Mike and I had a long weekend in the caravan on the edge of the Wykham Forest just north of the village of Sawdon. It would be the first time that I would ride my new bike off road on trails around the forest. We stayed on a Caravan Club CL site called Granary Farm. These are small sites that only take 5 caravans. They are very quiet and are cheaper normally. This site was basically just a nice field with electric and water, which is fine for us as we have all our own facilities in our caravan. Best of all was its position between Wykham and Dalby forests. I was excited to try my bike out “off road”.
First afternoon was a quick ride around Wkyham forest. The next day I had used my OS map app “Outdoors GB”, to plan a ride from where we were through Dalby forest down to Thornton Le Dale and back = 22 miles but boy did it feel like more than that!
So the footage is from my iPhone on the handlebars of my bike, the mount is not brilliant, hence the amount of shake lol! But it gives you some idea of what the tracks were like. My arms certainly felt the vibrations. There were lots of earthworks and tumuli, dikes and barrows. Didn’t have time to stop and examine though.
I reached a junction with a road from Snainton at Cockmoor Hall (farm) and searched and eventually found the track through and beside woods at Six Dikes. This is where the fun began and I came off the bike the first time. It was very muddy and there were deep ruts and here began a steep learning curve. I couldn’t decide whether to keep in the tracks/ruts or try to ride beside them or up on a bank of grass. So I tried all of them. When my bike went from under me I was glad to have my helmet on. Undeterred I carried on and ended up having to cross an extremely rutted muddy field.
You can see that my tyres, although quite fat, have none of the knobbly bits of mountain bike tyres, which is why I found it so slippy. My bike is a hybrid so its fine for the trails that have harder ground but probably not the best for this kind of terrain.
So after this field at Stonygate Moor I bore right and down a ridge into the Dalby forest. It was a great downhill ride.
Again I’m afraid its very shaky but again it gives you some idea of what it was like. then it was down the more substantial track to Ellerburn. Along the valley to Thornton Le Dale. I did a little detour in the town and then along the main road to Wilton and turned left at Allerston up a huge, like massive, long hill. Even with my power on high, I really struggle but didn’t get off until I fell off at the top! I then joined the route back the way I had come at the muddy field, where I fell off again LOL!
I was truly knackered when I got back to the caravan but really proud of myself.
When I think back I do wonder wether I was a bit foolish to go on my own as if I had hurt myself I don’t know how Mike would have been able to come and get me. Bur I really enjoy the freedom, solitary time and adventure.