The Internet touches all our lives now and is mostly a positive thing. It does have an annoying habit though of taking you on a journey to somewhere you didn't want to go. Only the other day I was doing some research on a company and before I knew it, a couple of random clicks later, I was staring at a list of unclaimed lottery prizes, wondering what the ticket holder in N Devon who was just about to time out on a 6.4m jackpot, would feel like finding their ticket in a jacket pocket a week later. How did I get here? It's like popping down the shops for a pint of milk and a paper and returning with a hatstand.
I remember how the plan was hatched for our Autumn MTB weekend. I was on one of our rides around Dalby Forest in the Summer and passed a small waymarker for the ‘Moor to Sea' Cycle Route. What a good idea, I started to muse, a weekend trip across the moors, touching as few roads as possible, to the coast and back. After all there are plenty of long distance routes around the moors so linking a few together should be easy enough.
The original plan was to synchronise the weekend with Rob's Autumn YHA trip and arrive at Whitby the same evening to do a bit of MTB/Roadie bonding, singing songs in the pub etc. However, due to some diary clashes and a, proper, music festival in Whitby, this wasn't to be so I settled for Scarborough. As it happened Simon had been toying with a similar idea for some time also, riding from Thirsk to Scarborough, but returning the same day by train. So we joined heads on the idea.
I had the general idea of a northern route across moorland and returning through the forests to the south. The start point troubled me a little. We could start at Ingleby Greenhow to the north, which had the advantage of a train station for emergencies. It's a long way north from York though. Rosedale was considered but I finally settled on a small farm just outside Helmsley. A local farmer was happy for us to park up for the weekend and there was easy access from York and straight out to the moors.
I distinctly remember telling the rest of the riders ‘I'm not intending it to be an epic', even suggesting lights as an afterthought. By the end of the 2 days those words would come back to haunt me a little and ended up taking a trip not quite as planned. Hatstand!
Seven of us met at the farm in Kirkdale early on Saturday. Simon, Steph P, Steph F, Graeme, Chris, Mikael and myself were all prepared with light backpacks, spares, snacks, cameras, maps and a small clutch of GPS's. We proceeded north then immediately took off road down the side of Kirkdale and up the other side through Gilamoor and on, eventually climbing steeply up onto the moors. The weather was spectacular for the time of year with a cloudless sky and conditions so mild some were comfortable in shorts.
After a short spell we cut across Spaunton Moor via Spaunton Lodge, where there are good tracks either side of a stream but no obvious Right of Way through. So it was a case of manhandling the bikes down the bank and up through the heather to the main track that took us to the road above Rosedale. My suggestion of a quick tea break in Rosedale didn't need repeating and we were soon refuelling for the next steep climb out of Rosedale to Hamer Moor where we took a good track down towards Cropton Forest. A slight navigational hiccup was soon identified by GPS and we climbed through Cropton Forest and down a fast firetrail before turning north by road towards lunch at Goathland.
Unfortunately, the main bridge over Wheeldale Beck was down for repair so it was back to carrying the bikes over the river. On the plus side this left the road almost entirely free of traffic as we climbed in the early afternoon sun up on Egton High Moor before turning right on a final short track for a quick blast to lunch..or so we thought. Although the track started clearly enough it quickly dissolved into the heather and we found ourselves pedalling, knee deep through heather and gorse. The GPS confirmed we hadn't strayed off course so we pressed on trying to find something rideable before crossing a road and descending, through a nettle forest to a fast, technical section though Combs Wood. Here should have been a small bridge to take us to the road and lunch but we were presented by a stump of the old structure and a couple of walkers on the far bank, looking equally perplexed, trying to reach our side.
Hunger, frayed tempers by the heather and nettles, and a rapidly falling sun meant that, with no alternative crossing, the next 15 minutes were spent frantically dragging, carrying and wheeling our bikes across the river and up the bank. Except the girls, who walked 100 yards and effortlessly stepped over the river and carried on to meet us further on. By now it was 4pm and we still had another big climb and some distance to cover before the day was out. After a quick ‘lunch', we climbed NE up Sleights Moor before crossing the main Whitby - Pickering A169 and out on to Fylingdales Moor, infamous for the radio station. Here the views were breathtaking with the late sun casting a warm glow over the Autumn heather and panoramic views out to sea. It still looked a long way off but from here it was nearly all down hill. The recent rains and vehicle ruts made the track across the top difficult and wet at times but the reward was the fantastic, technical, descent down, north of Langdale and Broxa Forests, to the road at Lownorth Beck. By now it was dark, completely. Those of us that had lights and headtorches adopted positions at the front and rear of the group and I quickly re-assessed a route to the Hostel in Scalby, just north of Scarborough. avoiding the last planned tracks.
The evening was spent eating large quantities of pub food and watching England lose another rugby match before, wearily, tucking under the covers. Nobody had trouble sleeping that night.
The following morning was a little chilly but no less picturesque with a low mist hiding another bright sun. After a good breakfast and a little ‘tinker time' fettling the bikes we headed out of Scarborough, through the suburbs to the sound of church bells, and out onto bridleways towards Wykeham Forest. Mikael demonstrated the merits of body armour on a wet, leafy bend before we attacked the gruelling climb up into Wykeham Forest ( I remembered that from my last Trailquest there). From here we picked our way through Wykeham Forest, along the really scenic and pleasant Troutsdale and through Dalby Forest to the Visitor Centre for lunch. Nobody seemed to be objecting to the much gentler conditions than Saturday.
From here we crossed the A169 again and swooped down and over the NY Moors Railway at Farwath Crossing before a brutal climb up the other side. After a gentle, if undulating, route west, stopping at Hutton Le Hole for afternoon tea, we returned to the cars, just as a few legs ran out of fuel.
The final tally was just shy of 100miles and 3200m of climbing for the 2 days. On reflection, an ambitious route made possible by the kind weather we had and lack of mechanical mishaps. Made harder by the non-descript tracks across the moors and the number of ‘unconventional' river crossings. We were also thankful for taking the GPS's. It's not impossible to navigate without them of course, most of the time we did. But the landscape of the moors can be bleak and featureless at times and the tracks aren't always as obvious as they look on a map. I'd definitely do it again though as you get a real sense of achieving something when you look at the map afterwards.
