Boxing Day over the Yorkshire Moors..

What a day! New bike, new route, good weather, good times!

I checked the bike over in the morning, bled the rear brake and added the RAM mount for the satnav.  I've not run power to handle bars yet and would be relying on the GPS battery, so i went old school and packed an actual paper map too.

It was 20miles from my sisters farm in Folkton to the start of my Moors route at Kirkbymoorside (love that name, so obvious) and i bumped into the local hunt.

I took a few snaps and crept off.  The first lane started shortly after the village and was surrounded by a man made forest, every tree identical and planted in perfect rows.  I picked through the trees, practicing low speed balance and clutch control, before rejoining the lane.  Reminded me of the fire-roads i see on the American youtube videos.

The road began to climb and within a mile or so, next to one of favourite road signs, i found the start of Rudland Rigg. 

In this era of technology and connectivity from cell phones, laptops, the internet, i love the rare experience of solitude and the sense of freedom the bike grants you in the countryside. It's not something you feel so often in the tiny country of England.  At this point no one was around, the sun broke through the clouds, the air was fresh, the only sound was my bike and I could see the lane stretching off for miles and miles.  No one could see it, but my smile stretched from one side of my helmet to the other. 

As i progressed other tracks crossed Rudland Rigg, these new lanes also had signs stating that motor vehicles must stay on the new path, so branched off and followed them.

When i reached gates leading to the road i doubled back and took the next available alternative.  In this way i was able to stay off-road zig zagging the moors for mile after mile. I enjoyed every minute, but was wary that i had more pre-planned route to finish, and being boxing day, there wasn't an abundance of open fuel stations.

Towards the end of Rudland i reached 'The Steps'. A steep incline with a broken surface made up from rocks.  The new bike, being 20KG lighter and better suspended than the DRZ made it easy.  I did the steps three times, picking a different route each pass before moving on.

I turn on the satnav and followed the route to the next lane.  I didnt stop to take pictures here, but 4x4's had plotted more technical paths to the left and right of the lane.  They were deeply rutted, steep, rocky, slippy, wet with deep water.   I tried them all, brilliant fun, me and the bike were filthy.

I continued on and came to the first river crossing. It was a suprise to me, i'd just assumed there was a bridge when i was route planning the day before.

If you look at the picture you can see the line to the depth meter looks shallow, and indeed it was, about 35 cm, but fast flowing.  The area to right in the picture beyond the little ridge in the water was deep drop, but i didn't know that.  As i progressed through, thinking 'yeah, ive nailed this!' i looked to the right, saw how deep it was, sh*t my pants and put my foot in the water. The river immediately seized the opportunity to flow into my boot, ahhhh refreshing :)

A little later the lane doubled back and brought me back to the river at a different section.   You can just see the depth meter on the other bank, its about 75cm and looked deeper through the middle. Im no hero and i dont own a yellow submarine so decided against it.

I carried on along the route, but had to miss a couple of lanes due to the river crossing and low the fuel light coming on.  Id done 90miles by this point and the tank looked like it had another 5 - 10miles in it.   Not wanting to put an SOS call out to my brother in law i headed off and at the 100mile point stumbled into a petrol station. (yay!)

I returned to the family farm (Flash Farm) having completed almost 120miles.  One hundred and twenty miles of KTM fueled freedom and joy. Love it.