I see it's been almost a year since my last post. Then I did herald the arrival of the mountainbikedurham.com website.

Obviously things have been delayed somewhat.

In the meantime check out this website for details of some great riding in the North East of England.

http://www.visitnortheastengland.com/mtb/

You can even win an iPod!







http://www.visitnortheastengland.com/mtb/

Mountain Bike Durham is not well....

So after not posting for months and months I decide to post to say that I'm working on a new website - www.mountainbikedurham.com which will be up and running very very soon!

In the meantime here is a short film about the dangers of the sport:

Google Maps 2

So I've taken the plunge with Picasa. Installed on PC that only has a few pictures on it reducing my worries about privacy greatly!

And I have tried out adding a photo to the Google map for the Cassop Vale route, and it seems to work!

This is a "good thing" : it resolves many of the problems that I had encountered when trying to work out how to mtb routes here. Using Google maps means that these can be viewed easily, linked to, printed off easily, turned into jpeg relatively easily and you can even get directions to any point on it, meaning that for loops the "start" can be anywhere you want it to be.

This whole project is taking a lot longer than I ever imagined but now I feel some progress has been made.

Sunny Sunday afternoon....

Sunny Sunday afternoon ride..... P persuaded me to venture out. I was feeling like an afternoon in front of the TV but he talked me into a quick blast out towards Finchale Priory, on the banks of the Wear. Explored some bridle paths and tracks to try and make a bigger, more exciting ride but that part seems a little limited. Perhaps linking it into a bigger loop might work...

On the way back stop off to the bmx track so P could get some "air". Or try to get some "air" anyway. We decide that the jumps are too close together and blame the designer.

Email from Fred - he's been reading about my difficulties with PDF, jpeg etc and made a great suggestion. It wasn't the answer I was looking for, but seems to have given me a solution. A screengrab can be saved as jpeg so why was I struggling to find a way to convert pdf?

I 'll see how that works. I want there to be a printable written description of routes as well as a map. Thats why I want a jpeg version as that can be zoomed in on and manipulated at ease and takes up less space on here!

Progress with maps!

Yes! Managed to sort out that Google MyMaps difficulty I was experiencing. Think I have that sorted now.

I want to include some photos in the maps so I'm thinking that Picasa may be the way to go. MyMaps won't let me upload from PC just a url. I am a little concerned about privacy issues and what it will do to my photos so I need to read a little more about this before I commit fully!

I've mapped the Cassop Vale route. Have a look at the first draft - its without descriptions yet. I will add these in text , with map references and photos. I'll also paste a written description in as a post ( unless a better way is found). That will mean that there's two ways of viewing the route.

I've got a load more pictures to add to the Great Glen Way post - I got copies of M's today. He is back up there over next few days repeating the route by boat (you know what I mean).

Durham Big Ride

A great family day out - it says here. Hmmm... Remind the kids of that if its pouring down, and their bums and legs are sore and they are fed up.....

But seriously folks (!) - there is a big ride in Durham for all the family on 16th September 2007. Actually there are two rides - I guess that's a little big ride and a big big ride.

Go on! You know you want to!

Mad dogs, horses and flies!

Great tea-time ride today. Great weather - lots of sunshine but not too hot - added to the enjoyment! P and me got out after he finished work and we tackled one of our favourite "doorstep" routes. After much discussion as we started by the time we got home we decided it ranks as moderate route due to a couple of steep climbs along the way and the distance (19 miles). The fact that I took a spill probably confirms that grading - although strictly that was my own stupid fault when I stopped to take a picture of a turning on the route:
I'm still pondering the best way to put routes up here! So far I think I will use OpenOffice's Write - convert to PDF and then on to jpeg. Jpeg can be posted as an image which can then be opened and printed out. Write will save as Html but that doesn't get around the problem of enabling routes to be easily printed out.

The title of this posting refers to:

• The big bad barking dogs you encounter on route - they are behind a fence.... except once they got out!
• Horses - apparently young 'uns can be a little unpredictable. Yes they can be!
• Flies - a huge one and an open mouth sucking in air as I powered up the hill. You get the picture...?

This week I'll format the route and see if it works!

Afric Pepperbird - Cycling and jazz (ooh err...)

I've put up a link to Fred Grand's excellent blog Afric Pepperbird.

OK so its news about thin tyre roadie action and jazz reviews but I'm assured that he's going to get back into the rough stuff and onto a mountain bike. And Fred showed me a great route about 12 months ago which I'll post up here in due course (giving credit of course!).

Fred is a keen rider and was quite a racer, holding a BCF second category licence until he retired a couple of years ago. He writes for Sportingo .

Jazz is his "thing" and he also writes reviews for Jazz Review. He also likes Husker Du and the Dead Kennedys so can be forgiven for pretty much everything else.

Oh and he has some great pictures from a recent trip to South Africa.

Well worth a visit!

Bank holiday outings.....

Two outings today! One as a whole family and an opportunity to try out new bike carriers. Drove the short distance to Broompark picnic area which is now called the "hub of Durham's railway paths". Broompark is about 10 minutes drive from the city centre on A690, past Neville's Cross (jn with A167) and then turn right at the roundabout at the bottom of the hill towards Ushaw Moor and Esh Winning on the B6302. Turn left after .5 mile - its signposted.

Broompark is a good place to start if you want to get onto the railway path network. Durham has many miles of old railways that have been converted into paths suitable for biking and walking. At some point I'll provide a link to a map of the railway paths. They are flat and generally well surfaced and traffic free so are great for taking kids on or for clocking up some miles. There are some good rides to be done based around the paths but they are a little staid if you like "proper" off-road adventures!

We had a good time with kids on trailer bikes, and picnic lunch with us, although wifey soon complained of jelly legs and sore bum! I diverted from path with elder daughter and found a smidgen of singletrack through some trees. Elder daughter was whooping in delight and talking about how going fast made her feel "free". Thats my girl!

Bike carriers are new Thule Proride 591s. They seem to work well, although its a bit odd not being able to see bikes in rear view mirror! The bikes are lockable to carrier and in turn are fully lockable to bars, which lock to roof rails. Probably takes 20 - 30 minutes to put bars and carriers on car and attach bikes.

This evening got out for a couple of hours with P. Headed up to quarry workings below Sherburn Hill and then over to woods at Littletown. Downhill/Freeride kids(?) have been in woods adding some jumps to trails there so we gave that a go. I bottled some of it on basis that I have a XC hardtail not suitable for grabbing huge "air", but P enjoyed himself as usual, despite mechanicals with chain and shifting. He really needs to get a half decent bike - he's going to become a cropper on that sports store special he's riding at the moment.

Both the quarry and the woods will feature in some of the routes I plan to include here so I'll not give full details of location here.

C2C website

While looking at how others put up maps and routes I came across this excellent site about the Coast to Coast (C2C) route. OK so the C2C isn't really a route that I should put on this blog! The idea is to have some new routes for mountain bikers to get out and enjoy and make their own. And the C2C isn't great mountain biking (in County Durham at least) due to its flat nature. But... it exists and its useful for getting to other places by bike, and indeed at least two of the routes I'll put up here will involve parts of the C2C. The website is great and will be of use to anyone thinking of doing the C2C in any small part.

I'm getting a bit worried. Third post and as yet no routes in Durham. Perhaps this blog should be about my attempts to post up some routes, rather than the routes themselves...

Starting out .....

The first posting on my first blog! As they say around these parts "Whey aye!".

I've had a germ of an idea for about a year now to share details of some routes in and around County Durham for mountain bikers. Perhaps I'll be the only one who ever reads this ( and if so then so be it!) but if even one other person gets out on their bike and comes home with a grin on their face as a result of visiting this blog then I'll have achieved what I set out to do.

I've yet to work out quite how to paste up route maps but no doubt I'll find a way. I'll add some photos to illustrate things.

I guess I'll also put some other stuff in here too. Music and politics probably. And the odd rant about something which probably no-one else would find in the slightest irritating - isn't that what bloggers do?.

I'm off to Scotland in the morning to ride the Great Glen Cycle Way. I've wanted to ride that for a few years and at long last it's all organised. Its not particularly tough but I'm really looking forward to it. I'll post if I can.

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