After a few very nice sunny days this week, and following my first night ride for ages, I thought it was time to announce the start of the "Thursday Club" for 2010.
My proposal for the first one is a route in Swaledale which featured recently in What Mountain Bike. Good all weather going down there, ideal for this time of year.
The proposed date is March 25th. The route starts from Fremington, just next door to Reeth. We would plan to do the Classic route as described (40 odd kms), but there are loads of options for shortcuts or bail outs if needed. The further good news is that I have been in contact with Stu, who runs Dales Bike Centre (at Fremington), and he is up for coming out with us on the 25th. This is a fantastic opportunity to be shown around by a guy who has all the local knowledge.
So, who is on for this?
We would plan on a fairly early start, so we can get a full day at it.

Yep...I'm in...but have you seen the size of that first climb...think I'll go down and stay for a week prior to the ride just to acclimatise!

If you go down the night before for a few beers....I would be up for that.

Since cannot make the ride

Looks like i'll not be doing many rides for the next 6 months, going to be working away from home, possibly for the next 6 months , saying that for the amount of riding i have done in the last 6 months, no one will miss me

Needs must Ant...however I will feel gutted about the rides you wont be there on....not least for the loss of your craic and humour but also the experiences you would normally be a part of. Still the trails will still be there when you get back.
Gan Canny !

If March 25th is definite, 100%, cast iron, set in stone, come hell or high water , changeable only by royal decree, occurrence of a major natural disaster or a plague of locusts then I will book a days annual leave and see you there.
I have ridden in this area several times with Beamish Oddsox and there are some cracking trails

Roger... funnily enough all of that was in the small print of the ride contract I signed with Ian when he was looking for victims ....so guess you will be going then?
Like yourself I have ridden in that area before (around Gunnerside which forms part of the ride) and remembering how good that was I did'nt need any persuading...

I must apologise sincerely for my poor attempt at sarcasm as I now have to eat huge quantities of humble pie and announce that I cannot make this ride due to a hospital appointment which I completely overlooked and must attend on this particular day.
But if the date changes.........

Ian
I really don't want to miss this ride but the alternative date we discussed is no good either and postponing it until the following week would presumably take us into the school holidays.I assume that Thursday the 18th would be too short notice at this stage.

Roger,
The following week takes us into half term as you say. I have a meeting on eve of 18th, which I could dipped on, but then I spoke to Stu(at Dales Bikes), and 18th was no go for him. So, on balance we are going to have to stick with the original date i.e. March 25th.
Sorry about this Roger, hopefully you can make the April midweeker, which looks like being Hodge Close. Do you have any favourite Thursday? Neil and I are pretty flexible (helps when you are almost unemployed!!)
Paul,
Spoke to you, and you thought you should be OK for 25th. Is this so?

Ian
No problem, thanks for at least trying to rearrange the dates, if you havn't ridden this area before I'm sure you will be well impressed have a good un'.

Looking forward to it, everyone who has ridden there tells me it's great!
If you can make Hodge Close in April, would you like to pick your best Thursday from 22nd or 29th? I would prefer not to go on the 8th or 15th, as it is Easter hols and I will be busy, also Lakes will be full of w...ers!!

Ian ...whats wrong with calling them walkers!?

Don't we find they are one and the same - especially in the Lakes!!

Last chance to dance....anyone else want to come tomorrow for what promises to be a truly superb ride...Ian, Jacko and myself are going.We will be accompanied by Stu the owner of the Dales Mountain Biking Centre ...who has a wealth of local knowledge.You will have to make your own way there....but if you want to meet up we will be leaving from the free car park over the bridge in Corbridge (near the train station roundabout)at 7.30 sharp tomorrow morning.
Its one of those rides you really should'nt miss!!

Come on then. don't keep us all in suspense.

Ride report please

Sorry to keep you in suspenders Roger...not done deliberately but had a lot of work to catch up on for taking a day off!
Before giving a ride report I would personally like to send my thanks to Stu the owner of The Dales Moutain Bike Centre (on behalf of Ian & Paul too I would imagine) for the hospitality extended to us.The set-up he has down there is absolutely superb with a bike shop, modern, stylish cafe, toilet,change & shower facilities,accomodation and last but not least ...bike wash facilities.It really is the place to base yourself if you are in the area for an mtb break.
Stu also happens to be the fittest bloke I have ever seen riding a bike ...I'm sure he is part mountain goat and had XTR tattooed on the back of his calves (I made that bit up!)
Onto the ride itself...a mental climb up onto Fremington Edge which had me gasping after the first 30 seconds was our introduction to the day's proceedings...it just kept going on and on with the track starting off as tarmac but deteriorating into what seemed like sheer rock face before reaching the top...Stu cleared the lot... while even Ian & Paul who are pretty adept climbers were pushing from about 3/4's of the way up.Its not as if we had the famed view to look at as at this stage of the day we were engulfed in fog (although it did turn out sunny in the afternoon).
The day continued in a familiar pattern of climb a lot decend a lot on a mixture of good mining tracks, grassy trail,rocky boulder fields,wet muddy lumpy bits and some cracking downhill singletrack...the pick of which was the drop into Gunnerside.Our map reading skills were stretched to the limit once Stu had left us at his pre-determined bale-out point half way around the ride which probably accounted for adding at least an extra hour onto it (we had four attempts at leaving Gunnerside before we got it right!)...so more by luck and good fortune we found ourselves at Barf End prior to the Gunnerside drop where we met the wild man of dales who lived in what looked to be a derelict building and turned out to be great craic once you got past the first couple of mins of verbal jousting...my favourite being when telling him that we thought we were lost..."aagh now that all depends...lost is just a state of mind"...er yeah ...I whispered to Ian to keep him talking while I went to look for his drug stash!
Time was very definitely against us for the horror climb onto the Apedale Road so we ended the day on a bridleway suggested to us by Stu earlier in the day as an alternative for getting back... which followed the course of the River Swale from Gunnerside to The Dales Bike Centre in Fremington and was 200% more entertaining than we thought it would be by looking at it on the map...which just goes to prove that you should never pre-judge anything!
Stu had even waited for us to get back ...and gave us a freebie token for the bike wash
Liquid refreshment in the "something" Lion in Grinton and then in the Dyvels in Corbridge upon our return ended an excellent day..(as did the chinese take-away in Bellingham!)....roll on Hodge Close

Absolutely superb.

i hope one day i will be able to enjoy days like that again, sounds like you had a mint day