Gravel / road ride up Weardale / Hamsterley Forest - Cannondale Slate Apex

After another hard overnight frost it was time for a small road trip over to Hamsterley village for a route / ride on the Slate Apex again. As you can see in most of the photos below it looked and was rather nippy on the outward leg. It was not until half way up the last climb out of the forest on to the moor side when I got some sun on my back. I was not complaining as the ground was frozen solid and made it easy going under tyre at minus five degrees. Once out on the moors / roads around Egglestone etc the sun was shinning away. All in it was just under 26 miles in 2hrs 15mins with just under 2000ft of climbing. Again no problems with the bike and really enjoying the ride. I have ordered a 650b x 2.0" tyre to try on the front, should be landing in a couple of days, should be enough clearance on the ridged lefty? Below are some cold and frosty pics, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

First fire road climb on the route

and this was the biggest climb - out of the forest

Forest boundary - on to the moor side now

steady away down the rocky descent

Nearly at the top of the last off road climb

On to the road for a couple hundred of yards

Before turning back off again

Last leg before hitting the tarmac to Egglestone

I did not do the off road route around the top of Hill Top - fat bike required for the water logged heather

5 miles on country back lane and back at

Village, time to get warmed up again