Osmotherly ..N.York Moors 11.2.16 ( pics)

Seriously jealous, it's a perfect frosty morning for a MTB ride.

Glynn ..just back ..great day ..but I will do a bit of a write up with pics tomorrow ..and give you the low-down !

Grrr ...good to see you are in good spirits communicating from your hospital bed !
Yes folks we had to give Graham a good kicking today and in the process break every bone in his body ..to be fair he took it like a man didn't wimper once ..so we did the decent thing and waited until the air ambulance arrived ..and even gave him a couple of pain killers which is way more than he deserved .
Yes I'm afraid he commited the cardinal mtb sin of taking us right to the bottom of a descent ..must have been at least 5miles in length then told us he had got it wrong !
To add insult to injury ..it was on the road which we then had to climb back up ....
Don't give him any sympathy ..I'm sure you will agree that he had it coming ...

Not an area that I had ever previously visited ..so I was at the mercy of Colin & Graham who had ..didn't stop me taking my selection of ( MBR) route guides for the area ..and along with Graham's maps and Colin's NYM' s Vertebrate book guide there was perhaps too much choice before setting off and in the end we kept it nice and simple ..a straight out there & back along the Cleveland Way ..dodging off at various points to check out the initial sections of bridleways leading off it for a future "summer " ride .
Those who know the area will understand this decision ...once you have gained the initial height the CW follows a ridge where any diversion off it entails a huge descent ..but then an equally huge climb ..and none of us was feeling the love for that kind of ride ( Sutton Bank anyone? ..if you have holidayed at Scarborough..you will probably know this one....well that's the benchmark !) .
The conditions upon setting off were effin freezing ..a very hard frost overnight had hardened even on the grassy bridleways what would have been slop a couple of days earlier ..
As usual on any good ride ..they always seem to start with a climb and the one traversing Black Hambleton is right up there with the best of them ...a cruel bugger too as just as you think you have cracked it it ramps up again !
Once this has been tackled though it undulates nicely on a good stony rocky surface..with multiple options to explore on bridleways leading off it .
We followed this with the occasional diversion off along to the visitor centre at Sutton Bank ..where much to our disappointment we found the cafe to be closed due to winter opening hours ...however we took the time to explore the newish man made bike trails and had a play on their skills area ..all very family friendly though ..nothing really technical ...and then we headed back ...
I will post some pics below ..

Here come the men in black ...
Special MTB Agent Hodgy ...eta 10.30am
( but not before a Maccy D's Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin Meal on a service area outside of Hartlepool!)


Black Hambleton..starts off ok ..then gets a bit evil ...

Not yet half way up ..the cars are mere specs (middle right)
Middlesbrough in the distance ( top left) [/URL]
I always knew he was as tough as teak ..here he is Colin pointing the way with his wooden arm ! ( no he's not doing what you think !)

A bridleway leading off Sneck Yate ..it looks squelchy but those tyre tracks weren't ours and the ground was still firm ..the view was fantastic .

Same bridleway

Graham ..






It continued on down through the forest ..tempting ..but not today

Instead these good 'ol girls were good company ...


The bike shop at Sutton Bank...but no bloody much needed cuppa at the closed cafe

Graham plotting to take us the wrong way ..
( you will be pleased to know I kicked those drop handled monstrosity's over on the way out ..)

"Find" of the day ..and why we will be coming back in the summer ...there is a fantastic Singletrack bridleway running down the valley from here to Arden Hall near Hawnby ...the turnoff was easily missed in the morning as we were hooning downhill ..but this is one I have been wanting to do for years after reading about it in MBR ..
The drop over the top will have your nads in yer gob though !


CBM



Just before the final drop back to the cars ...Black Hambleton..with gravity on our side this time ..
Graham recorded 29.7 mph ..but having given them a head start I reckon I was doing over 40mph ..nothing to verify this though lol



Great day in great company with a swift one in front of a nice stoked fire in a pub in Osmotherly...for which thanks to Colin
Cheers !

As I write this from my hospital bed... nahhh but yeahh but nahh but.. It was all done on purpose like...  'cos you was well cracking the permafrost yeah... but maybe we all needed the exercise maybe except for Col who as we all know is well past it and should have been put out to grass long ago lol ! 

But you always get your own back with pics of me looking like some escapee from Royston Vasey, Colin on the otherhand looking like some chiseled and grizzzled owld highland warrior! You of course still look like a cosi nostra hitman

Nice pictures, looks pretty good up there. I vaguely recall an article on sutton bank in mbr, was it developed by the family that run the bike shop or something?

Sorry Hodgy I am guilty sometimes of just looking at the picture lol. I will try harder in class.

Ask gramish to come back on the forum was sad to see he had deleted his account

thats good it would be a real shame to lose a member over the circumstances. it just shows how a comment totally meant as light hearted banter can be taken in a different way on a forum.graham i thought your vicky pollard impression was really funny, i laughed out loud.