Words by Eric
Crew; Butty, Mr I, Slim, Dr S, Stunt, Dunc, 3 Sheds, Eric
Lame excuses; El Pres, not available !
Route; New Buxton Road to the Tearoom, Stakeside, Shooters Clough, Errwood Hall, Goytsclough Quarry, Derbyshire Bridge, Cat, Stanley Arms, Standing Stone. LHS and Bob’s bench to Sutton Hall.
Conditions; Starting warm, foggy, windy, chilly higher up – no rain though.
Stats; Non reported, entirely due to the right sizing of the group.
Offs; Dr Simon.
Just the right sized group with, Slim on time to cock a snook at his new nickname of Tardy, and Duncan early enough to catch us all on the climb to the Tea Room.
We soon realized that it might be “grim up high” with a strong headwind and fog on the climb. The Stakeside descent proved interesting with a combination of slipperier than a slippery place and fog thicker than your grannies socks. Right on the top of the world two eerie headlights came looming out of the gloom. We we’re quite surprised to see a normal 4 x 4 crewed by some optimistic youths. Their optimism unfortunately wasn’t going to get them too much further methinks ! They seemed quite surprised by our presence too, asking Mr I if we were “night ridin’ ” !
Gingerly down the zig zags and over Shooters Clough we went although Dr Simon managed a spectacular somersault after finding a front wheel sized hole in the singletrack. Luckily the only damage was to a light bracket.
Concern turned to relief when Butty lead us left towards the Quarry, the alternative would have been Shooters Clough, up !
The grind up to the Cat from Derbyshire Bridge was again in fog making it seem never ending but it was the fog on the descent to the Stanley Arms which was the most challenging. How fast dare you go – as long as you can see the white line it’s OK but there are a couple of gaps…………. Our lead riders also arrived at one bend to find bits of car all over the road, quite disconcerting at speed and in a fog. It did however explain why we’d seen a car driving the other way with just hazard lights on. It’s a sign of a broken society when you don’t pick the bits of your accident up.
As we descended from Standing Stone the forest seemed to be alive with riders – everybody must be “night ridin’” – lucky we went elsewhere tonight.
The final headcount in the pub didn’t reconcile – oops Dr Simon, lost in Langley. He eventually appeared having regained his bearings in Macclesfield, sorry !
Sutton Hall provided comfy chairs by the fire whilst our table was prepared, large quantities of meat based provender and multiple servings of Leffe, it could be worse. I’m sure it was for at least two motorists tonight.