I wish I could read peoples' minds. At least then I may be able to explain how the turn-out for these winter rides on beautiful ride days are invariably "cosy" in numeric terms. If it hadn't been for the return of Paul C from his hibernation in the winter warmth of his homeland, Taiwan, it would have been three quarters of the NMBC committee and no-one else appearing for their bout of training today, Sunday 9th March 2008. Hope there aren't too many sets of tired legs when things get serious sometime fairly soon!

Now you'll know, Dear Reader, that we only do "away trips" about once a month to keep them special. This "rule" is carved in stone on the roof of Gollum's Cave in Holystone. As it happens, this month will see an exception created, but only because Keith is now working north of Glasgow and not getting too many rides, so we're gonna catch him on a rare day off work this Sunday at Kirroughtree, just a fortnight after we did Dalby. But that IS an exception and for a reasonably reasonable reason. The rest of the time we go "local". Now that can mean anywhere from north Northumberland (Berwick) to south Southumberland (Durham?) to west Westumberland (Alston/Otterburn), but more usually within striking distance of The Toon. And as we normally ride from and around a spot not internationally renowned for it's mountain biking facilities or landscape, I think we do quite well for variety. Actually, the only people qualified to complain would be those who turn out for every ride, and that would be - er - me! And as far as I'm concerned, I reckon Me Precious has done quite well finding alternatives or at least the odd fresh few hundred metres over the last 12 months or so, ably assisted by Ian A, Terry H and Derek.

So it was that today, Derek, Jason, Paul and Gollum left Holystone at 9:10 am in breezy conditions under a fairly threatening sky over some familiar ground. That kicked off at the Rising Sun Country Park, down through the tree line in daylight for once, so that was different with Golly up front. More of the same as we crossed Station Road through the farm, past the Ministry, past NUFC's Retired Striker's Homes, and over Coach Lane and Benton Road to South Gosforth. That's where Derek took pity on Jason's squeaky pedals and topped them up with some sort of gunk from his medical bag.

Then it was time to trek down through Jesmond Dene avoiding pedestrians, up onto Armstrong Bridge, through Heaton Park and under Byker Bridge to the Quayside. There's a couple of choices here, staying on the English (north) side of the Tyne up through Newburn or crossing the border to that "other place" as we did and traversing Dunston, the Teams, the Metro centre and Blaydon. We maintained a steady but comfortable pace and made the foot of Blaydon Burn our first rest halt.

 

From here, Gollum had a surprise in store for the others, as he pointed them up the slope towards the head of the Burn where no man had ever set foot on a mountain bike. This is a fair pull in terms of height gain but is very gentle, so it doesn't hurt. We continued over the road at the far end of Path Head and managed to find Golly's target singletrack. He was so excited at getting the navigation right that he blasted ahead of the others and had time to snap the stragglers hauling themselves up the trail climbs.

Very unusual!

We emerged at Barlow and took the old lane to Greenside. Time now for a fairly steep, sluggish drag up to Coalburns, across Broomfield Farm and into the north west corner of Chopwell Woods, Golly's idea being to avoid the climb into High Spen. Well, we did avoid it, but the alternative route he chose may have hurt a little more and was a good bit longer. It also saw Derek and Paul suffering a little, but little did they know Golly was dying up front as he tried to tag Jason, but as he had picked the route he didn't let on he was knackered.

 

After a couple of illicit field crossings we picked up the entry to the Woods and prepared for take-off at the top of the Root Run. Jason and Gollum raced each other down here - great fun with so many lines to choose from between the trees and whoops. When the pair reached the bottom of the section they had a short wait while the other four tired legs caught up. Jason then led us down to the car park and the start of the Powerline Trail, or Yellow Brick Road as we christened it years ago. The same two-by-two formation applied down the berms, into the trees, across the timbers and over the jumps to the fireroad pause in the middle. That's when Derek reported that Paul had come a cropper on the last bit. We were considering backtracking for him when he appeared out of the trees and down the final rock garden. He wasn't badly hurt, or said he wasn't, and it hadn't taken him long to remind himself how tricky some of this stuff can be!

We completed the lower bermy, jumpy section safely and then climbed half way back up the fireroads until we arrived at the Eggs, and had a much needed lunch at one of the two picnic tables where Jason proceeded to proclaim the value of a good, nutritious Go! Bar and Gel. Yeurk! This was about 12.15 or 12.30 pm. After a nice rest and the usual banter session, the Gollum set about deciding the tactics for the return trip. As both Jason and he had already planned to visit the season opener at Newcastle Speedway, time was a-pressing, so we changed course and left by the car park and Forest Drive main exit. That meant tarmac all the way back through High Spen and Greenside, where we began the very pleasant, reasonably quick descent all the way back down first the lane, then dual, then singletrack and finally ash bridleway back down to Blaydon and the Tyne.

We cruised effortlessly along to Scotswood Bridge which we crossed to put Paul in the right place for his turn-off up through Benwell to his South Gosforth home. From the end of the Business Park the remaining three sped past Gollum's Bus Shelter (the latter steering well clear of it, as he always does now) with Derek and Jason both teasing him about that fateful day when he just rode straight into the damn thing. We were carried along the prom prom prom by the breeze at our backs onto the Quayside and started the hunt for a coffee stop amongst the market stalls, one serving cheaper now that Paul had left us! We settled on a mobile cafe as he had chairs outside, and made ourselves comfortable watching the world go by. Some of the world going by was worthy.

It was too nice to hurry, so we stayed about half an hour as we'd made the trip back way quicker than we'd expected, probably cutting an hour off the outbound run. Once we'd wrapped up the business of this latest Committee meeting we mounted up and freewheeled along to the Tyne public house where we turned north and headed for Shields Road where poor Derek's body again squirmed at the climb up Byker Bank, but our chat had turned to Gollum's next bike, and it just so happened that Edinburgh Cycle Co-op had an example in stock. We plodded up to the shop and at Jason's insistence, bowled our own bikes into the showroom for safety. The next 15 minutes were spent deliberating over the Commencal Meta 4 and the Marin Rock Springs, with Jason pulling Gollum's plonker over his apparent liking for French mountain bikes.

All we had to do now was get back to Holystone, and yet again Golly managed to surprise the others with his choice of route. This zigzagged through Heaton from behind the Metro station down to Benfield Road, where we discovered the path over the golf course still existed, so we even managed another bit of new singletrack, if you stretch the truth a wee bit. Next stop Richardson Dees park in Wallsend, where Jason took revenge on the Park Warden who, years ago, confiscated his bike for riding it in here! I think he was hoping the same old goat would appear again on his walking stick and try the same move! Up through the Burn and 15 minutes later we were back where we'd started at 9:00 am.

Dunno how many miles we covered but we were all tired after the ride and the morning before. I'll see if Paul produces a GPS log and work it out from that, but it had to be a forty miler. We arrived back at around 3.30 pm.

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