Words by Alex, Pics by Pete
Crew: El Pres, Butty, Dunc, Mr I, Slim, Stunt
Pub: Nic
Route: BL, Buxton Road, Ecton Av snicket, Rainow Road, Double Track and wiggle, Lamaload Dam, Hoolihey Lane, Saltersford, Pym Chair, Wingather Rocks, Wood, Taxal Edge, Kettleshulme, Road to Robin Hood.
Conditions: Frozen, Clear, Breeze building later
Stats: 1 Off (Butty)
Notes:
The monday crew ride again! except for TJ who is in search of snow…
El Pres takes charge of route planning and declares Taxal…which seems ambitious.
Starting at BL we head for the Robin Hood to collect Mr I who has cunningly parked near the finish! this prompts the first chunterings from Butty (who has now ridden further than he needed to).
The snicket to Hurdfield proves that the ground has indeed refrozen after a brief thaw of the sunny patches earlier in the day, it also shows Dunc that leaving your tyre levers wedged on the outside of your under seat pack is not a good plan (one picked up, one lost forever).
It may be the monday ride, it may be the thought of the route to come, but already it’s a slog uphill to Rainow, and more Butty chunterings brings sharp rebuke from El Pres!
Any thoughts of route change are banished as excellent work by our leader negotiates food at 9:30 in the Hood, and its onwards on the “most direct” (but not necessarily easiest) route to Pym Chair…up the double track before Smith Lane.
Talk of a track to Smith lane and the top of the dam turn out to be just that – height is lost down to the treatment works and its a long long trudge up the Dam slope, with frosty grass being somehow sticky!
Back to Hoolihey lane and the first ice on the road…the gutters have been running with water during the day, and it’s now sheet ice in patches. Care is needed to Saltersford as occasionally the ice crosses the road!
No-one has the energy to curse the Pym’s Chair climb, but we are all very pleased to make the top. Views are crystal clear, a hint of could building give a moody moon, mars and venus out too.
Library Photo of the view to Windgather from Pym’s Chair in daylight
As soon as we are regrouped it’s off across the moor – frozen is fun! but watch for the odd icy patch (and frostly planks!) To add interest some of the wettest sections are still muddy, its fast mostly..which may account for Butty somehow managing to be caught out by the only tree there!?
A nip of winter warmth just before the rocks (well sub 5C rules apply!)
Sticky frosty grass is good down to the woods.
Digging deep we press on and push up to the start of Taxal (exchanging a bit of banter with a couple of riders higher up)
More rapid singletrack and much concentration needed (especially for the vehicle ruts right at the end!)
Amazingly we have 45 mins to get back to the pub, its something of a TNR ritual for a sub zero slog back from Kettleshulme in January, there is nothing for it but to grind it out. Tired bodies and minds are not amused by the head wind that appears towards the old Highwayman (just when it should have been getting easier with the slope!)
In on time, job done, Plum Porter or Burning Gold, and generous portions of food (made short work of). Biggus arrives to add further cheer and prove that the axis of ribaldry lies between him and Butty! Talk of the Jura, a wiki tour of notable macclesfield folk (including convicts, glamour models and cricket correspondents…but not Pete’s assertion about the guitarist from M people!)
Stunt’s suggestion for drone racing on a campfire night is poo pooed (but only on the condition we would need about 20 because we would crash them all instantly!) Maybe we should try something simpler (like ax throwing!)
All too soon it’s time to head out and enjoy the Oakenbank decent (well apart from El Pres who had a more direct route home) eventually we wait for Pete who we remember has no phone, and it’s a slow pootle home.
Stats will show it wasn’t quite a Munro night…2700ft and 21 miles, but by ‘eck some of them feet were tough ones!
Honorable mention for Pete for having already done this week: Monday ride, a 3 hr TJ Wednesday road ride, lots of dog walking, and not complaining once on the ride! (also giving the rest of us some recovery time at the regroups, of which he got very little!!)
Fingers crossed for more cold and clear nights (maybe even some snow?)