Party of Five

My cycling adventures started sometime ago now. Around oh about January 2008 or there about's. I had the aboveknee amputation of my right leg on September 11th 2007 and then had to undergo a good few weeks of rehabilitation, which took place at Shotley Bridge Hospital. I waited for my wound site to heal and after around 6 to 8 weeks I was fitted and received my first prosthesis which I hated with a passion. It felt heavy,looked naff and I had to hold the dam thing on with a Tes belt. This was a neoprene, belt which was elasticated and went around my waist and secured tightly. This was the worst part initially, as I was constantly uncomfortable and I couldn't enjoy a meal whilst wearing it as it was like wearing some medieval corset. Those days seem so far away, yet are still fresh in my memory it's good to look back on them, not because they were pleasant,but because they act as a reminder just how far I have come. 

What a Motley Crew

In the early days I would head off out on my bike all alone. I had no one to ride with. I would fall off lots and I mean LOTS! This was because I was so used to having my own 2 legs,even if one of them was pretty knackered,after having surgery known as limb salvage. A huge internal prosthesis,called a Kotz prosthesis was placed inside my leg to replace my diseased bone. This procedure never really worked and I would just hobble around on it as best as I could, suffering lots of infections and really bad pain. So when I went back to riding it was after something like 11 or 12 years. It's amazing how your brain is programmed and mapped from an early age to remember how to do things and then again it's also how amazing hard it is to convince your brain "I'm Missing a Leg" When you lose a limb,it takes your brain a while to adapt and when you go to put that foot down that no longer exists, well it's not there. As my right leg was my strongest, (if you imagine it's like which hand you write with, or which leg you would kick a ball with) well I used to go to put this one down and time and again it was "oh crap" as I fell in what felt like slow motion to me.

My trip to the Road to Recovery, Rehabilitation conference.

Road to Recovery, Rehabilitation Conference Flyer

 As most of you know I have been supported from very early on since becoming an amputee by a clinic called Pace Rehabilitation. Why did Pace decide to support me? Well this could have been for any number of reasons. Maybe it was because I put myself out there from very early on following my amputation. I was determined, positive wouldn’t take no for an answer when told “you can’t do that” would question "why not". Or possibly it was because I was a good role model for other amputees, in that I was just an ordinary lad who wanted to live a normal life, do stuff I once enjoyed, plus add a few new things along the way. Who knows it could have been blind luck or fate that brought us together. What I do know is that I can’t thank Pace enough for all their on-going support and helping me on my particular Road to Recovery.
 
Thinking of how that statement ends I would like to tell you all about my recent trip down to London to take part in a conference organised by Pace Rehabilitation, aptly named “Road to Recovery”.

I need to win the lottery or something to feed my passion, relieve my boredom and keep me feeling young

I guess this is a kind of a wish list of bike porn, with me it's never ending I always see something I want, it's becoming an addiction. My problem like so many others is lack of funds...Ahh well I can dream and I may just have a flutter on the Lottery lol.

Holdsworth Professional Limited to 150 World Wide

 "Oh yes you will be mine"

• Based on the classic Holdsworth Professional - retro looks with modern design
• Limited to 150 for the world
• Full, polished Campagnolo Athena groupset
• Steel is real - but this one has a carbon fork too

My next play thing I saw a little while back. I have now got my son Kyle hooked on the idea of getting one of these rides. He wants a bike to do his local commute to Uni and back and this I think is the ideal cruiser. Not only that in your spare time you can head off "Klunking"

Kyle's after a Gangster Green

I quite like the look of Klunking Ain't Easy orange

WoW it was soaking wet today

Set off for a early morning ride this morning with my son Kyle. Although it was raining it didn't feel particularly cold. I decided to treat Kyle to a KFC so we headed up to Consett.

As you would expect the trails were pretty wet and muddy,we had a really enjoyable ride up to KFC. Once inside the restaurant we grabbed a couple of seats and a table near the entrance/exit so that we could keep an eye on our bikes and went over to order our meals. Mmmm delicious.

After we had finished we decided to set off back home, the weather had turned decidedly worse, the wind was getting up and it was lashing down. After we had both been in doors it was freezing to come back out into the cold rain and wind...Brrrrr!!!

On the way home we tried to get a few snaps, this proved to be rather difficult as my camera was keep getting soaked and here when I've actually looked at the images the majority are blurry (water on the lense I think).

Did manage to get a few as you can see, not the best quality.

As we neared home I decide to take a slight detour and we headed off down through South Moor park. It was really funny trying to take pics here as we were both so cold we couldn't operate the camera, hence no pictures.

Got in and soaked to the skin, so everything in the washer and try to get warm. It was kind of weird as just as we were coming over the playing field near the "pines" a we call it I said to Kyle I'm freezing everywhere except in my foot (The one I haven't got). Now I know this sounds like "well yeah obviously your foot or leg you don't have isn't going to be cold,as it's missing", but No I can actually still feel my amputated foot and it felt lovely and toasty warm,so bonus at least I wasn't all chilled through lol.

Like I say got in and I decided to checkout my images. I noticed my camera was feeling a little "gritty" on the scroll wheel, where the menu button is. So thought I'd take the camera apart and have a go at giving it a clean out. I got the camera apart no probs and was checking out the scroll wheel. I thought "Oh I'll just give it a little blow to dry it out, maybe remove some grit or debri" and the bloody wheel flew off and landed on the floor under my computer desk. I picked it up and went to pop it back in place and this is when I noticed the darn menu button wasn't there. So my dad, Kyle and myself have been on the better part of like 2 hours trying to find the missing button in my room, without success I may add. My dad reckons the Borrowers have nicked it the thieving little bastards. So now my camera is knackered.... awww great. Hopefully I can get it fixed, otherwise it's an expensive new year if I have to buy a camera of similar quality.

Not feeling Too Hot

Planned to go out for a ride with wor Kyle early this morning. I wasn't really sure whether I would be up to venturing far as I didn't feel too good last night, think I'm stressing slightly over my visit to hospital tomorrow. You see I have non Hodgkin's lymphoma, it was diagnosed around the end of October 2008 and up till now I've been lucky in that it hasn't really effected me.

 I go for the usual routine check-ups with the haematology team,who I have to say have been very supportive. I get my blood taken  and generally either my doctor or one of the nurses gives me the quick once over.

Over the last few months I've been suffering from some enlarged nodes down in my groin. The first one was on my right side, generally these nodes don't hurt they just kind of bug me and I like them to settle down and behave themselves. This node on my right got rather sore as unfortunately the top edge of my socket used to rub right in the same area, it wasn't a big deal like I say just sore and uncomfortable. Anyhoo the node on my right settled down and disappeared, however about a month or so ago a new node came up on my left side. This node is huge and it's actually hurting, hence why "I'm not feeling too Hot"... Well at least I think it's a node. I had to go for a scan last Thursday and the results have come back inconclusive, suppose this is what is worrying me. I would much prefer to know exactly what it is.

This past week has been full of ups and downs. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog I started doing voluntary work within the NHS at the Royal Victoria Hospital. I'm helping out on the Acute stroke unit. I've only done 3 mornings so far, the work is so interesting. I was actually very pleasantly surprised at just how hands on I am involved, basically I'm getting invaluable experience which will come in handy when I'm applying for the positions I'm after, which is a physio assistant.  Speaking of which I had good news on Friday evening when I opened my emails, as I have been contacted to let me know I have been successful in gaining 2 interviews for a physio assistant position. This is great news, as though I've been applying for jobs I haven't even gotten to the interview stage in sometime.

It's Sods law,well in my case whenever I plan to do something some dam health issue crops up. And I'm not talking just Man Flu...No it's always something that involves either getting bits of  metal shoved in my body, or bits cut off, or things taken out...

So anyhoo this morning I thought sod it I'm going out for a ride. I woke Kyle up at 5.00am, we had a cuppa and some toast and made some jam as well as chocolate spread sandwiches, using fruit loaf Mmmmm gorgeous. We then headed off for a ride to the coast. Bloody hell it was cold this morning, with a lot of ground frost (Ern -my dad said it was 2 degrees) so again "Not feeling too Hot" lol

Didn't manage to get a great deal of footage on my GoPro, so much so I haven't even bothered editing it and only a few pics today.

We rode down to Roker (Sunderland) following the C2C route7 I think.  Then followed the coastline down to South Shields. Once at Shields it was a case of cutting through the main street and we eventually came out at the Port of Tyne. From there straight up to White Mare Pool roundabout and up towards Springwell. We actually got on to the Bowes Railway route and came past the Bowes Railway Museum, first time I've been past it so may venture back to check it out. I'm no trainspotter, but I do like local history, stuff about our lost mining community etc. Once at the top of Springwell it was a short ride to Lamsley and along to Birtley. It was at this point I just didn't feel to well, we had done around 43 miles I was gutted we couldn't manage the other 6.33 miles home. So I rang Johnstones Taxi's, yeah that's right my dad and he came down to pick us up along with our bike rack.

 From there it was home, shower and to updating my blog. Now going for a well earned lie down.

Got slightly lost in some woods on todays outing.

Ah so where to go for today's ride. I thought I'd mix it up a little with a bit of urban riding setting out from my house through the council estate at Holly Hill and up past the Pines towards South Moor. It was then a case of taking the "Black Path" (We have called it that since we were kids, it used to lead up to the Charlie brick flats, which have long since gone). Then making our way across the busy new road and along towards Greencroft where we could get on to the C2C.  When we arrived at the Jolly Drovers I decided we would head along towards Dipton as I had a route in mind down a rugged farmers  track called Collierley Lane, then across a couple of his fields and this would bring us into Collierley Woods.

Playing at the top end of the farmers Field

Just messing around

 Now it has been about 4 years since I last ventured down this way. I was a bit wary as on my last visit with a mate of mine we both heard and felt an unusual sensation in the ground. At the time it was like "Oh dear what the hell is that", it only turned out a whole heard of cows had come thundering across the field to the gate we wanted to go through. It was quite scary at the time but my friend and I had a good laugh about it after we successfully got through the gate and across the field. I can remember my mate shooing the cows with his bike in front of him and trying not to let any escape out the field, priceless, it's part of why I enjoy getting out on my bike so many good memories to look back upon.

At the bottom of the farmers field was a small jump wheeeeee!!!

Had a few goes it was such fun

Me the Sandman and my Bartlett Tendon, with socket courtesy of Pace Rehab

  Anyhoo getting back to where we were.....Ahh yes both Kyle and I had managed to get through the swamped fields which was a job in itself and here we were at Collierley Woods. I knew from last time that in theory the woods should lead to somewhere near the Derwent Walk and from there we could head up to Consett. So we started following this trail, threading our way through the woods.

Threading my way down the trail, pulling so sweet skids in the pine needles

Everything was fine, then I don't know what happened but we found ourselves loosing what must have been the proper trail and ending up in dense woodland. So dense we couldn't ride, so it was a case of pushing our bikes and then pushing some more, then oh pushing some more.

Eventually we came to some sort of civilization as we found a sign on a proper trail. The sign was to give people a little bit of history about the area we were in. It was to do with the Mystery of the Pont Stones.

See Link Boundary Stones

We decided to venture down to have a look at the stones, or should I say Stone. I was a little disappointed as blink and we would have missed it lol. Never mind it would be cool to explore the area and find some of the other lost stones at some point.

After seeing the stone we had to head across a small stream, this was quite funny as we tried to get across without getting our feet wet. It's tough trying to hang on to a bike and also jump, especially as a one legged bloke. Didn't do to bad though, well put it this way only one of my feet felt slightly wet afterwards. Once on the other side of the stream it was yet more pushing up the steep embankment and to the top.

We managed to find a trail so followed this thinking it would lead us in the general direction of the Derwent Walk. Well things didn't go to plan and even though there was a public footpath  sign and a style into a field I couldn't see a trail. We decided to go in the field anyway and head in the general direction I thought was best to get us on to the cycle route. The field ended in a dead end of hedges, brambles and nettles. Oh crap. We didn't fancy back tracking so went right into the corner of the field which  ran parallel to the woods we had just escaped from. Nightmare a barbed wire fence, ahh  well nothing else for it but to try and get over it. My first attempt was an epic fail managing to get stuck in a precarious position and ripping my shorts. My second attempt was a lot better. Kyle got over no probs, well apart from being nettled. It was then a case of yomping  for around a mile and a half through woodland with absolutely no trail what so ever. This was real tough what with bog holes, fallen trees and branches that kept snagging us. Never mind in the end we found a forestry track and I recognised this as the one I had rode before. Wow I thought how come last time I didn't have to walk miles through all the trees. As we followd the trail down it led to an old gatehouse which is at the side of the B3610. From there it was just a case of a short ride up the bank and then turn off onto the Derwent Walk. We then followed this up to Consett and popped into McDonald's where I had a coffee and a Belgian Brownie. Wor Kyle didn't want anything, which I found strange because usually he would eat the hind leg off a scabby donkey. Whilst at McDonald's I told these young kids off for chucking tomato ketchup all over the ground outside McDonald's. What did they go and do?  go in 2 or 3 times more and come out with more containers filled with sauce and do it again. So me being the good citizen I am and knowing I would get into bother if I gave them a clip round the lug hole (hey it would have happened to me and more in my day) went in and asked for the manager where I informed him of these young delinquents. A couple of the staff came out and chased the kids away and thanked me for bringing it to their attention. I don't know kids today huh!

 Getting home was easy, just a case of back onto the C2C, off at Greencroft, then head along to Anfield Plain, back along the new road and into Stanley. A quick ride down the front Street, of course jumping the steps at the Blue Boar and down our bank and home. A quick hose down of the bikes and that's today's adventure done.

Oh Ps I have just checked Google maps and it appears we also rode/pushed through Bonners Wood,Scot's Bog Wood and Old Mill Wood, wow I really need to get myself a gps lol.

A dad n lad adventure in Cong Burn Woods

Kyle (my son) and I set off around 10'ish this morning on my bikes.
I'm still loaning my Ibis Mojo to Kyle until he can afford to get himself his own ride (of course would help if he could get a job to start saving towards one)

We headed over to, then through Craghead and continued down to Black House and up towards Edmondsley bank. At the top of Edmondsley bank we turned left and went down towards Waldridge and the fells.

I had intended to ride in some woodland at the back of the fell, but noticed various No horse riding and No cyclists signs. These signs have been put up when Durham County Council took over all the district councils so I have heard. It's a real shame as there are some really nice trails to ride and to be fair the majority of mountain bikers who use trails such as these actually take a pride in the area and look after the place.

 Ah well never mind, so it was a case of a small detour and we found ourselves at the start to a trail leading into Cong Burn Woods which we could ride.

Dad n Lad, WoW that Tree was slippy nearly set me neck lol

I've walked through Cong Burn Woods a few times with Mr Hinks and I have ridden through on my bike, but from the opposite direction, but have never actually been on some of the trails we found today. The woods are pretty big so it was real fun exploring different routes.

I shot more footage of our outing today and if you watch it you will see what a great time we were both having. I haven't laughed so much in ages, especially when Kyle went in a really deep water filled hole and then afterwards which you can't really see on video, (you will hear me laughing on camera) he tumbled off his bike coming down a gulley which the recent floods had made down a steep hill (excuse my language as it was pretty hairy as the ground was muddy, uneven and it was hard riding in the water made channel)





After we finished off at Cong Burn, we headed back over towards Chester -Le- Street and up towards Stellar Gill Industrial estate, where we cut through and joined the C2C route. A quick ride up to the Kings Head Statue or sculpture or whatever it is and we broke out the Cornbeef and Jam sandwiches, Ooh and a banana a piece. Then it was a steady ride home. Covered just under 20 miles, but what a fun filled 20 miles.

Kyle posing on the makeshift tripod I constructed

The tripod I engineered, even stood up lol

Did some canny jumps off this bit of the trail

Had a bit mess about with CS6

Nice and Vibrant

Kyle coming down the trail

Ooh bright T-shirt Kyle

One of Kyle's pedals bit him : (

Sunrise Secret

Checked the weather forecast last night and it said today should be a nice day, well in the morning at least. So I got my gear ready as I had a plan to shoot a bit of video at an area your not really supposed to ride the following morning. I asked wor Kyle and my dad if they fancied a look out with me to help take some shots, explaining I would be getting up at around 5:00am so as I could be at the undisclosed location at 5:49 for the sunrise. They both said they would come along. I think it's mainly to try catching me falling off my bike so they can have a good laugh about it lol.

The sunrise was very pretty,well worth getting up for....

A Beautiful Sunrise

Really enjoyed playing about on my Sandman, it's fantastic when you can find a nice bit of trail to ride, it's just a shame this area your not supposed to use a bike on.

Check out further on for more pic's and a movie I made of today's adventure
 

After a slightly elusive sunrise

I'm determined to catch a nice, or should I say beautiful sunrise. So far I've failed in my last couple of attempts. I used to be up at the crack of dawn when I worked as a postman, but that was years ago, before I became ill with my leg. Since then well I can find myself in bed till all hours of the morning and don't get to catch too many sunrises. Just lately however I've been getting up at silly o'clock like this morning for instance 4:00 AM and heading out on my bike.

 Last night I checked the weather on-line for our local area and from what I read I thought it was going to be a canny morning.......how wrong was I ? I had intended riding up to Consett to catch the sun coming up over the Hownsgill Viaduct and shoot a small movie with my GoPro.  Well to cut a long story short the weather was pants, very dull, lots of clouds, mostly of the miserable variety. I decided I wasn't going to let this ruin my day. So Kyle my son who had joined me on this early morning adventure thought about where we could go and capture a few photo's and a bit of movie footage. We decided to head towards Waskerley and the reservoir as we hadn't actually visited it before.

Once you start to get up into the moors and the area opens up, it's so beautiful over there. It's so peaceful down by the reservoir. I rode right down to the edge of the reservoir and got a little bit of footage and even had a bit plodge in the water at one point to capture some pics of my bike at the waters edge. I reckon we did around 35 miles or so today and had a really enjoyable time, even if the weather was caca doo doo.

 Oh one thing I'm not happy with is my new cycling shorts, the lycra padded variety. I bought a pair of Funkier 8 panel gel filled shorts thinking they would help me out in those long rides in the saddle. Boy how wrong was I, these particular brand or design of shorts are so uncomfortable for me and have actually chaffed me pretty bad on both my good side and socket side, so I think I'm going to have to invest in another pair from a different manufacturer. I've been sore in the saddle before but not like this Ouch lol !!!!

Here's a few photo's from today

I saw that some kind of work was being carried out on the Hownsgill Viaduct as there was a few barriers up. I then spotted this notice when heading over towards Waskerley Way near the farm.

Apparently some sort of fencing is being put in place in the hope it will stop people committing suicide off the viaduct, as it is a pretty well known area for people to actually jump off.

A Notice of work being carried out on the Hownsgill Viaduct

Me playing on my Sandman coming down a trail near the Viaduct

Kyle and me on our way up to Waskerley. Rowley Station was actually dismantled brick by brick and is now at Beamish Open Air Museum

Yeah I know it's just a gate, but the sky and trail leading off into the distance caught my imagination so I thought why not take a snap

Here are a few shots which I experimented with using different camera settings and a filter I got of my good friend Adrian. I took quite a flot of shots,  didn't want to bore you so only put up a few....

Sandman Hoggar Ti at the shore line of Waskerley Reservoir

In at the deep end lol

The sky was quite heavy with clouds, added to the shot though

Ventured out to Barnard Castle

Today's adventure was to Barnard Castle.I'm getting a bit bored of the usual local 20 odd mile loops so thought I'd venture a bit further afield. Barnard Castle is around 40 miles away from where I live. I didn't think I could manage it there and back so arranged for Ern to pick Kyle and myself  up when we had arrived at our destination.

Heading down towards Barnard Castle isn't to bad, we picked up the cycle route at Lanchester on the Lanchester Way Railway Path and headed towards Durham. We then continued on until we saw a sign for the Walney to Wear cycle route,( route 20). Overall getting to Barnard Castle wasn't too bad, though in certain area's the route is marked as Regional Route 20 but has now been resigned as National Route 70 which can be confusing, plus I don't think there are enough signs dotted around. You really have to keep your eyes peeled as it's quite easy to miss a sign and head off in the wrong direction,especially if your like me and get lost after leaving the corner of your street. Never mind a couple of helpful people around the Bishop Auckland area soon pointed us in the right direction and we were off again.

We climbed up the hill of the A688 and at about 9 miles away from Barnard Castle broke out the rations. This was one sausage roll, large which we shared and a couple of sandwiches which I had prepared before we set off. Consisting of 2 strawberry jam and 2 chocolate spread all on delicious fruit loaf. Boy they went down a treat and gave us a bit of a boost for the climb into Barnard Castle.

Met Ern and my friend Essi who's been visiting us this week at Barnard Castle and took a few quick snaps before popping the bikes onto the bike rack and heading home. A really nice ride out even though I'm a bit knackered and sore lol......

Me with my slightly retarded son

A Network Sculpture sign post type thing

@ Barnard Castle

@ the park Barnard Castle

The gates to Barnard castle

Coming down the footpath @ Barnard castle

A lookout to the Scotish Borders

On my return from Edinburgh the other week I got my eye on a fantastic looking  viaduct and made a mental note to have a look back up to check it out. So along with my dad,Kyle and Mr Hinks, as well as a few friends including Essi and the Hair family we all ventured up to the Scottish borders to take in this amazing piece of construction.

The viaduct in question is called the Leaderfoot Viaduct, it was constructed in 1865 to carry the Berwickshire Railway, connecting Reston on the East Coast Main Line with St Boswells on the Waverley.

  A little more history of the Viaduct can be found here
http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/gallery/leaderfoot.html

Leaderfoot Viaduct

A part ride, part hike starting at Fox and Parrot Wood

Set off for a little bit of a ride with my son Kyle today, me on my Sandman and Kyle on my Ibis. Decided to set off along to Craghead then cut through Fox Parrot Wood and up towards West Pelton.

Kyle and Me @ Fox Parrot Wood

Fox Parrot Wood

• Ancient and new woodland • Excellent for dog walking • Wide open spaces
Fox and Parrot Wood, named in memory of a local doctor and his beloved bird, forms part of County Durham's Great North Forest. The gently undulating grass rides make this site ideal for strolling in the fresh air and admiring the beautiful broadleaved woodland that has been taking shape here since 1998.
As well as being popular with dog walkers, this site offers a sense of boundless space where walkers can roam freely and even explore the ancient semi-natural woodland in adjoining Twizell Wood. The establishment of Fox and Parrot Wood has been important to the area's biodiversity, having been planted on improved grassland after the decline of opencast coal mining in the 1980s. This 21-acre wood was planted in two phases in 1998 and 2004 under the Trust's Woods on Your Doorstep Project and the Forestry Commission's New Native Woodland Scheme. The site will continue to be maintained as native broadleaf high forest woodland until it begins to regenerate naturally over the next hundred years and beyond.

A Day out Playing @ Ajax Woods

 I decided to get to grips with my GoPro,after having one or two problems, notably when I got my camera the spare battery being buggered and running out after 10 secs or so!!!
 I thought today might be a nice day to experiment. I had been out for a ride last week on the Derwent Walk and got my eye on a nice place just to practice with my camera.  Here's some various shots of the day.