It wasn't a very pleasant morning we awoke to on Sunday 29th November 2009 with a heavy sky and a cold wind. Ian B and Suzanne were first to arrive at the Cave around 08:45 but they were just passing on their way around a short local loop. Stephen G appeared just before nine and he and the Gollum waited for the next arrivals after loading their bikes into the GollyMobile. The sky continued to darken and the rain started gently at first then quite heavily. No sign of anyone else by 09:05 so off they went wondering how many would appear at Blaydon Tennis Club after various suggestions had been mooted on the Forum.

The answer to that was supplied at 09:20 and it was... One. That was Francis having ridden from his Gosforth home, and he was becoming quite damp when the GollyMobile arrived. Well, three is a 50% improvement on two and there were still another ten minutes to go. However the extra time only provided one more in the shape of RideGuide for the day, Chris D. Chris had scooted down from his abode at Highfield and was already, like Francis, dampened.

We four set off up the Derwent Walk, calling at Golly's proposed river crossing point to be confronted by yet another twisted, mangled and forcibly removed footbridge at Winlaton Mill. No crossing possible there with the Derwent in furious flood, so we were forced to forget about that possible added loop and continue westwards.

The Gollum then decided to substitute a path he spotted in the trees to compensate, and for a good hundred metres it was paying off. That was until the riverbank was reached and the terrain became, er, a jungle. That's not too bad in itself, we already have a few tee shirts, but this route required us to climb several fallen trees before hitting an impossibly steep upslope as the only escape route, and it took us half an hour to clamber up and pass the bikes hand-to-hand until we reached the relative safety of a field.

I say relative because you couldn't even walk on this one, thanks to our cloven-hooved mooing friends who'd churned it up real good. We pushed and carried to the far side of the thing where it then became possible to mount up for the descent back to the Derwent Walk way below.

When we reached it, the Gollum had become so disoriented that it took minutes of persuasion by Chris and Francis that he was about to set off in the wrong direction! Maybe not such a bad idea. We'd just spent half an hour getting to the spot we'd left half an hour ago!!!

Anyway, onward up to Rowlands Gill, down the bank at Gibside and westwards looking for the drop to Lintzford. Chris spotted it first and went directly into attack mode with the others following. From top to bottom it was laughs and giggles all the way as this superb chunk of downhill singletrack took hold of the bikes and swept them downwards. It was almost a case of shut your eyes and hang on, there being little else you could do against the flow of floodwater rushing down with us and the muddy edges of the cut sliding the bikes from side to side like a water chute at Butlins.

Near the end it levels out and that's where poor Stephen caught us. "Try that" he insisted, hauling on his left brake lever. We all tried it, and unanimously agreed he may as well remove it! It offered no braking at all unless pumped madly, and these were rear end braking conditions if there ever were any.

We couldn't think of a fix so he was stuck with it for the rest of the day, so on we went, crossing the Hamsterley road then the next flooded track up into Chopwell Wood. No brakes needed for some time though, as it was all climb for the next half hour or more.

Chris took us right up top to do the Golf Course Run before backtracking for the Root Run down to the old line. Surprisingly, that famous "bog-in-a-pond" half way down wasn't that wet, certainly not the flood Golly had warned Francis and Stephen about. We hammered down that and took a short rest before heading west again to the Boulders.

Back into the trees again just off the fireroad as Chris spent the next hour and a half demonstrating how much of Rob's routes he's remembered, as well as adding some extra bits. From the top we only did a couple of climbs, with nobody really in the mood to stay until dark because of the weather.

We completed with a run down the Stages, very tricky but still extremely satisfying, the first two being in a real mess now after extensive logging operations and of course the Forestry Commission's Christmas Tree Sale which was taking place in the main car park.

Chris left us at the lower gate and set off on one of his secret trails through the trees on his climb back up to Highfield, while Francis, Stephen and Golly rowed their bikes down to the road again and back onto the DW for the run back to the cars.

The heavens opened just after that and the rain just kept getting heavier and heavier. We were all frozen by the time the Tennis Club loomed and could barely do the necessary to strip the bikes and get changed.

And weirdly, just as Francis and Golly reached the van, Francis piped up "I didn't want to say this until we got back here, but at least there were no punct..." just as he said it we both looked back together to see Stephen pushing the Lapierre the last few metres to the van with a flat front tyre!!!

Rain, 10 - Aldi Waterproof Pants, 0.

Although Francis said he was OK to ride back to Gosforth we couldn't risk losing him twice in one week so took him home in the van. Stephen's Lapierre looked very sad so it and Golly's Commencal got a wash back at the Cave around 2:00pm. It took the Gollum a shower, copious amounts of hot chocolate and three hours hung on a radiator to stop the shivering.