Helmsley touring weekend, March 03
15 of us assembled at Brookside on Friday evening to head up towards the
N York Moors - in total there were going to be 19 of us, 15 MTBers and 4
road riders. Our destination was Helmsley, at the south-western edge of
the Moors.
Everything went remarkably smoothly and we were soon heading up the A1.
Hunger, as usual, struck, so we took the opportunity to explore some of
the A1's more unusual eateries and stopped off at the OK Diner outside
Newark. A striking looking place - brushed and polsihed metal with blue
and pink neon - done in the style of a 50's American Diner. After a long,
hard look at it through the van windows in the car park, we decided to
risk it... After all, hunger takes precedence over taste... Suprisingly,
it was rather good! Serenaded by Elvis we got stuck into a multi-thousand
calorie plate of lard, washed down with another multi-thousand calorie
laden desert (pancakes awash with maple syrup...). A perfect way to start!
The rest of the journey was uneventful, apart from thrashing the hire van
at about 35-40 mph up Sutton Bank, a piece of A road set at 1:4 for about
a mile or so... So we arrived at the YH in Helmsley in time for last
orders... nice...
The next day dawned a little foggy, but that soon cleared to give us a
beautiful sunny day, with a bit of a cool southerly breeze. Perfect riding
weather. The roadies span off from Helmsley off on a long loop, and the
MTBers drove, en-masse, to a small car park at Hutton le Hole near
Kirkbymoorside. From there we set off towards Lastingham (after some last
minute crank changing for aSH) to get on the green-road and bridleway
network which heads north. A few miles up there, we split off into a
slower group and two faster groups (the latter of which mostly stayed
together). Chris Jones looked after the slower group and took them the
planned way, whilst we merrily sped off, missed our bridleway and stumbled
across a great descent off the side of Chimney Bank... Several falls,
tumbles and short flights later, we arrived, all in one piece at the
bottom. Ah. OK, so it's a 1 in 3 road climb back up then... We duly passed
the 'unsuitable for coaches and lorries' sign and ground our way up... We
were most amused by the sign at the top, when we reached it, which said
'cyclists dismount now'! The roadies were obviously amused as well, since
they flew past us heading in a more sensible direction...
We then rode along a long stretch of ex-railway which afforded us fine
views of the valley below. We caught up with Chris' 'slow' group again at
Pike Howe (hare and tortoise anyone??!) before continuing along to the
valley head and back around on the facing piece of slope. We were all very
impressed by this stage with Pete, who was managing to negotiate most
things admirably on his cyclocross bike... The wide track by this stage
has turned into a twistier piece of singletrack dotted with the odd bog
here and there... ...which some of us found head first... When we got to
Dale Head farm we struck (and carried) north towards the 432m trig point.
It was there disaster struck for Shane. His rear mech hanger decided that
enough was enough and snapped... oh. A slight bit of reorganisation
followed as myself and Shane split off and headed back towards
Hutton-le-Hole to pick his car up. The tried and tested (thank you Si!)
double inner-tube towing method proved its worth yet again. An hour or so
later we arrived back and Shane then went on a phoning mission to find new
mech hangers, and I went on a phoning mission to try and see were the
group had got to by then. Successfully locating them in a cafe some 12
miles away, I then headed back to meet up with them. 40 minutes later we
were reunited and continued our ride.
We took the B road S towards the White Lion pub and onto Blakey Moor where
we attempted to find the Bridleway marked on the map. A promising start
led us straight into a bog, but areas of flattened vegetation suggested
that MTBers had already been this way? Perhaps this was evidence of Chris?
Ash eventually foudn a workable route and we swooped our way down to Oak
Cragg, then Hagg end Farm. A superb piece of muddy and rocky singletrack
then led us back to within spitting distance (OK, only if you've got a
really bad cold...) of the cars, some 8 hours after we left them.
Some express showering later, we all met in the pub for beer and more
multi-thousand calorie meals... with side orders... and puddings... By
21:30 most of us were nodding so we retired...
Sunday dawned somewhat foggy, but looking like it would burn off. Chris
and I swapped guiding jobs, so I headed off with a slower group whilst the
two faster paced groups started a rather long loop which I'd planned out
for them... Would we see them again?? We started off with the intention of
doing the same and headed north out of the hostel towards Carlton and then
hit a bridleway heading into some woodland. A fast downhill rewarded the
muddy entry-section, but it then became apparent that we had missed our
turning... After a little probing around to see where we were, we then
psersuaded the GPS that it wasn't in Chile anymore and it showed us the
error of our ways... Once again reunited with our track, we crossed a
river (OK, Steve forded it and Adam almost fell in after a valient fording
attempt) and were rewarded with a sharp climb up Hasty Bank. Crossing the
road we then got to Pockley Rigg Plantation, where disaster number 2
struck. My rear mech hanger broke. Handing over the ride to Chris James, I
then proceeded to swear, curse, and walk-cum-freewheel back to Helmsley
where some frantic bodge repairs were made (someone remind to inspect
those again before BUSA - please?!). AN hour or so of bodging later, I
decided to jump into the van and head towards the nearest piece of decent
moorland riding since time was running short... Half an hour later the van
got dumped at the start of the green road running north across Rudland
Rigg. A head down bash along on it was broken 20 minutes later by catching
sight of a group of folkm on bikes... ...It was Chris James and the gang
I'd left some 3 hours beforehand! They'd decided to shorted the original
plan and head towards Rudland Rigg as well. After ten or so minutes of
nattering we went our separate ways since I had a van to get me back where
they'd have to ride! 20 or so more minutes of fairly fast paced riding got
me to the edge of the Moors with an amazing view out over the plains to
the north... Now to get back... It only took about 40 minutes or so
despite a headwind and I met up with Howard back at the van. We decided to
take the scenic route home - but that didn't happen as the van got stuck
in mud I'd parked on. Oh. Thankfullu 20 minutes later we'd grabbed enough
people to push us out!
That's about it realy - we all met up again at the YH and after cleaning
up headed back, slightly tired but exhilerated after a great weekend of
riding.
Thanks to:
Chris James, Chris Jones, Shane, Richard and Jon for driving
Chris James, Chris Jones for leading the rides.
The weather, for being nice!
Bart Hallmark
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