grass descent through Scotchman's Ford until half way down when we were forced to get in line behind Tom as he searched out an elusive shortcut to the crossroad we'd started at. He didn't find it, but his version of a Golly trek and a streak of MidAirCrisis Madness caused some amusement and brought out everyone's balancing skills again as we hiked the bikes over tall tufts of moor grass! We lifted over the wire fence back onto the forestry road and began the return south.

The short drop to the new wooden bridge (old one washed away - see pix) was our last bit of enjoyment before we hit the gruelling climb up the side of Yarnspath Law on the Border County Ride to the ultimate target of Clennell Street. Tom's promise to the newcomers that the descent was "just after the next hill" and this was "the last climb" were met with customary disbelief but eventually the steady rises and falls delivered us to thereal meat of that glorious 700 foot descent on short, almost bone dry grass and then gravel dual which was greedily consumed by all of us. We got back to Tom's car at about 1500, still dry and the bikes not too messed up, with the saliva dripping as testament to that final adrenalin rush. 19 miles. Good one. We may just be bumping into Tom again as we couldn't get a better guide to the joys of MTBing in Northumberland.

Pix here.