ISoggy Sunday, 8th November 2009 obviously didn't suit the majority of the membership as only Mick, Chris D and Terry K turned out much prior to the nine o'clock deadline, but the numbers were dramatically boosted by 25 percent nearer the hour with the arrival of new member Aiken. He's from York but finishing his degree at Newcastle Uni and rides a Kona Kula hardtail. Bit of a race head but we'd try to slow him down on this one! He'd ridden from Jesmond and was already fairly damp but like the other three, well up for this Inner Northumbrian jaunt.

We hit the road around 9:10 and were ready to start in the sleepy village of Felton an hour or so later. Luckily the Gollum had printed a series of large scale OS maps from last years ride which enabled the (s)quad to find their way around most of the route, one of Derek's from bygone days.

The drizzle stopped as we set off and after that wonderful first mile or so of skinny, sandy, squirmy singletrack all four of us were removing our outer layers of clothing, as the first glimmer of sunshine was squinting through the murky dawn. From then it just got warmer but we were kept cool by the wet coming up at us from under our tyres.

The trail was constantly changing surfaces from sand to shale to grass to pebble to deep mud and at several points along the way, pure cold running water! Intervening were stretches of tedious but necessary tarmac of various widths and busyness, but this circular route needs them to join the dots. The initial west-to-east leg of our triangular circle (eh?) was however all off-road and towards the end got very tiring for a little old Gollum's spindly legs. Our first exit from the wetlands was at the south west edge of Warkworth with the Castle sticking up boldly in the distance and now bathed in bright sunlight.

We toured through the quiet streets of this quaint little suburb of Heather Leazes and down a steep unclassified road down to the river. On the way down we zoomed past a sign saying "Footpath Closed" but were too busy staying upright on the soaking, gravel-covered bends to take much notice. Golly, at the back, heard uproarious laughter coming from just around the final right hander. It was Chris, and he was in hysterics as he'd followed Aiken down closely and watched him head straight out onto the ford over the Coquet. Nothing unusual in that, normally, but after the recent storms the river was currently (sorry) in flood, and a raging torrent as Aiken got a few metres in before stopping to reconsider his actions! Wet feet, he escaped with, but he may well have ended up in the North Sea if he hadn't stopped in time!

As we hadn't come prepared for snorkling, we looked to the nearby footbridge to get over to the caravan site on the north bank. See these photos for the totally unexpected result of that attempt:

here's Chris oiling the steelwork

Yep, last years' storms and floods that wreaked havoc in low lying towns like Morpeth were also responsible for this almost unbelievable carnage, the steel girders in the picture are pretty sunbstantial but Old Ma Nature has the final say, and how.

So that left us with a quick strategic rethink necessary to get back on track. We chose to head down the road into Warkworth and out the north west side to get us back on track. Unfortunately that entailed a considerable amount of skinny tarmaccing but at least traffic wasn't an issue. With Chris' new compass, Mick's homing instinct and Golly's maps we eventually joined the dots and headed west for Shilbottle.

The first half of this leg was mainly tarmac and the least interesting section of the loop. We more or less stayed in line and ground it out but when we got offroad again at Hart Law we were probably wishing we'd stayed on tar! The next three field crossings were really hard work on the hard-to-find bridleway, or what the dear old farm person had left of it. We chose the small wood at South Moor to stop in for lunch at 12:00.

Around 12:20 we set off again up another very grassy, very indistinct bridleway over fields, and climbing steadily but easily. This brought us out into the east side of Shilbottle Village. Unfortunately, the map reading skills of the Oldie weren't quite up to scratch as we emerged onto the A1 ten minutes later at Hampeth instead of the higher Shilbottle turn, so we had a slight road incline to cover to fix that. Crossing the dual carriageway and heading north another half a click put us outside the gates of the old Hareslaw refuse tip. Lifting the bikes over the high steel gates, we failed to find the next bridleway and ended up on the old metalled road down to Shiel Dykes.

From there we faced another climb up to a gate where we hit more very soggy fields again before eventually joining the Newton-on-the-Moor road. All plain sailing through the peaceful hamlet and another road strretch alongside the A1 on the old road, before we crossed it to drop to Guyzance Lee and take to the grass again. Shame Keith wasn't here, he loved it last time!

This next piece of trail was the final off-road stretch and managed to provide the best of the day's entertainment, as well as a good laugh and also quite a test of skill and stamina for the quartet. After another slithery set of furrows we entered the woods at Acton Dene for a short but excellent singletrack burst. Then we had to stop for what is normally no more than a front wheel hop-up over the burn, about a foot wide. Today, however, it was in full flood and looked more like a scaled down version of the Yangtse in a typhoon.

Still only 2 metres across, it was Chris who dared to tackle it first after he'd led into the wood. He managed to just about reach dry land with his leading foot as Aiken, Mick and the Gollum looked on from a safe distance. Then it was the Student Body's turn to try it, and he got most of the way over but had to dab in the water. He quickly composed himself and reversed back up the trail for a second attempt. This time he took off from well before the lip on the first bank, about a foot above water level, and landed with quite a splash right in the middle of the torrent. By some fluke (he'll claim sheer skill!) he wasn't thrown off the Kona and shot onto dry (haha) land on the other side, lucky so-and-so.

Golly's turn next as Mick waited to see if he'd be forced to try it or duck out. No problem for the wizzened one as he got across and onto the opposite bank fairly comfortably. Mick attacked it a wee bit harder but his front wheel buried itself (sound familiar?) and he also had to take a damp dab to steady himself. The remainder of the wood was a steepish climb against the tide of a swiftly flowing burn, hammering down over the rocks but we all cleared it safely and continued out onto muddy dual again.

This tipped us out at a bridleway junction alongside the A1. We went left to Acton Hall then back onto tarmac for the nice long freewheel finish to Felton. Not quite the full ride we set out to do thanks to the broken bridge and then the Gollum's navigational skills, but not too bad with some enjoyable bits thrown in, and a decent 22 mile workout.

We spent half an hour in the tea shop gorging on tea and toasties, luverly. Home just after 4:00pm.