Ian A
Ian M
Ian M2
Terry K
Jon
Richy
Steve W
Tim
Jason
Chris K
Pixie
Justin
Derek C
Mark S
Peter
Jeff
John M

We left the Cave around 1910, seventeen of us, no doubt looking forward to a short, sharp blast as promised to compensate for last Thursday's very slow, regularly-interrupted session.

Well, you can't win them all, can you?

Out behind the Holystone we fairly rattled over the field up to Killy and stormed up to Hillheads. Amazingly, we passed Alex and female companion travelling in the opposite direction! Not much waiting time here before Jason shot away on the singlespeed beastie Trek. The mob had gathered behind him at the crossroads expecting to turn right, but when Terry arrived he shot up to the left and onto the meadow singletrack down behind Burradon.

Jon took us over the fields to Dudley then we all trekked up Weetslade Mount and another short regrouping stop. Big grin on Speedy Ian A's face as he hauled Terry down the Rabbit Run behind him and then a short discussion before adopting Jon's suggestion to do the new spoil heaps. The group split in two here with Justin leading a small bunch up the east side and Jeff leading the rest west (best) for a jump fest in his vest (pest).

Shaddap Gollum!

Unusually, we played for a few minutes before Justin and Terry took off over the fields to Sandy Lane, the others tagging along soon after for another regrouping at the HoleInTheWall. The Speedian was first in as we attempted to belt through but ended up with stragglers again due to the increasingly rare deep mud traps under the trees. A few zig-zags around Gosy saw us emerge at the Hotel car park where the call for food from Chris K was impolitely snubbed as we made our way west again up to the woods at Hazlerigg.

Once again there seemed to be two routes through here but the confusion eventually sorted itself out before Ian and Terry began to sniff out a different route over to Brunton Lane. better than tarmac! Another short session of jungle-groping here before popping out into our regular clearing for bait, in daylight for the first time since last September! Then we took the pretty routes through the undergrowth before squirting out onto the skinny trail through to the Lane where Jeff led the charge down to the A1 underpass. From the tunnel, Ian again took the helm and skittled up the Mound as we edged the new Great North Park estates, then a nice easy freewheel down to the Great North Road.

By the time Ian, Richy, Steven Wa, Justin and Terry reached the traffic lights at Melton Park, Jeff had managed to gain a few miles on us with the rest! And as we waited for them to return (some hope, eh?) Steven decided a puncture would be an appropriate way to force their return. Not a REAL puncture, mind, as he runs tubeless, so just a squirt of air required. Heh, heh, suck on that, tube users. However, it soon became apparent that no-one up the sharp end had any intention of turning back (tut, tut, Gentlemen!) so we continued through the estate to rejoin them.

That didn't happen until we'd done the final singletrack and got all the way out to the edge of Bluebell Woods. Not until then, about 15 minutes later, did we see a white light facing us. Must do some more Ride Leader training. Anyway, only Bluebell to do then home in plenty of time. Theoretically.

South Gosforth next before climbing onto the end of Coxlodge Waggonway and heading for home. There was some separation here, I believe. We checked the time on Coach Lane, and that's when Terry decided we could comfortably accommodate a few diversions along the way. That started with an unguided tour through the new houses on the cycleways before rejoining our regular return at the Powder Monkey.

Tonight though, rather than riding north up the side of the East Coast Line, Terry took the mob over the bridge and onto the PM hill, and then down into Hadrian Lodge. It wasn't until then we realised we were a few men down! OOps! So Terry backtracked and climbed the hill again, before beginning a steady sweep around the horizon with his Lumen Lance. After what seemed a good wait, a few twinklers appeared in the distance. They got closer, ever closer. Then unexpectedly, with his light surely burning their faces half a mile away, they turned north on the wrong side of the tracks!!! That forced Terry to enter Full Audio Mode as he yelled out in the dark "EEEE - AAAA - NNNN". The town fox he'd just blasted past must have wondered what kind of animal was trampling his territory. Didn't take long for the distant riders to realise where the light, and noise, was coming from as they turned to join us, with half the group now also returned to the foot of the hill. Welcome back, Ian and Steven! Still don't know how they became split off the back, but I'll tell you here when I find out.

That used up a bit of the "spare" time we had, but not enough, so off we went with Ian M now ahead seeking the way out of the estate. He found it quickly and carted the remaining riders over Station Road to the bottom of the Rising Sun Hill. Time for Terry to get started on his newly-discovered goodies as he led around the south west edge before jumping into the trees on a nice length of twisty single with the usual close proximity of young trees and bushes to keep us alert. That popped us out onto the grassy lower slopes and Jeff dived ahead to pull us to the top.

We regrouped and checked the time again. getting on a bit, but Terry assured the others it would be worth it, so off he went again into one of those spikey, eye-lashing, shin-scraping bush bashes which somehow hit a blind alley. Wasn't like that in the daylight on Saturday when he tried it out! Anyway, we dug ourselves out onto the grass again, regrouped again and climbed a bit further up, in fact almost to the top, but not quite. That's where the next new section was unveiled as we hurtled down before almost stopping for a sharp right kick into the trees again. This trail, even the first half of it climbing, is just what we seek and was taken with a fair degree of enthusiasm by everyone. We even got to do it again a few minutes later in the other direction, better still!

Out the other side we climbed back again just short of the summit before another wee wiggle through the bushes produced a nice open downhill to enjoy as fast as you dared. The Gollum then led off the hill anticlockwise then north onto the bridleways behind the Visitor Centre. We did the first section of trees where the idiot managed to maim himself on an adjacent pair of trees with yet more right arm damage (it'll never heal now, but it's fun) and also yanked the floor out of his left shoe (LiDl, these ones, but the damage was exactly the same as the Aldi ones last year!) but there was a global refusal to do the last ASDA bit, so we headed straight out to the Farm and home, arriving at around 2315.

Really enjoyed this ride, and although it ended up being the absolute inverse of "therapeutic" for me (as the bruising next morning proved) it was still a good one, although I really didn't appreciate how late the extra bits were going to make us, so I humbly apologise to everyone for that. Mark clocked 29 miles on his bike PC, but that included Killy to the Cave and back, so take four miles off that score.