5^th. Bonfire night and it looks as though most of Guisborough forest is being felled in preparation, finding our usual start blocked by red and white tape and warning signs, a significant detour was called for. Simon’s suggestion we abandon the ride and spend all day in the snooker club was dismissed in favour of a ride to Hutton Village, then along the bottom track through the woods to the old bmx track above Hunter Hill Farm. The bmx jumps have long gone, which robbed us of the chance to demonstrate our latest big air stunts, instead we settled for almost regurgitating our breakfasts on the monster climb to Highcliffe Nab. Low cloud and constant drizzle made Highcliffe a vague shape on our left, low pedal cadence and constant whining got us to the top which was followed by a more amenable ride across a distinctly soggy Codhill Heights. We regrouped on Percy Cross Rigg ready for a gravel surf down to New Row. Chris narrowly avoided being run over by a steam train at the crossing, he probably thought he’d gone back in time. After the mandatory stop at Glebe Cottage, it was a return to climbing as we worked off the excess calories on the road up past Bankside Farm to Coate Moor where we followed an interesting looking track down to Gribdale. This proved to have the odd technical section which we conquered in our usual inept style, a combination of falling off, pushing and profanity. Recovered’ we made our way across Newton Moor and down to Roseberry Common, Roseberry Topping hidden somewhere in the murk, before pedalling into Guisborough Woods for a quick fire-road blast back to Pinchinthorpe, avoiding the taped off areas, it looks as though a few of the popular bike tracks will have disappeared by the time the tape comes down.

7^th. Two rides in one week, or three rides in Simon’s case, are the Terra Trailblazers in danger of becoming enthusiastic? Particularly as it has been our wettest four day break since, well, the last one probably. The forecast mid-morning sunshine hadn’t arrived by eleven am as we assembled bikes in a rain-lashed Clay Bank car park; it still hadn’t broken through the greyness twenty minutes later when Oz turned up from Lordstones where he’d been sat cursing our tardiness, before rereading his texts to discover he was four miles from where he ought to have been. Miraculously the sun appeared just as we began the haul up Carr Ridge - and stayed with us all afternoon, pity it couldn’t dry out the pond-sized puddles which covered the majority of our route. Unusually for a Terra Trailblazers outing the ride went without incident, little mud, minor falls and relative dryness.

14^th. One week since out last outing and we were assembling our bikes in Kildale station car park, watching quite large trees swaying in the wind. A fairly harsh start through Little Kildale to Warren Farm got the legs and lungs working prior to a very soggy Field Of Heavy Gravity. The bridleway which goes over Kildale Moor to Baysdale has deteriorated somewhat over the past few weeks which meant the technical descent to the barn involved a fair bit of technical over the handlebars, followed by some technical pushing, slipping and sliding. The track along Baysdale was easier even though it bore more resemblance to a stream bed in some parts. We followed tarmac to Castleton as a bit of a contrast to the previous sections, although a couple of steep bits sorted the men from the boys - we didn’t have any men. The bridleway to Foul Green was the next section, passing Box Hall and it was here that a flaw was revealed in the route planning - we were now riding into the wind and would be all the way back to Kildale. The road out of Commondale toward Kildale is predominantly uphill, not too steep and not normally a problem to hyper fit athletes like ourselves but the wind was punishing for the whole two and a half miles and I couldn’t help feeling my popularity waning with every teeth-gritted pedal stroke. At Percy Cross crossroads we debated whether to turn right for more off-road fun or head directly to the caff, as we spoke Simon (rather conveniently it must be said) suddenly developed a puncture, which (even more conveniently) would “probably just make it as far as the café.” Hmm. Naturally no further riding took place after the café.

19^th. Another ten day break and another Terra Trailblazers trip away, wives and children once again cruelly abandoned, left to the whims of fate by their husbands and fathers, Pickering being the lucky recipient of our disposable income this month. We arrived, a little later than anticipated owing to the mandatory stuck/crawling/broken down, lorry coach/trailer (delete as applicable) on Sutton Bank. The Hole Of Horcum car park was our meeting point for today’s ride, it was getting on for lunch time when we arrived which was a great shame because we had no food and were unsure whether a café would present itself en route. Ignoring the hunger pangs caused by going a whole three hours since breakfast we saddled up and headed North to follow the bridleway around the top of Saltergate Brow to Malo Cross, a kind of moist grassy track which felt a bit draggy but was nothing compared to the boggy hell which went from Malo Cross to Fylingdales. As I stopped to take a few pictures of the American early warning station my companions put a spurt on, convinced we would be mistaken for terrorists and hauled off to Gauntanamo Bay for interrogation - then again it’d probably be drier and warmer than North Yorkshire in November. Leaving Fylingdales behind, our bodies unmolested by the security services, we followed a good track along Worm Sike Rigg and (not without some reluctance from certain quarters) up to Lilla Cross, a famous moorland viewpoint. We took in the view and retraced our steps briefly until we entered Langdale Forest for a three mile fire-road descent to the road at Langdale End. A few measly energy bars by the side of the road were a poor substitute for Glebe Cottage’s doorstep sandwiches but it was all we had. Simon spotted a sign for a nearby monastry and came up with some theory that monks are compelled by their vows to give food to hungry travellers, this not being the middle ages we declined to test Simon’s theory and pedalled a few miles on tarmac until we reached Thompson’s Rigg, pausing briefly to gape at some llamas. For some strange reason llamas are almost as common as sheep in North Yorkshire nowadays. We made our way across the rigg, passing another set of decidedly uninspiring standing stones, so uninspiring they weren’t even worthy of a photograph and arrived at the innocuously named Newgate Foot, which turned out to be the steepest bit of tarmac double track we’ve ever seen, this was tackled in true Terra Trailblazers style - walking along pushing our bikes. Once at the summit we were soon back at the car park and even sooner in a Pickering café for a late lunch, very late lunch, which was followed by pork pies from the butchers. The pork pies were unanimously declared the highlight of the ride.

28^th. Billy No-mates riding for me today, everyone at work, the lure of easy money proving irresistible to Simon and Oz. I set off from Lordstones in sub-zero temperatures, warming up with an ascent of Carlton Bank, then across the tops to Barker’s Ridge, some weird temperature inversion going on, bright and sunny on the tops, mist flooding into the valleys rendering them grey and cold. Sticking to the shaded sides of the tracks where they hadn’t quite defrosted, me and my trusty cycle made our way down Arnesgill Ridge to Low Cote Farm, then following the road to Moor Gate. Heading back into the mist, pedalling up the track to Low Thwaites was hard work, aiming for an invisible Bilsdale Mast, suddenly the mist cleared and there it was, beaming out it’s essential transmissions, making sure Simon doesn’t miss “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” or “The X Factor”, television surpassing religion as the new opium of the masses. Pedalling through some more of this years most popular cycle accompaniment - mud, I retraced my own wheel tracks back over Carlton Bank and down to a mist-shrouded Lordstones for a welcome cup of coffee.