Sunday 7th October 2007 saw three vehicles leave the Toon for Powburn, Northumberland at 9.20. In those vehicles were Alan H and Terry, Derek and Jason, and Alan ? and Hazel, a couple more first-timers, most welcome to the Club. After a short wait at the Great Lime Road in case anyone else decided to show, we moved on up north. If anyone missed us, they didn't wait long enough!

When we arrived at Powburn it was grey overhead and there was light drizzle, but no wind and about 12 degrees was fine. The drizzle vanished altogether leaving an overcast but otherwise superb day for riding. This was Derek's ride and he figured out early on how to adjust it for our new tag-alongs, Alan and Hazel, both mounted on hardtails - his a Trek 4300 and hers a Specialized (yes, another one!) Hardrock or something.

After a gentle climb on skinny tarmac we hit the bridleways to take us down to the River Breamish and either it's bridge or ford. Gollum took the opportunity to run up onto the bridge to get ready for anyone wishing to take to the water, hoping for a good out-take. We all took the wet route, but there weren't any incidents (shame!) and even the Gollum made it across, not like his recent dabbles in water which have ended in either duckings or very near misses.

purple line shows just about our route, courtesy of Derek.

Here's a vid of the action: see if you can figure who got the wettest feet - and notice Derek was the guinea pig so he took it easy, two weeks after watching Gollum bite the wet stuff in a similar ford!

Video 5MB .wmv file

This route took us through a short farmland loop, then back onto the road at XXX. Time for Derek to surprise everyone with a hidden singletrack climb that you'd just never see if you didn't know it was there. Not an easy one this, especially nearer the top where it's criss-crossed by evil, wet roots running at various diagonals all the way up. And plenty of trees right near it's edge, and overhanging branches and tall fern. Quite a few slipping back wheels going up here, but no major drama.. We rested a while just short of the high point for Derek to tell us where we were going next.

That was down a decent dual track drop through another farm before it carried us onto the moor towards Quarry House radio transmitter. A flat section of tarmac into a short drop and it was bridleway time again, with Gollum up front before Alan H overtook on his stunning Giant Anthem and began to stretch away, followed by Jason. Derek hung back here keeping a watchful eye on our two guest riders, who were perhaps just now beginning to appreciate the difference between hard-packed riding surfaces and Mother Natures', as we got a bit strung out here. Nearing the top of the moor Gollum managed to ride straight into a two feet deep rut just as he was getting up a head of steam to catch Alan and Jay, but no damage done, just a sudden halt to forward motion and a helmet over the eyeballs.

Eventually we all reached the top safely and regrouped for a wee rest. Actually Golly had four of these today, no bladder control, see? After a good halt at a ruined building, one of the very few unrestored in Northumberland as it's too far out to be saleable, it was time to chase sheep, with Golly again hitting the front as the others got mounted.

 

Soon, after a couple of gates, we were motoring over another moorland cart track and as he reached the end of it, just under Tick Law, the Gollum chose to overtake Alan and ride to his right, into a shallow puddle covering all but the centre of the track. Except it wasn't a shallow puddle, not on the right. So yet another case of the Submerged Gollum as his front wheel got sucked under the water and off he came, up to his waist in stench-ridden, 100-year-old sheep dip and cow dung. Pheeuw! Slow as a flash, Jason had his camera out and caught the moment. More on Jason's camera later.

A few more kilometres brought us to the edge of a small copse at Miller's Causeway and Derek chose this for our lunch break, welcomed by all, but the longer we sat, the cooler it became, so we didn't overstay. We continued as far as this ruin where there must have been a couple of tired legs, as we spent almost as long milling around it as we had for our food halt, but no harm in that. And a good spot to get some posey shots aswell.

 

Don't usually go for crotch shots but here's the lovely Jay... while Alan H is a bit tongue-in-cheek about the daring Lycra display

Hey! Who's this smiling?

Sorry I missed your head, Alan! Dunno why Hazel's grinning

Got to get this one in, sorry Cheese on the bridge  Another watering stop for Gollum at the bridge, but first he had to jump into the nearby stream to wash his hands before touching himself again following the Real Bog incident! (sure that didn't sound right).

And finally, this pic - Jay's camera on top of Gollum's car. (There's ALWAYS something of Jason's on top of my car, usually with sharp metal bottoms).

Jason left it on the roof before we went into the cafe for a cuppa. Oh, ta for the toastie and tea by the way, Derek, and Alan's kind offer. Anyway, back to the plot. We went into the cafe and after we'd just about finished eating and drinking, Jason asked if I'd picked up his camera. Er, er, no! So he moved over to the cafe window and looked out over the car park to the GollyMobile. Sure enough, it was still sat quietly on the roof! And amazingly, even after an invasion of Dutch Hells Angels, it remained there til we went outside! So easy to loose it, you'd think. Lucky boy.

Anyway, we all dived into our respective modes of transport and headed out onto the highway for home. Alan and Terry, last out of the place in the GollyMobile, were just picking up speed at the south side of Powburn when they both detected a slight "clunk". It wouldn't be the first time that someone hadn't tied the bikes on properly. So they looked at each other with the stark realisation, simultaneously, that it wasn't a bike at all - it was jay's camera! And sure enough, there it was 3oo metres back down the road, cowering like a stranded hedgehog as car wheels whizzed by, missing it by inches as the pair watched with bated breath, expecting the worst! Somehow, they all missed it, so we reversed back there at speed and Alan dived out to recover the poor thing. When he tried to switch it on, however, there wasn't much activity. Further fiddling produced a definite impression that this was an ex-camera. Partial relief followed at the Gollum's cave when he managed to recover the day's pictures from the memory card inside it. Phew! You can see Jay's pix amongst those above. I suppose I should show you the other two shots that were on there, obviously taken at home ->

pic 1            pic 2

A nice ride, around 24 miles I think (I'll check later and post here).

Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk