Just a taster in case it takes me forever to do the write-up!
There were just enough of us to fill two motors this Sunday, 21st december 2008 - the final normal Sunday ride of the year, with Chris K once again kindly offering his car and the van consuming the ten bikes and the other five bods. Poor Dave rode to the Cave from Gosforth whilst a somewhat fortunate Craig ("Why we pickin' somebody up - we're not supposed to do that...") was collected from the Kenton Bank roundabout on the A1. He joined the others - Chris D, Mick, Steve W, Stewart and the Gollum with this one also seeing the return of Jason from junior football duty again, and the Vanishing Man Andy S, making a comeback after the Highland Fling in the summer.
We didn't start the ride until 11:55 or thereabouts on what seemed a cool morning. First problem to overcome was poor Stevie's bike which had terminal rear end issues. He was forced to nip down to the bike hire shop and dig out a Trek hardtail for the day. Not good after the plushness of his Stumpjumper Comp. However, it wasn't long before we were nicely warmed up and into it after the initial climb. With the Gollum's camera back in action there was a bit of snapping going on again, with the inevitable set of posed shots. dave was also determined to grab some this time and could be seen lurking in the bushes at every dodgy spot.
The descent just before the 3 Dog Climb caught a few out today but caused limited damage to bodies. Once we'd drawn breath at the top the Gollum attempted to head everyone up to the start of the Deadwater Loop, but was overtaken by Chris D near the summit. Reaching that point, Golly settled down by the trees, out of the wind, for lunch around 13:15. The party was split on whether or not totackle the radio masts resulting in five going up and five staying put. Up went Steve, Mick, Chris D, Stewart and Jason. Dave and Golly waited half an hour then took up position near the gentle double which looked the best spot to catch the descenders at, but nobody aced it.
Time for first Golly and then Dave to stagger their positions near the start of the Red singletrack as it plummets back down to Jim's Bridge. We had a bit of fun getting down here and a couple of awkward moments, but again without writing anybody off. Then we hit the bridge and the Red/Black trail fork, and no doubt you've guessed right - we don't bother with the Red as there's too much good stuff missed off if you do. Couldn't see if any of the front runners completed all of the timber boardwalk in the very gusty conditions, but the Gollum upheld Underworld honours by doing it all at the tail end.
By the time the latter had managed to walk and crawl up to the top of Greyhound Law the others had vanished but had waited around the first bend for him to catch up. That presented another photo opportunity and this section did claim a few casualties, but nothing bad enough to seek bangdages for. We completed the first of the Black descents to find a dirty great thorn in the Gollum's rear (tubeless - with Stan's No-Tubes!) tyre! Having fought off the sarcastic comments of his teammates he proceeded to install Jason's spare tube but leave the Mavic tubeless valve in place, pushing the other one fully inside the tyre with a tyre lever! This is Gollum's secret weapon in the war against badly-sealing non-tubeless-but-trying-to-be tyres, and it has been known to work in getting beads to stick. This time, however, he succeeded only in snapping the core off the valve so it went down by the time Black Stage Two was completed. Thought it was squirming around a bit on the landings!
After catching some footage of the others starting the last downhill, Andy and Steve accompanied the Gollum along the fireroad shortcut to the final Red section. While we waited for the others to climb back up to our vantage point, Steve kindly donated another inner tube and the Trek was as good as new again. So all we were left with now was the final Red blast to the Castle. The Gollum's advice to be wary of the timber raised section was completely ignored, somehow the planks offering just enough grip to support our party without anyone sliding off. Once back at the cars we discovered Craig had also suffered two punctures, thus explaining how we'd had to wait a while for them to catch us up again. Another enjoyable ride though, and we really did get lucky with the weather again after early gloom and mist. It was about 16:00 now so the Committee decided to do without the Tea Shop stop and we zoomed straight home. Thanks to Jason for driving the van again. And we hope to see a bit more of Andy as he's completed his Mountain leadership Award course.
DON'T FORGET to sign up for a NEW Wiggle Account BEFORE you use the link below to earn
us some pennies
www.wiggle.co.uk
