York Alpine Club Blog

In a cold mist and time honoured fashion, Donal fettled the bikes pre-ride. Not Annie's for a change but Peter's which I had borrowed for the YAC beginners' MTB ride.

Never having ridden a mountain bike trail and being fairly unimpressed, I thought this was a good chance to check it out and see what the fuss was about, as well as supporting club efforts in organising introductory events. Andrew, Sally and Debbie (with shiny bikes) made up the 6.

Our route took us along a road for a wee while then across open moorland and through some farm land. The sun had burnt off the mist and most people started to strip off a layer or two (apart from Annie and me – I only had a thermal top on, and Annie only had 3 layers including a fleece). We were heading for Hawnby from not far outside Osmotherly, across parts of the NYM I'd never been to before. It was stunning scenery, with added baa-lambs for cuteness.

Some pretty steep uphill and fast descents and multiple redundant crossings of a ford, brought us to a great cafe in the sun for tea and lunch, in the lower part of Hawnby village – highly recommended.

The route back included a steep ascent up a track and a lovely ride through some woods, with frequent stops to admire the view and catch our breath. A ridiculously steep path out of a picturesque secluded valley, meant a push to the plateau, but then an easy track ride followed by some tricky blocky paths and a steep super fast descent back to the cars.

Clearly I was not doing it right as despite having Peter's bike and helmet I failed to face plant, break anything, lose the bike or actually fall off at all. Donal tells me it was about 14 miles or so and typical standard.

Opinion..
So my first MTB ride, will I be back ? Not if the weather is as nice as that 'cos it was perfect for climbing; in the autumn – maybe. Riding on track and bridleways and roads was great, although it's easy to see how walkers can become irritated with riders and vice versa – I don't think they mix well. My other concern has always been the level of erosion (and IMHO) this was pretty significant on the dry moorland and even the boggy parts. Deep ruts being worn, yeah the walkers are responsible for most of it but each bike seems to impart quite a bit of damage, and probably not helped by my inexperience. I think I'd happily go on purpose-made trails or across some of the open fields and grasslands, but not into the hills themselves.

Thanks
Big up to Donal for sorting this one out, and to Peter for equipment and the rest of the gang for a fun day and great conversation, hope people will support these YAC introductory days as they are a good way of sharing skills in a friendly atmosphere.

— Rob

Tags: tea shop

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 11:20 pm and is filed under MTB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.