Sunday 23rd August promised a wet day but as we headed down the A19 just after 09:00 to pick up Tim there was no sign of anything particularly damp coming our way. Leaving from the Cave were long-time absentee Iain, welcome back to him and ta for the use of that lovely Merc van, Peter, Simon, Ian M, Suzanne and Ian B. We arrived at Hamsterley Forest Visitor Centre about an hour later to be met by Rob, Dave back from his broken wrist outage, Chris D and Ride Leader Mick making his full return to riding after that annus horriblus he's had with the non-healing collarbone breakage. Great to have him in the pack again to push the pace.

Off we plodded from the car park at around 10:15 with Mick hauling us straight up to the start of the Black Route, promising to reveal some new goodies for us. I've never rated this ride at all, only ever using it as a stopgap measure as it's just doon from the toon. Would this be any different?

Well, on reaching the start of the first lumpy singletrack the Gollum was very surprised to see Mick's Intense pointing away from it! Was he about to ride it backwards to demonstrate just how strong his new shoulder was? All was revealed seconds later after last man Peter reached us feeling "bloated" but still up for it. The treat? Well, a bit more fireroad climbing is what we got! However, it only lasted a couple of minutes until we were at the "real" top of the climb, when our Squadron Leader pointed to a gap between two conifers at the side of the trail. In we all fed, Golly holding back behind a sensibly cautious Dave as we enjoyed a brand new, two-stage fern and pine needle blanket of skinny singletrack, lasting a good deal longer than it should have, and brilliant fun to ride. Now that WAS a surprise. The only problem I had was at the start of the second bit where there was some rough timber and a makeshift ramp over a small gully. It wouldn't have been an issue normally, but as the Trek's front wheel got half way up the plank, it smashed in half! Almost a nasty moment for the little cave dweller. Dunno how the others got over it, if they tried.

The second surprise was a bit of a downer for anyone feeling a bit tired or off already, as this trail dumped us almost at the bottom of the horrible hill again - no wonder it seemed to last a good while! Anyway, back to the original Black and a straight run of singletrack through to the start of the first gnarly bit which is a mass of roots going down easy earth chutes until it steepens severely to the finish on fireroad. Somebody managed to pop themselves off coming down here but I can't remember who it was, although it may have been Ian M as he hasn't dropped it for a while now!

A whole heap of fireroad next providing time for a natter as we headed for the savage climb up alongside the dry stone wall, and for the first time ever I managed to get all the way up the thing, thanks to the dry conditions. Of course, so did almost everyone else so the sense of achievement was reduced somewhat. Back into the trees next for more nice singletrack and then another short fireroad as Mick tried to seek out another "secret" bit. And find it he did, but only after most of the party had ridden past it and were gone down to the river. Five of us at the back had great fun playing around in here though, after finding a nice drop-off to practice take-offs on. By the time we made it down to join the main trail, Chris D and Rob had walked half way back looking for us, and expecting the worst! The Gollum managed a slight embarrassment here by riding straight into a tree, but it only hurt for a few minutes and as he was still almost mounted, didn't count this as an "off".

Last man, or almost last, to hit the river ford was Ian B, and he was doing fine until about two-thirds distance through the foot or so of fast-moving water. Then he was either distracted by a walker crossing over or just took his eye off the ball for a second, and the result was a short swim, captured by Dave who'd got himself into the perfect position to trap the action! Once we'd all stopped creasing ourselves Mick pointed up towards the Downhill track so off we went again.

This is another un-favourite of the Gollum, being a long drag up that steepens in two places. Somehow he stayed aboard for this aswell, making this Hamsterley outing his most fulfilling yet. Once the others had reached Descend Hamsterley's hut at the top we stopped for food and drink. While we were there a couple of us were very nearly wiped out by a downhiller who mis-cued his road gap jump and slid at some speed into the bike lying just behind us. We moved away after that one.

Gollum took the front again to lead up the hill to the Four-X track and the start of the new Red singletrack that most of us hadn't seen yet. As we approached it one by one we gave each other enough space to let rip safely. I followed Keith down, managing to witness the Nomad sliding up the loose gravel surface at almost every one of the great many fast, high and steep-sided berms on the way down. They've tried to copy Glentress' Spooky Wood here and have largely succeeded, although a couple of the lower turns are really close together and may well suffer from hard brakers as they realise they're about to launch over the top! Once we'd all got down there the party split in half with the keener ones returning to the top for another go, like a free roller coaster ride at the Hoppings. Can't blame them for that, it's really good.

The Lazy Squad, satisfied with a single run, peeled away behind Chris D and headed in the direction of the Skills Loop. Along the way, our Chris was on the lookout for some of the hard-to-find Black extras and his memory of the place didn't let him down as he found about three of them, which we indulged in greedily. Great fun, and it took a wee bit more energy out of some tired legs. That led us nicely to the Loop where we all had a good blast round before being joined by the others after their indulgence on the Red berms and jumps, and we were back at the cars around 3:00pm.

We sat outside the cafe for a cuppa and a cake, with a short discussion on the plans for the following weekend before heading home, more-or-less all in one piece and happy. And the weather was spot on.