A visit to Hamsterley Forest...WoW it was Brass Monkeys

As I drove home from work yesterday I checked out the sky in the general direction of Hamsterley. Thinking to myself  "Mmmmm a session at the gym lifting weights and getting all sweaty" or a nice fun filed afternoon riding down trails surrounded by beautiful scenery. That was it mind made up.

I had spoken to my mate Ade earlier in the week and asked if he felt up to it did he fancy taking a few shots of me whilst out on my bike. It's always better to get someone who can actually use a camera and knows what they are doing, rather than me setting my camera on a 30 second delay then trying to time it just right for a ride by lol.

 I also wanted to try and get some nice shots to pass on to Brian and Pace Rehabilitation who have both been fantastic in their support of me. I know it's not much in the way of payment for all they have done, but at least they can see I'm putting their prosthetic components to good use.

So I called in to Ade's and he said he was up for a look out...Perfect. I told Ade I wouldn't be long and set off to get my gear ready. Well an hour and twenty minutes I was ready... Had a bit of a nightmare finding stuff.

My dad had decided he fancied a ride out so he came along, bringing Mr Hinks too, WoW family affair lol.

We had just pulled out the corner of our street when Ade rocked up along with his son Jordan and so  we set off for Hammers.

Inside the car the weather looked gorgeous, the sun was shining and there were blue skies. We arrived at Hammers and I opened my door and OMG it was FFFFFFF!!! Freezing. Very windy too. The car temp gauge read around about 8 degs C, however what with that wind it felt much colder. Never mind here now so may as well have a bit play. It was then I discovered I'd left my XC helmet...aww crap. Good job I'd brought my full face.

I hadn't rode up at Hamsterley for ages so just hopped on my bike and set off down the Red Trail. WoW his was totally different to what I remembered it, some canny drops and ups n downs. I got to the bottom in what seemed a matter of no time and rode along to the hut then turned left and headed up the steep hill. I was on my NS Soda, which is quite heavy and only has 10 speed gearing and was quite chuffed that I got 3/4 of the way up the hill. I even passed a couple of fellow bikers who commented saying "hey have you got a motor hidden on that thing" lol. I wish I was flippin knackered.

I then caught up with Ade and Jordan, my dad was off somewhere exploring with Mr H. We had a nice slow walk down the trail and picked some nice places to get a few shots. It was difficult for Ade as the sun was really bright and behind me in each shot as I rode down.

Finally as we were getting real cold by then I decided to have one last ride down the trail wearing my new WizMount. Again I think I've misjudged the camera angle, this is going to take practice lol Never mind will keep trying.

Hopefully Ade will have some canny photo's for me and I'll post them and add them to the end of this blog. Until then here's a short movie of me coming down the trail.

Out and about on My NS Analog SS

Mmmmmm what to do I thought... I know I'll reset my GoPro and go for a nice relaxing ride out on my Single Speed and see what sort of image quality I can get, as yesterdays footage was a bit pants.


I had myself a zig-zag up to my Aunt and Uncle's in Annfield Plain. I Hadn't seen them since I got back from my holidays. When I arrived my other auntie was there too . My Aunty Ann, so we had a right old gossip and a catch up. I even got treated to some fruit pie and custard, well worth the ride out lol.


I've decided to write less and basically let the video I shot show you my route lol


Oh and I made a cock up with my camera too shooting in 960 instead of 1080 so it was in 4:3 LoL

New friends,new places and unforgettable memories.

                           Well I'm back from my holiday's and what a holiday. Actually it's funny, as in weird saying holiday as my last one was when I was around 14 or 15 and that was only a school trip to London. This time around I ventured a little bit further afield and chose The US of A as my destination.

I'm going to try and write not so much that I bore you all, however enough to tell you about the fantastic time I had.

I took the 4th of September off work, this was my get everything sorted day, packing my new hard case and trying to get it under 23 kilo's was errrr interesting. I had already done a dry run a few days earlier and discovered that  the new size medium case I had purchased wasn't quite big enough after I bust the zipper... Oops! So I had to go out and buy a larger case.

On the morning of the 5th my dad took me to Newcastle airport. My flight was quite early and we got there in good time. I said goodbye to Mr Hinks and my dad came with me into the airport. I headed for check in. Everything went according to plan, which is quite unusual for me lol. And so I said bye to Ern and I set off up the escalator to departures.

I found my way around Newcastle airport reasonably well,finding where I would board my plane without incident and just waited to be notified when it was time to board. Boy I was nervous, though not as much as I expected. I mean this was a huge thing for me full of firsts. I've never been abroad,I've never flown (well apart from a quick jaunt in a helicopter doing some ariel military type manoeuvres) and I've never been away from home for quite so long.

My plane arrived I got on,stowed my bag in the overhead compartment,strapped in and prepared for my first flight, which was to be Amsterdam and Schiphol airport. The take off was scary yet exhilarating and after the initial buzz I soon settled in feeling comfortable and excited about my  adventure. It was a very pleasant flight over and the landing was nice and smooth, a slight bump as the plane set down on the runway. Hey there's nothing to this flying stuff I thought.

Newcastle Airport and me messing with my phone

Hedley Hall Woods, experimenting with my WizMount

Had a really fun ride out today. I didn't go too far just over to Hedley Hall Woods, thought it would be a good place to try out my new WizMount Backpack. I have to say whilst the day was fun I was very disappointed in the footage I got.Oh it wasn't the WizMount it was my new GoPro Hero 3. When I got it home and had a chance to look at the video it appeared quite blurry and washed out. I haven't experienced this with my GoPro Hero 2, well apart from when it used to get misted up, however I bought some little de-mist pads and haven't encountered the problem since.

I've read a few forums and they suggest updating the firmware on the GoPro, so I have done that tonight. Guess I will see how it preforms on it's next outing.
Back to today, the woods were great fun, mind you I should have had my Surly Nates on as I was slipping and sliding all over on my worn Larry's, guess it added to the fun in a way got some nice skids and kind of made me work harder on the hills.

Not a bad day for a bit play on the Sandman

 I managed to fall off twice today, once whilst stationary and not paying attention. I couldn't clip out and was over on my prosthetic side and once as I leant under a tree branch and my camera mount got stuck. It was canny funny really as it pulled me straight off my bike. No harm done to either rider or bike, Oh and my Bartlett Tendon stood up to the fall as well as being caked in mud.





 






















 Got home around 2:30'ish I think and gave both my bike and BTK a hose down. I then re-lubed my Bartlett Tendon. Trying to really look after this one, not that I didn't with the other. It's just I think sand got into the main shaft of my other knee and destroyed the frame. Brian was good enough to replace my knee with one of his own whilst I was away so I can continue to ride and have loads of fun like on today's adventure.

Looking through my Oakley's

A little video riding in Logan Utah with fantastic friends

I know this isn't the best video in the world, it wasn't planned. Basically my friend Mark strapped my new Hero3 on to his bike and we just rode and enjoyed the day and boy did we enjoy the day. This was one of those days that I will forever cherish, great trails,beautiful scenery and terrain and awesome friends.

Rode to Hedley Hall Woods and had my breakfast

I haven't been up to much this weekend the weathers been a bit pants and I've been feeling shall we say a little less motivated.

Anyhoo got up this morning and seeings as I'm off work and the gym is closed so I can't fit in my regular session I decided to head out for a short ride over to Hedley Hall Woods, take a spot of breakfast and try and get used to taking a few shots with my new camera.

Excuse the helmet hair...

Neglecting my blog

It's been a while since I blogged, this isn't because I have been busy doing nothing, No it's more a case of I've been busy doing lots of stuff, however most of it I haven't got images of and well it's rather boring just reading.

My holiday is just about all sorted, off for a rather exciting trip to the U.S.A. I have a few minor things to do, stuff like getting my phone unlocked...well actually seeing if my phone is unlocked in the first place, as I bought it from the Carphone Warehouse and the nice girl I spoke to in the shop said 99% of their handsets are unlocked when you get them. I need my phone unlocked so that I can pop a US SIM card in, and this will allow me to use my phone at a cheap rate. I'm useless with directions so will no doubt need Google Maps to navigate around, and the data usage can be ever so expensive. 

Looking forward to my trip away, all sorts of emotions going on, mainly excited, however also a tad nervous. Just hope my fitness level will be up to the demands of riding in the U.S with my friends out there. 

Completed a 47-mile ride to the coast and back today on my Sandman, boy I was wrecked when I got in. Just trying to improve on my fitness. I'm trying to ride as much as possible, and I'm also attending the gym 3 days per week. I don't appear to be putting on much muscle, however have shed a few pounds, though from where I don't know. I still have more of a mini keg, rather than a six-pack lol. Maybe it's off my stump, as my bloody prosthetic leg keeps coming off. At the moment I have had to put some laminate flooring underlay inside my socket, and it's stuck in place with Duct Tape lol.

Anyhoo onto something with pictures. Last week I met up with my friend Ade down at St Mary's, and he very kindly took some shots of me out playing on the beach and splashing around in the water on the causeway. As usual, my Bartlett Tendon was up to the job and preformed flawlessly.

Messing about on the rocky outcrop just before the tide came in

WoW! The rocks were slippy where the seaweed was

It was a beautiful day, nice cooling breeze blowing from inland. Bonus, only fell off my bike once today, slight scuff on my elbow. It's murder when I fall to my prosthetic side, as I just can't unclip to get my leg down and save myself. Worst thing is when I know it's going to happen. Usually you just hear me say "OH Crap"... then I'm off, falling on whatever lol. Actually fell off today when coming back from today's outing. My own fault, I was too busy looking around to see where the ambulance siren was coming from and hit a kerb, lol.

Splish Splash

This was so much fun Wheeeee!!!

More Fun

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

On the causeway as the tide was coming in

Playing in the water

Huge thanks to Ade.the.Tog and his lovely wife Amanda oh and my support team (Ern my dad) We all  had a really enjoyable day.

Photo's property of Ade.the Tog

Nice ride out on my Soda...

I must have done well over 30 miles today on my NS Soda. I've been having a bit of a nightmare with various gps cycling apps on my phone, problems with them not saving my workouts/routes. Strava being the most annoying app so far. It tells you to click save, however when you tap the icon the bloody thing won't save. So that got deleted for the 2nd time. I then gave Map my Ride a go and same type of problem. I had rode 13.33miles when I stopped in at my aunt and uncles for a nice can of pop and a little bit of something to eat. It was then I noticed the Map my Ride app had paused and when I went to restart it the dam thing didn't save my previous route. Needless to say I wasn't going to fanny on with it so just hit the trail without monitoring my mileage, who cares anyhoo I wasn't in a race, just out for a nice ride out and a spot of fun.

AyyyyUp!!!

Maybe I need to man up

So hey Hi there. It's been a while since I posted, not because I haven't been doing stuff, or because I don't love you all. No it's just I either haven't taken my camera or I've felt it wasn't terribly interesting the stuff I have been doing, well apart from my first experience at canoeing up in the Lake District  at Lake Ullswater on Sunday with friends. That was rather enjoyable and a real giggle.

I've also started back at my local gym after a pretty long lay off, when I say long I mean years. In fact I think I still had my own leg last time I visited a gym so it must be at least 8 or 9 years. WoW it was hard work going back. I'm definitely getting old as I ached for days afterwards, feeling better for it now and starting to get the swing of things. My aim is to trade in my mini keg for a six pack, so at the moment I'm eating healthy, visiting the gym regularly and continuing to ride my bikes at least twice per week, oh and of course doing my new job, which I'm continuing to love by the way.

And so we get to the title of my latest blog... I've been informed at work I need to think about putting some holidays in, before March next year. Now this is pretty alien to me I don't really know what a holiday is, the last one I had was a trip to London when I was like 14 or something with the school. I can remember getting terribly homesick lol. As I got older I found myself in a relationship quite young and had children and the whole having to pay bills and work so never got round to taking a holiday. And then as most of you know I was ill for a long period so just couldn't go away.

Now however I have no real ties and whilst I don't have a great deal of spare money I could treat myself if I really put my mind to saving for a little while. I have my passport and I dare say they would allow me to leave the country with my fake leg, so I could quite literally book a flight and be off. Now to the tricky bit, where to go and what to do. I'm a singleton who has never travelled. The only flight I have had was in a MOD helicopter which was doing manoeuvres at the time when I worked for a casualty simulation agency and that scared the hell out of me. Now I don't expect some Boeing flight Captain to be doing loop the loops, that's not what really scares me it's the fact I'm going to be going all by myself, yep that's right just little old me, on me todd, uno, yep 1, ALONE... Errr Hello. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a kind of walking disaster area and anything that can go wrong, well most probably will. In a foreign country I can't just ring Ern and get him to come pick me up. So maybe if I do decide to take a trip it will help me man up as it were,any problems I come across I will have to solve myself, well me and Google as I intend taking my phone of course.

Anyhoo really all I'm doing here is kind of talking out loudly to myself and letting you in on a few of my insecurities...This is just floating around in my head at the moment. Who knows I may find myself a brave girlfriend who will help me over come my fears and hold my hand on trip away... Either that or it's just me and Teddy off on a really scary adventure lol