Crew: Butty, Mr I, El Pres, Coley, Stunt
Pub: Slim, Dunc, Nic & El Pud
Route: Rainbow bridge, Middlewood way into Bolly, Up past the poachers, Blaze Hill, Pike Rd, Bank Lane (aka the corkscrew), Jenkin Chapel, Pym Chair, Singletrack to Wingather Rocks, Taxal Edge, Kettleshulme, Moorside (now high peak school), Mudhurst lane, Bowstones, Sponds Hill, Bakestonedale road, Pott Shrigley, Poachers.
Conditions: Mild, Cloudy, Buggy, Damp trails
Notes:
Another night of previous weather – this time it clears well in advance, so El Pres posts a large route, which leads to some folk being suitably late enough to miss the ride 😉
Plan is modified almost immediately as the troll is a little behind schedule having parked up in Bolly.
He is finally located near Grimshaw lane, so the best way to Pym’s chair is straight up..Blaze Hill!
On the way we come across the mystery of the disappearing canal.
It’s a slog all the way up, but we are making good time. Onto bank lane and a close encounter with a buzzing buzzard, then big puddles. Corkscrew is damp but not silly, and big Hare hops across our path on the way to Jenkin Chapel.
More slog
Singletrack is damp and muddy in places, but excellent as ever. Cuckoo singing clearly at the top (it must be late summer!)
Climbers tackling wingather, we admire the view before heading down the field (wet grass making local rain in our faces!), slithery down and up through the woods. Taxal edge moist but again running well.
No rest for the wicked, drop into Kettleshulme, and through the lanes over the river and up again for more slog.
Off road at the smart cottages, push up after the gate past the gently rusting nissan cabstar, then spinning past watchful flocks to the moorside, and tired legs desperate to get to the top of the “always longer than it should be” mudhurst lane.
Up and downs across the tops, and top gear challenge sees us split into three…El Pres on the diagonal to the layby, while the rest head higher over the fence and along the wall, where at the corner Butty and Mr I head over into Bagers Creek, whilst Stunt and Coley do the quarry descent.
Quarry wins, and it’s been an impressive pace all evening as poachers is reached at 9:10pm after 2,700 ft of climbing.
The first pints don’t touch the sides, and food is eagerly anticipated. Slim arrives for his gammon steak, with Dunc and Nic not long after. Then EL PUD spotted on TNR shocker! fresh from that there Landan Taan, and now drinking white wine, he simulaneously manages to drive thought provoking conundrums, and lower the tone severely at the same time.
Conversation turns rowdy, and the night gets late. Axis of evil is narrowly avoided.
A proper TNR 🙂