What a contrast to December 2010, when we managed one ride, cycling eight miles in a whole month; this December we managed 8 rides and 111 miles in conditions ranging from snow to positively spring like.

Our first ride took us from Square Corner to Hawnby via a nicely frozen Drove Road, Boltby Forest and Noddle End. After the all-important pork and apple burgers (with chips) at Hawnby Café, we returned along the road to Dale Head singletrack, which was more sloppy than we’d have liked but still rideable. The Captain achieved a new P.B. by actually riding down the slope to the bridge.

Three days later a surprisingly large team, six of us - not bad for a winter ride, was riding out of a chilly Kildale to Guisborough Woods, taking in some classic tracks and losing a pensioner between The Secret Path and The Chute. We formed a carefully coordinated search party, or more realistically, blundered about in the woods, occasionally shouting the name of a half-deaf, half-blind sexagenarian in the vain hope he’d hear us, in-between stopping random strangers to ask them if they had seen an old bloke on a bike looking lost and swearing profusely. The mountain bike world’s equivalent of Father Jack. Eventually we were reunited, not without a little ungrateful profanity, and able to continue our descent down The Chute, which was in fine condition considering the season. The pedal back up to Highcliffe was rather less fun but we had a café to look forward to.

Just me and The Pensioner today, meeting at a snow-covered Sheepwash with a view to checking out some tracks we previously spotted in Boltby Forest. Luckily the snow covering was fairly thin and gave surprisingly good traction. The ride up The Mad Mile and onto The Drove Road passed without incident (it’s not often we can say that), before too long we were on a fire road in Boltby Forest looking out for the tracks emerging from the trees. What a disappointment they were, muddy ruts mainly, nothing like the standard of the ‘unofficial’ tracks at Guisborough or Silton. We reversed our route, enjoying The Mad Mile as a snowy downhill, calling in at Osmotherley where we were again hit by the C.C.C. - Curse Of The Closed Café. Apparently the caff in Ozzy closes for the whole of December through March, they must be goldmines these little village cafes. Luckily the village shop was open and well supplied with pies, sandwiches and cakes.

Our next excursion featured the four original Terra Trailblazers, grunting, panting and swearing up the hill through Little Kildale to Warren Farm, followed by the original Field Of Heavy Gravity and over the moor to Baysdale. At least this time, The Pensioner managed the descent to Three Barns without landing on his face. Just as well because today’s frozen ground would have ruined his looks. A bit of road work after the Baysdale bridleway, took us to the outskirts of Castleton, then the all too familiar hill up Three Howes Rigg before heading off road onto The Quakers Causeway, taking the left fork at the bifurcation toward Westworth Wood. The Pensioner’s morose prediction of morass and misery proved pretty accurate and we pushed and slithered through a mile or so of mud and slime before things improved on the pleasant singletrack leading into the wood. We passed through Westworth Wood and into the eastern end of Guisborough Woods - or what is left of it. Our speedy fire road blast back to Highcliffe was marred somewhat by the fire road being under a foot of so of mud. At least the last section of the route, down Codhill Heights and New Row was in normal condition, a relief after all the mud-plugging. Glebe Cottage was even more of a welcome sight than usual.

Two days later, suitably recovered from the mudfest, it was pensioner day. Me, The Pensioner and The Captain had a pleasant ride from Gribdale around Guisborough Woods, Captain Cooks Monument and Great Ayton on much drier tracks, enjoying ourselves despite the wind. Refreshments were taken at No. 5 Coffee House in Great Ayton and damn fine they were too.

A cold and frosty December day, yet we had an almost unprecedented turnout, nine riders. Could it be Xmas Dinner day? Oh yes it is. Glad to know that a bike ride stills comes second to a good dinner, and judging form the number of requests to “just have a spin round the car park and straight to the pub” it seems the bike ride is not really even worthy of second place. Regardless, we flogged ourselves up the road from Ingleby Greenhow to Clay Bank, before shouldering bikes for the steps up Urra Moor. A nine man assault on The Rim followed, with varying degrees of success for all concerned. No more rim innuendo will follow - it’s Christmas. At Medd Crag we headed upward toward Round Hill, the odd icy patch appearing as we gained height, catching out the unwary. The track from Round Hill to Cockayne Head was worse, a sheet of ice from edge to edge, balance and circumspect steering were required to negotiate the track, needless to say, balance and circumspect steering being in somewhat short supply amongst the Terra Trailblazers, it was carnage. Not many managed a dabless descent, even less managed it pain-free. Attempting to run across the track, carrying a large boulder to throw at a frozen pond we encountered (boys will be boys), the Darlo One skidded flat on his back, the boulder flying over his head in a perfect parabola to smack into his bike. If you are ever offered a second-hand Cube Stereo by a thinly-haired ginger bloke in a Darlington snooker club: think twice. It wasn’t long before we began four miles of downhill back to Ingleby Greenhow, using the Cleveland Way and Turkey Nab, followed by road from Bank Foot back to the car park; where muddy clothes were hastily dumped in car boots, faces cursorily wiped to remove mud spatters and nine hungry men united in the belief that cycling twelve and half miles in sub-zero temperatures easily justifies a three course meal and pints of foaming ale, piled into the Dudley Arms to be fed.

Two days later without the prospect of a three course meal, our numbers were reduced by two thirds, three of us set off from an unseasonably warm Gribdale to have a spin around some of our usual tracks. The double figure temperature turned previously firm tracks to morass, making it all a bit of a slog. Confidence overtook competence at one point leaving me with a bent mech hanger, a bit of brute force and ignorance soon had the drive train back in some semblance of normal running. Christmas cake and coffee in No. 5 Coffee House at Great Ayton was a seasonal treat before the two mile slog back to Gribdale.

Last ride of the year, we decided to make Hamsterley the venue to close what has been a fantastic twelve months of riding, 84 rides, 1400+ miles and 190,000 feet of ascent. It appeared most of County Durham had the same idea, I’ve never seen so many people in the car park, not all day workers spend there hard-earned holidays in B&Q then? We did our usual winter route at Hamsters, ostensibly mud-free, which takes in the best of the man made sections and leaves the unsurfaced ‘secret’ tracks to recover. Considering it is meant to be a mud-free route we were all in a sorry state when we reached the cars. And an in even sorrier state when we realised we’d been hit by the Curse Of The Closed Café once again, the ever unreliable Hamsterley Tearoom was unsurprisingly showing no intention of doing business but our regular refuelling stop The 68 Café had the CLOSED sign up. It’s little wonder McDonalds is so popular.