I was really aware that I'd not been out riding for a couple of weekends. Time had gotten away from me as it tends to do, with the multiple bank holidays and May being a very busy month for me in work. With a free day coming up I hastily picked a trail from my list that sounded like it wouldn't be super hardcore so I could continue racking up the numbers. The centre I selected was Guisborough.
Situated to the north of the Yorkshire moors, Guisborough was the longest drive yet. The roads were pretty good though and the scenery as I approached the trail centre had me thinking it was going to be a good one.
Parking was free and the visitor centre looked nice, albeit closed. There were a number of information boards around and some sculptures carved out of logs. The wide fire road style path from the visitor centre to the forest passed little ponds and a playground, making this a great place to bring your kids for an afternoon out. But would it be any good to ride?
Guisborough has a blue and a black trail. As far as I could tell they share quite a bit of fire road, the blue being 100% fire road and the black featuring a fair amount of dedicated singletrack. I checked out the big map of the trails before I set out so I had a clue about where to go.
Turns out I didn't pay all that much attention to the map in the end! The trails start out with a hefty chunk of fire road, which magically feels like it's all up hill. Nothing like the Marin trail initial climb or even the gradient towards the start of follow the dog but it wore on a bit. The arrows were pretty far apart so I was worried I'd taken a wrong turn. Ominously, I'd heard that the black was closed due to forestry works, but this normally means diversions or simply ignoring the signs. At the end of the day, I've yet to come across forestry operations on a Sunday.
The weather forecast that morning was for wind. It didn't disappoint! The weather came in waves all day long, alternating between being a really bright sunny day and being quite grim, with blustery wind and driving showers.
After a good while on fireroads with sightings of more interesting unsigned singletrack off to the sides, I decided to break the tedium by investigating some of these offshoots. One led up to the top of a small exposed summit which was quite a slog with a bike on tow. The elevation of this point meant I could see out towards the North Sea, across Guisborough and Redcar. It was a great view and worth the climb.
The weather took one of its miserable turns and I decided to carry on with the trail. The weather cleared for a while and I carried on with more bog standard fire road (this time flat). During the next shower I followed another piece of unmarked singletrack and found a cool but short bit of downhill with proper corners and drops.
Ploughing on with the main trail, I was convinced my arrow-following skills had taken the day off. There were sill signs, but they were blank. Disconcerting to say the least but I think this was one occasion where "black trail closed" actually means closed. At least, unless you've ridden it before and know where you're going!
As following blank signposts wasn't getting me very far, at least my sense of direction saw me right and got me back to the trailhead. I'd had a good ride and felt exercised at least but I was gutted about making a mistake and the map of the site showed me where I'd gone wrong, only a couple of miles in too! I swear I followed the signage that was there though. Nevermind. Next time Guisborough, next time...
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