Pic of the Day

RustyMTB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 22, 2020
2,834
6,849
UK
Yeah but beat this @etoni #expert #photography

FphXom6XgAYPlmx.jpg
 


irie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
May 2, 2022
2,521
2,533
Chichester, W.Sussex, UK
When you're carefully coming down sh*t like this what's the one thing to don't want to do? Did you say fall off? Was coming down here (going to Kingley Vale, West Sussex) this afternoon and the sun came out so turned my head to look at the view on the left. Big mistake. Bike dropped into a rut and I had the presence of mind to throw myself away from the ruts onto the grassy verge on the right. But the bike was pretty ugly when I picked it up out of the muck! 🤭

20230223_122120~2.jpg
 

The Hodge

Mystic Meg
Subscriber
Sep 9, 2020
3,933
8,359
North West Northumberland
It was supposed to be a ride where I was checking a few tracks that make up one of my favourite local " chilled " rides ..tbh one of my favourite places to be anywhere on earth ..I'd heard that Forestry England had been in a while back tidying up the utter devastation left behind by Arwen ..so was hopeful that things would be OK.
Fair to say that the first section of the ride was back to normal ..but a lot of trees had fallen and it had a different feel altogether ..the mid section ok-ish but a whole swathe of clear -felled trees with a lot of brash left behind and I don't think the trail will be re-instated ...the last section started off well on the grassy moorland ..but as it dropped to the burn in among the trees it soon became impassable ..hopefully this can be brought back to life ..in total there is no more than 3miles of trail in the section I'm talking about but it's a great start / finish to a route that branches out onto other bridleways in the wider forest which being further afield I didn't need to see to know that they would also be wrecked ..
To sum up majorly disappointed ..and decided to bin this route and head back to the car and onward to the trails at Kielder..
Sidwood..
20230225_095122.jpg

20230225_095544.jpg
20230225_095955.jpg

Kielder Lonesome Pine Trail ..within this wreckage is the red Bewshaugh section ..in my opinion it was the sweetest singletrack in the whole forest network ..not anymore ( and I don't think it will be coming back )
20230225_113406.jpg

Skyspace ..just prior to Skydive ..
20230225_114247.jpg
20230225_114654.jpg
20230225_114701.jpg

How green ? A level bit of Skydive
20230225_115349.jpg

Deadwater Trail
20230225_124106.jpg
20230225_125321.jpg
20230225_125420.jpg

Turned out OK in the end 😁
Edit: Any keen eagle-eyed forumites wondering about the comparatively low mileage on my display ..thats due to it being a replacement motor ..the original had 2.7k miles on it 😉
 
Last edited:

The Hodge

Mystic Meg
Subscriber
Sep 9, 2020
3,933
8,359
North West Northumberland
On my way back from Kielder I passed an Ariel Atom ..who was turning around in a forest road clearing obviously out for a bit of fun ..the first time I had seen one in " the flesh " ..only previously on Top Gear & Fifth Gear on T.V...as there was a Tesla in front of me ..and my car is a 3.0l V6 Quattro ..I didn't think it would be too long before I saw him in my rear view mirror ..and sure enough within a minute there he was .
To be honest he was keeping a respectful distance and I got the feeling that he didn't particularly know the road ..( c200 between Kielder & Falstone ) which is excellent but with few places to overtake as there are long sweeping corners with the forest on either side and Kielder Water for 9miles along the length ..so very scenic and extremely slow in the height of summer with tourists taking in the views ..
On one of the few straight sections I flash indicated for him to overtake as I wanted a pic ..and we continued at a fairly sedate pace until the Tesla turned off at Falstone ..I was hoping he would take the opportunity to up the pace a bit with an open road in front of him as I was keen to see the kind of road holding shown on the track on the motoring programmes as the road from Falstone down the North Tyne Valley towards Bellingham is a typical narrow twisty country road ..I was left slightly disappointed as my hunch about him not knowing the road was most likely true and 40+ years of driving on them more than made up for his braking too excessively on just about every corner ..still a nice bit of fun ..

A cheery wave from the driver as I indicated for him to go past ..all within the national speed limit ( for now ).
Shortly after I switched from the comfort setting to dynamic which lowers the air suspension and tightens up the steering as well as increasing the revs..I do like a little sport 😉😁
20230225_142809.jpg

Pretty cool private plate ..on the Atom .. 20230225_142925.jpg
 
Last edited:

philmedomsley

Well-known member
Apr 28, 2020
95
175
Durham
It was supposed to be a ride where I was checking a few tracks that make up one of my favourite local " chilled " rides ..tbh one of my favourite places to be anywhere on earth ..I'd heard that Forestry England had been in a while back tidying up the utter devastation left behind by Arwen ..so was hopeful that things would be OK.
Fair to say that the first section of the ride was back to normal ..but a lot of trees had fallen and it had a different feel altogether ..the mid section ok-ish but a whole swathe of clear -felled trees with a lot of brash left behind and I don't think the trail will be re-instated ...the last section started off well on the grassy moorland ..but as it dropped to the burn in among the trees it soon became impassable ..hopefully this can be brought back to life ..in total there is no more than 3miles of trail in the section I'm talking about but it's a great start / finish to a route that branches out onto other bridleways in the wider forest which being further afield I didn't need to see to know that they would also be wrecked ..
To sum up majorly disappointed ..and decided to bin this route and head back to the car and onward to the trails at Kielder..
Sidwood..
View attachment 107741
View attachment 107742 View attachment 107743
Kielder Lonesome Pine Trail ..within this wreckage is the red Bewshaugh section ..in my opinion it was the sweetest singletrack in the whole forest network ..not anymore ( and I don't think it will be coming back )
View attachment 107744
Skyspace ..just prior to Skydive ..
View attachment 107745 View attachment 107746 View attachment 107747
How green ? A level bit of Skydive
View attachment 107748
Deadwater Trail
View attachment 107749 View attachment 107750 View attachment 107751
Turned out OK in the end 😁
Looks like you were lucky with the weather. (For once) Wet, breezy and cold in Consett.😭
 

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