Words and photo by Pete
Crew : Pete, El Pres & Dunc
Pub : Alex (who cycled there !) , Croxy (who did not..)
Conditions : Very very wet under wheel, 6c and in cloud in the forest , poor visibility
Route : Zag – Charity – Extension – Standing Stone – Nessit – Lower downhill course – Sutton Hall
Notes :
Last week we had a crew of ten, this week we were down to three . I think the weather had something to do with that…
But by the start of the ride it had stopped raining 🙂
Report title explanation : As we climbed the tarmac bit of Chazza , there were big chunks of frothy bubbles drifting down either side of the road …like what you used to get in a glass of Cresta in the 1970s.
Three riders on three classic bikes . The Holy Trinity :
Fully rigid (Genesis Fortitude 29er) , hard tail (Cotic Soul 26er ) , and full bounce (Giant 650b) .
Two steel , one ally, …..no carbon , no e-c**t, no titanium, no bamboo.
Charity was the wettest I have ever seen , like a river in full flow . Dunc stayed up off the rocky bits (after the physio’s suggestion he may have cartilage damage in his knee) , giving us temperature reports from the “flight deck” .
He has the helm of the Starship enterprise on his handlebars, but b*gger all suspension.
Up in the clag of charity Helmet lights were useless , but we were absorbed in that state of “flow” when you have to fully concentrate just to stay on the bike .
At the bottom of chazza we found a new feature : Forest Chapel Tarn , formerly known as the Church Car Park 🙂
After Standing Stone we had a weird experience of disorientation in the clag , with our lights just about picking up the track but nothing else the downy bits and uppy bits arrived without warning .
As we emerge at the Leathers , Chris finally notices the new Leathers pub signage (it must be a couple of month’s old at least) . After seeing nobody else in the forest – a rarity for a Thursday night – we encounter two “gravelleers” heading away from Leathers towards Nessit.
More water features encountered en route to the pub – the Langley water dip . Dunc had kindly stopped and illuminated it for me.
The Sutton Hall was warm , dry and welcoming – and we had vouchers to spend. Unfortunately they would only accept six (gone are the halcyon days of expiry dates being ignored) . Which gave us £12 off …gone are the days of £12 for a main course 🙁 , vouchers are only a discount now
Chicken and Chorizo pie all around , and once I had upgraded from mash to chunky chips they all wanted the same!
Buxton gatekeeper 4.1% £4.30 , a fine Porter ale for a Winters Evening ..very quaffable . A small AofE but I can’t remember which whisky it was ….
(Quote of the evening from Dunc : “Where is Buxton Brewery? “ )
This weeks learning points:
- Waterproof bottoms of some form are essential after a day of biblical rain
- A drybag useful for keeping dry base layer in a dry state for the pub (but a rucksack on its own is not)
- Short gortex socks + winter boots + three quarter length winter tights + waterproof shorts = wet feet