Five of us started this one, with Peter still on his magnificent run of outings, Lee gaining more ride credits at home, Francis looking to test his new Casco Viper helmet and the amazing Stevie B again hauling ass up from Harrogate, for Christ's sake, to join the Gollum for one of those off-the-cuff rides where you just never know where it'll lead you.
It led us first through the Rising Sun west edge tree tunnel then over to Benton and down past the NUFC training grounds before heading along the Tram Track to South Gosforth and into the Dene. We kept it straight through there, following the river at decent pace before the Viper got its chance to shine. Just leaving Armstrong Bridge down into the Vale, Francis managed to get one Cube wheel either side of the wooden path edges and it brought him down in a heap. Fortunately not as dramatic a fall as that fatefull Glentress ding.
We continued through to the City Stadium and down the fast way under Byker Bridge to the Quayside. It was still early so not very busy as we rode along and over the Swing Bridge onto Keelman's Way which we followed along the Gateshead side of the Tyne through Teams and Dunston, past the Metro Centre before a slight error saw Terry miss the bridge at Swalwell and do a complete loop, the tool.
Back on track we entered Blaydon at the Baths and approached that dreaded climb up to Winlaton. What a pig, and it soon had Terry off and walking with Lee doing the same in sympathy while the other three made it up and waited at the top. Steve remembered the route from two years ago or more to steer us across towards Blaydon Burn. Yet more climbing followed until we reached our second dead end and had to back out, but at least this time we didn't enter the graveyard like last time, a proper dead end that one.
Rather than swoop all the way down the tarmac, terry decided it would be a good idea to nip through the wall and look for some higher and hopefully skinnier route down through the Burn. That was partially successful but it wouldn't be a proper ride if he hadn't also led into impenetrable forest at least once. We backed out of that one aswell but it paid off with a lovely singletrack descent dropping us a long way down but still heading back uphill! That meant we'd scored for an extra length of very pleasant downhill and still ended up where we normally start from at the head of the main drag. Some small compensation for the er, amount of tarmac being covered today.
Terry was still at the front for the fast blast all the way down to the Tyne but had to slow the group twice or thrice for walkers and dogs coming t'other way. At the bottom he was ready for food, but as it was only 11:20 we decided to press on and stop at Newburn for nosh. We rode up past Ryton Industrial Estate and did the short stretch of singletrack back down to the railway crossing then onto the riverside and over Newburn Bridge into the leisure Centre grounds for lunch in the sun!
One climb down, final one to go as we set off again along the bridleway towards Wylam. Into the village we took to the road and headed out towards the A69, but turned right on the Close House road. Tiredness set in to an old person's legs here and the guilty party pointed the others at a "shortcut" up to the Heddon road. Looked a wee bit like a footpath so we took our feet aswell and it turned into a beautiful, twisty, skinny and fast (for an uphill) singletrack. Shame we weren't headed in the opposite direction.
We popped out on the road just west of Heddon and within a few minutes the group was waiting at the top of the hill for Terry walking up the pavement and joining them. Then it was showtime as the fastest trail of the day awaited, and we wallowed in it on the way back down to the riverside country park again at sometimes eye-popping speeds over the dodgy roots and the tricky rock gullies on the lower flat-out stretches. A few of us were lucky to negotiate the faster bends without being dumped, with dusty gravel proving almost as tricky as the more usual mud.
Steve found the entry to the trail to get us past the golf course and we were soon back on the bridleway heading back to the leisure centre. We stayed on the English banks of the Tyne this time (that's the northern side, in case you're wondering) and got along to the A1 where terry suggested a turn to the north would get us home quicker than staying with Scotswood Road and the riverside, so we picked our way up through the Denton and Kenton estates where we parted with Francis (one turn too early, as it happens, sorry mate!) before hitting the greenery again at the Great Park.
From there we aimed for Bluebell Woods and that was our last contact with off-road ground as we finished off by running through Longbenton and Benton, parting with Lee at the top of Sation Road and getting back to the Cave at around 1530 with 44 miles on Peter's bike pc, bone dry.