words and photos by Pete
Crew: Butty, Pete, Troll & Coley
Weather: Cloudy, and a bit too “Rain now” by Rainow
Route: RB – War Memorial – Lidgetts Lane – Berristal Rd – Gritstone Trail – Robin Hood – OakenBank – The Vale
Absences roll call : (n.b. this is alleged information , not a moral judgement)
here are the absent regulars that I know about ….
Bern – Put his back out at the gym
El Pres – Recuperating from a collapsed lung
Alex – Visiting the Boston Tea Party
TJ – Navigating the Namibian desert
Nature Notes :
Owl screech in the darkness as we descend the end of Oakenbank to the Blaze hill road
Hovering Kestrel over the field at the end of Kerridge Hill as we climb Lidgetts (hence library photo above)
Notes :
Up until Thursday morning I thought it was just going to be Butty and me this week …but (preferably) two or even one is quorate in my book . But Mr M and the Cole-meister stepped forward to swell the ranks .
A moderate ride was requested but it ended up slipping into the slackerdom zone ….but sometimes that is good.
After Lidgetts and a half traverse of the back of Kerridge Hill , Butty led us up the Lamaload access road (Berristal Rd) for a short distance. The we had a push up through the woods (reminiscent of woods towards taxal just after Windgather Rocks) to get to the Gritstone Trail . A short but fun descent back to Tower Hill and then off towards Oakenbank .
Coley and I hung back to put on some waterproofs as it was now persisting it down . By the time we got level with the Robin Hood, it was getting dark and Butty and Troll were beckoning us in “for reconnaissance purposes” .
Mr Cole generously bought a round (Lancaster Bomber and Shipyard IPA) to celebrate his birthday .
It went fully slack after this point – straight down Oakenbank and down to the Vale via the cheeky route at the back of the Rec …..local knowledge 😉
The Vale was fairly packed , but fortunately we had reserved a table and the attentive bar staff evicted the squatters ….
Some excellent “Solar” at 4.2% and I forget the next one but they were both north of a £5 !!
And a small AOE if I recall correctly ….