Words by Alex, Photos by Pete & Butty , Video by Butty
Crew: TJ, Mr Inc, PTD, El Pres, Butty, Croxy, Slim, Stunt
Pub: Dunc
Route: Derbyshire Bridge Car Park, old road, RHS fork back to the first bridge over the Goyt, Tracks either side of the road, Street to the Shrine Car Park gate, new foresty singletracks to Errwood car park, repeat lower track, DB car park, Sutton hall
Conditions: Hot & dry
Notes:
We cheekily take advantage of both the dry weather, and the return of TJ to suggest a Derbyshire Bridge start.
Man points for El Pres and PTD who rode up, the rest of us RV @ BL for uplift with TJ & the Troll.
Thornton would be impressed as we are riding out within minutes of the planned meet time of 6:30. Anyone else in the car park would have been bemused at the comedy french musical wit of Bill Bailey blasting out from the Trollmobile 😉
The hills are looking distinctly Spanish in black, brown, yellow and occasional green.
Some carefully placed tree trunks in zig zag pattern on the side of the old road, has us wondering what they are there for…(keeping 4×4’s off the verges apparently)
The track back down is pretty technical….partially hidden by shoulder high bracken, concealing big loose rocks, concrete hard ruts and with the added fun of riding into the sun!
We all survive, but agree its best done either in the snow, or in a dry May when the vegetation is much lower. We bail out to the other side of the valley as a result, after watching raptors on the ridge..big kestrels?
Plenty of road bikes coming the other way, a few sailors have managed to get boats down to the water which is a long way below the bottom of the slipways!
Butty promises us new trails…just the small matter of “that” climb up the street. Lovely light through the trees doesn’t quite make up for the grind, although we are kept on our toes by bikes and cars coming out of the sun down towards us.
As we get to the gate, two cars worth of Nancies arrive having been uplifted from the bottom!
not sure if it was outrage or envy that was the main emotion 😉
We follow on over the dry grass path, before Butty takes us down twisty rocky, rooty trails through felled trees, then forest, then a short bit of fire road to a third section. Its tight, its bumpy, its brilliant!
So good we ride back to the top of the lower car park to do the last bit again 🙂
Time check = decision time, consensus is to head back to the vehicles and sit outside at Sutton Hall.
Stunt cheekily suggests riding back via Danebower & chumby…but gets no support.
Somehow arriving to folk standing round a gently steaming traction engine and 1940’s ford Pop parked by the edge of the beer garden seemly perfectly normal.
Hoegaarden and Happy Hoppy quench our thirst, and we upgrade from picnic table 2 to Terrace 4 just in time for the food to arrive.
Dunky actually deliberately injects the ribaldry this week, as we literally get to the bottom of things with toilet & prostate humour!!
No need to move inside this week, and its going to be strange to actually be inside a pub when it finally happens.