Hot and damp is probably the most apt description of June 2011, sun and showers seemed to visit us in equal proportion, but an almost unprecedented mileage was achieved - 178 predominantly off-road miles. The first ride of the month we bowled up at one of our regular cafes to find it inexplicably closed, shutters down, no refreshments for me or Bob and a huge hill to drag our calorie deprived carcasses up before we could regain our cars.

Closed cafes are becoming something of a regular occurrence nowadays, something unheard of until the blind, sweary pensioner rejoined us; could there be a connection? Needless to say, we did make it back to the cars and live to ride another day. And other days we had plenty of, mainly on our local tracks but sometimes a little farther afield. The old Danby round was revisited and found lacking, the once sublime track around the head of Fryupdale has been sanitised, all the technical rocky sections levelled and smoothed out to leave a scenic but nonetheless tedious bridleway, luckily the descent across has Ainthorpe Rigg has escaped the blandocracy (for now) and remains a fine piece riding. Made all the better because we know The Stonehouse Bakery’s selection of cakes and pies lies at the end.

Ainthorpe Rigg featured in another ride later in the month, the ride which will forever be known as the mammoth ride (well until the next one) 28 miles, Kildale to Danby, up Ainthorpe Rigg (not as much fun as going down, it has to be said) road to The Lion Inn (quick shandy for essential re-hydration), the old railway to Bloworth Crossing, then the Cleveland Way back to Kildale, just in time for last orders at Glebe Cottage.

One day in the month Captain Slow found time in his busy schedule to come out and show us how a bike really should be pushed, none of this namby pamby attempting to pedal up hills or balls out descending nonsense, straight off the seat and let’s walk that Cannondale. Despite his lack of recent forays into the Great Well-Known, he did manage 17 miles, with no falls and countless submissions, which boosts his monthly average to 23.5 miles per month for this year.

The shortest ride of the month for some of us was a mere 13.5 miles but we managed and awesome 3,000+ feet of ascent in that brief mileage. Just a tip but the East Bank Plantation, which lies to the east of Chop Gate is not a nice way to gain Urra Moor.

Howard returned from medicating alcoholic rig workers going cold turkey off the coast of Africa and joined us for a couple of days riding, probably wishing he hadn’t after I crashed into the back of him as we sped down the bank from Warren Farm to Leven Vale, both of us desperately trying to brake on the loose surface, he suddenly found traction and stopped dead, I found his back wheel which did a good job of stopping me. The following day Howard rejoined us for another ride, using another bike and four of us had a day of epic singletrack and another 3000+ ft of ascent, including ascending The Unsuitables twice and finishing the ride via the fire road ascent to Captain Cooks Monument. Pooling our knowledge we slithered and scraped our way down some of the less frequented tracks in and around Guisborough Woods. For once we were not alone, an unprecedented number of mountain bikers were out and about today, strange for a Wednesday, one was heard wondering aloud if the North East unemployment rate has increased substantially, or words to that effect anyway.

A good month, despite the weather.

Terra Trailblazers June 2011 riding from John Lavelle on Vimeo.