Words by Stunt, Photos by Butty & Pete
Crew: El Pres, Slim, Butty, 3 Sheds, Mr I, Stunt
BBQ: Doog, Croxy
Route: BL, Zig Zags, Walker Barn, Charity, Singletrack to Narnia, Charity Extension, Standing Stone, Ferriser downhill, Ressies, Leathers Smithy, Langley Reservoirs, Teggs Nose, Car Park
Conditions: Warm, cloudy, humid & buggy
Notes:
Buxtonweather.co.uk tells us that its currently 23 days without rain..another hot evening = more alfresco antics.
Doog delivers this weeks feast, with a Teggs nose car park picnic benches viewpoint location.
Riders assemble at BL & El Pres takes charge of route, the usual chatting and enjoying the scenery as we climb. Buzzard on dead tree off Back Eddisbury bridleway the first of lots of Raptor spots this evening.
Little car is attracting the flies parked in the entrance to charity, and we wonder if the rider fixing his bike a little higher up is 3 Sheds (who set off early to pace his knee). Eventually we ride by to discover it wasn’t, but do find him at the top, where the flies find us at the top of the singletrack.
Sweet brown pow dude! its sweeping and swooping trail down to Narnia (even if we are occasionally caught out by not having enough speed)
Extension is super skittish on loose rocks! Sparrowhawks and Kestrels are about on the way to standing stone and across.
Ferriser is equally fun..if you can override the “roots are bad” hardwiring 🙂
After the Ressies we have time for a cheeky half* a lager outside the smithy, looking an almost empty puddle while we get distracted by passing runners and ponder the best route up to Teggs (*may have been a pint)
Accepting that there is nothing for it, but to do a Teggs decent in reverse, we whizz down into Langley, go across the dam, and decide to go route 1 straight up.
Things we learned…the lower bit is suprisingly steep!..the upper bit is also steep!..hard dry ground is quite good for pushing up 🙂
At least at the top its a fast ride down to the car park, and into the picnic benches where Croxy and the Doog await.
Cans of craft lager & ale, plus old favorites are swiftly broken into (there is much thirst to be quenched), a veritable feast of chicken skewers, burgers in buns, extremely and amusingly long sausages are twice as long as the finger rolls! Baked potatoes, coleslaw, and plenty of Ketchup. Amazingly we devour almost all of it…when the masterpiece of still frozen Magnum’s are presented! We are in awe.
In between the munching and malarky, we play Kite or Buzzard (whichever he was he was keeping an eye on potential pickings!)
In shocking weather news, we report 6 drops of rain, and a temperature of less than 20 degrees! Coats are donned for warmth (the slight breeze being welcome to keep the bugs at bay).
We miss Dunky, but give lowering the tone a good go anyway! 🙂
The rain finally arrives on Butty on the way home (which for once he was very pleased with)
