Covidly compliant echelons: El Pres, Slim, Bern Lee, Troll, ButtEE, Stunt
Route: RB, Clarke Lane, Beer Drop chez Slim, Snickets of Bollingtonia, Pott Shrigley, Bakenstonedale road, Gritstone Trail to Sponds, Dale Top, Beavers Creek, Pott Shrigley, Stypersons, Middlewood way, Slims firepit.
Conditions: Dry, cool, bitter wind up high.
Notes:
Big Bern declares TNR’s officially back (on a Thursday), route start at RB to assist the electrified Butty to meet us en route after an early 5:30 start.
Route choice decided by end point, and an early Ferriser assumption is abandoned in favour of a generous offer from Slim to test out his new fire pit post ride. This has the added advantage of being conveniently on route for dropping off the weighty post ride supplies early doors!
Views from his new place are impressive, and once he points out Dale top…the route is decided!
Lots of crow (rooks?) / Buzzard action as we climb up Bakestone dale road, and Pete gives us an ornithological lecture on Buzzard/Crow and Buzzard/Buzzard interactions!
Riding in the light does provide a lot more interest, and someone has gone to a lot of trouble to place big logs across the stream every 20m or so all the way from Pott Shrigley up to the moor! Flood management? habitat creation?
A few lambs lower down, but the ladies up high still holding on to this years new life (although presumably not for long)
Lee provides assistance to one Sheep with it’s head stuck in the wire fence – it looked so calm, at first we didn’t realise it was trapped!
The wind getting quite strong is fortunately giving us a nice assist uphill (NB Butty with his E-assist took the offroad route from the layby and beat us to the top..because you know, he could), but turning onto the Gritstone we start to head into it, and its zipping up time!
At Sponds we are in the teeth of it, and it is bracing!! We get great views in the clear air, although aroma wise we have an interesting complex mix of excrement from the huge area that has been muck spread (and indeed the tractor is still going in the distance). Not too much ammonia, and almost tobacco undertones, is there some coffee in the mix??
Down the grassy humps, the surface is slightly ridged from the tractor tyres giving a unique ride on a familiar feature.
Hard work into the wind, and a slow approach to Dale Top is Ewe friendly.
Suprisingly the singing gate is not on song, wind direction not right? We do see lots of Red deer just over the wall on Lyme moor, and then inspect the new deer proof fencing around a large plantation towards the quarry corner.
Some joshing of Butty who is getting error codes on the Eevil steed and having some power cutting out!
We choose to go over the fence at the Whales Molar and do Beaver Creek, – which is dry, fast and without any vegetation showing all its rocky glory!
Right turn at Pott Shigley, and more deer in the fields here before we head up to Stypersons. Various routes taken, and some crew take a while to find their way out (but no offs!)
A mechanical from Slim leads to another delay we we transit over the canal to the Middlewood, and the E-Bike needs three people to get it over the last gate!
Tis getting cold now, and eveyone votes for the firepit asap!