Words by Eric, Pic by Dunc
Crew; Dunc, Bernard, Eric.
Route: BL, New Buxton Road, sneaky wood, Windyways, Saddler’s Way, Hardingland, Witches Cottage, reverse Narnia, lower Charity, snicket, Nessit, central downhill, Bob’s bench, Gurnett, canal, Middlewood Way, Lord Clyde
Conditions; Windy but unexpectedly dry.
Stats; Eric, knotted chain
Offs; Non reported
With hurricane Gertrude, or whatever the Met Office is choosing to call wintery weather these days, forecast to bring chaos to the UK tonight we set off dressed for the worst. When we say “we”, we mean the three less than wise men who turned up. For the rest, the lure of après ski or a warm sitting room was too much.
Small Events Bernard (SEB) arrived on his son’s bike as when he unearthed his own it had flat tyres. Choosing a sheltered route we headed up NBR and into the sneaky wood. Followers of the turf would have described the going as soft to un-rideable, we preferred un-rideable with additional adjectives. The route by Windyways gave fabulous views to the west and a stiff push into the teeth of Gertrude.
The big rocks at the top of Saddler’s were slipperier than usual but Duncan lead the way, solid forks no hindrance to superheroes. As ever Hardingland proved to be the macho challenge of the evening with everyone gasping at the top. Performance was hindered by being overdressed in waterproofs and boil in the bag trousers; with sweat pouring we realized that in the words of Monty Python “the weather man was lyin”. We could have got away with jerseys. The next climb was reverse Narnia which had the added challenge of avoiding crazy mountain bikers descending – whatever next.
We stopped at the shots bench for a very pleasant drop of Glensomethingorother from Duncan’s hip flask. There’s something special about an outdoor snifter with good mates on a wild and wintery night. Exiting Narnia we joined the stream of traffic going down the lower end of Charity. SEB was pleased to reach the bottom of the snicket without drama.
Not that it was a race but it felt good to catch and pass another group on Nessit. On the central descent your correspondent found that his pedals no longer went round. Further investigation revealed a chain resembling a Christmas cracker puzzle which was difficult to untangle and more difficult to understand how it happened.
Back down to Gurnett and onto the canal for a sprint to the Middlewood Way and on to the Lord Clyde. SEB had opted for an early bath; it wasn’t that we had opted for a Bernard unfriendly hostelry!
We were made welcome in the newly refreshed hostelry although our food needs didn’t trouble celebrity kitchen; a bag of crisps complimenting Old Speckled Hens