Well i had a bee in my bonnet and wanted to do this route i have had in mind for a few weeks. So we met at the Moorcock, again. The anti social lot listened to my suggestion of where i planned to ride and said sounds good then rode off in another direction. Ha! They didn't know what they were missing. I had a very large group, a mix of abilities so sent the social up the middle track and i sacrificed my ride and took the beginners up the easier route. There are 3 of us who take it in turns to lead the beginners and the other two leaders, Pete and Lorraine also decided to show solidarity with me and headed up the easier climb. Quite brought a lump to my throat that!I asked Tedman to lead and wait at the top of the down hill, well he remembered the first bit  By now i realized that i would have to split the group, and asked lorraine to look after the beginners and stay high, whilst i took the social on a downhill,'Steve's dad's hat' route. Pete clearly felt he should not be out enjoying himself on downhills and the like and stayed with Lorraine. I led my lot across a track and ravenscar chris, the only one who was paying any attention to what i was saying,pointed out that this was not the track i had mentioned. I agreed but thought it would do, and it was rather good, all rideable, almost no mud, and it's not often you can say that when i lead a ride! i managed to find the start of the hat, called Tedman and the faster lads back and we were off. Well i think everyone agreed it was brilliant. This brought us out on the Troutsdale road. We met a rather unhappy lady who thought we had left a gate open, we hadn't and carried on to a bridle way climb back up to Dalby. We all had a go at cleaning this, only one made it, our very own Houghing Jax, go girl! We still had plenty of time so i carried on with the rest of my route. ok even i will admit it was very overgrown, i was rather amazed we all got out in one piece! I was eyeing up the next bit of overgrown single track which was one section too many for the Tedman and he volunteered to take a few hardy souls on another descent, and they were down that hill before i tried to change their minds. The next singletrack was all really good, almost all clear, we could see the others on their down hill from the top but all agreed my route was better, so there! Touched by their support and beginning to wonder if starting out with well over 30 riders and finishing with 5 was maybe the group's way of telling me i won't be allowed to lead next week, i decided that they would Not have to do Deliverance. Brendon managed to look almost wistful as we rode past the entrance, well i think it was the entrance, It was hard to tell for all the overgrown trees, bracken etc! We chatted about which of the downhills we would finish on and amazingly they all agreed with my choice. What great guys you are. I felt so pleased i also spared them a little section which is overgrown even in the middle of winter and which today looked, well, impassable, again Brendon managed another wistful glance, great acting Bren, and we all then cleaned my downhill. We were last back to the pub but happy i think. The anti socials had got drenched again in a shower which had missed us, their bikes looked very mucky and i don't believe they did as many downhills as us! Welcome to 3 new riders, they say they will be back. So it can't have been all bad! 

Next Thursday by the way we will be meeting at Lastingham. I will text next week with all the details.