drunkcyclist2

Words by Alex, Photos by Pete

Crew: El Pres, PTD, Mr Inc, Slim, TJ, Stunt

Route: BL, Zig Zags, Charity, Snicket into Narnia, Hardingland, reverse ressie to bottom of the white rabbit descent, LHS snicket, lower ressies, Sutton Hall

Conditions: Sub zero wind chill, frozen higher up.

Notes:

A welcome return of TJ, but Butty down with lurgy can’t take advantage of having his riding buddy back 🙁

Full winter gear required tonight, and PTD informs us that the wind is still bad higher up, so a forest route is required.

Prompt start to get out ahead of the impending school event finishing.

No complaints about the climb as it is generating warmth, and we head up under a low half moon and as we get away from the lights we can see Orion emerging in the eastern sky.

Ominous that ice is already forming in the big puddles on the Zig, and full on frost by Windyways.

The wind is stiff and bitter up to charity, then positively arctic! Sheet ice where there had been water = head into the trees for the down!

Singletrack is now muddy ruts, but still just about rideable, emerging onto the Narnia track we are a little more sheltered now.

Sub five rule invoked at the Narnia bench, with some Winters Gold to warm us from the inside (Well sorted, Alex !! )

Not the weather to hang about though, and soon we are carrying on down to Witches cottage where Slim and TJ fidget with tyre pressures then head for the reliably dry (and hence ice free) Hardingland.

The track past the farm is wet, showing how the temperature is quite height dependent!

Lights of other bikers clearly visible going along the top of Teggs.

Some debate at the Langley ressie steps about whether to seek the warmth of a hostelry early..but the President insists on a little forest loop to keep TNR standards up.

A nice little loop of reverse ressie up the steep slope to the bottom of the white rabbit descent, then down the slighly slippery rooty snicket to the bottom and a quick thrash back round past Bobs bench.

A Church house finish is explored, but even at 8:45 the kitchen is closed, so Sutton Hall it is (although we post too late for a “Goosed” Dunc)

Busy here too, although we get a table by the Christmas tree in the back room. Much debate as to whether Amber Necker or the Beartown is the best (they are both excellent). Out of Mash shocker = excuse for chips (or bizarrely Quiche!). Lacking our regular harbinger of ribaldry we get eclectic topics, and the Troll outdoes himself by quoting the line “When you look at the road death graphs of the 20th Century…” we do wonder if he inhabits a parallel universe!

Heroically we do manage to keep some cheeky bad taste into the banter,  and as those with things to do on a Friday morning depart the A of E settles in for yet another whisky (or two..which = three!)

words by Alex, Photos by Butty & Pete

Crew: El Pres, Slim, Butty, PTD, Stunt

Pub: Dunc, Nic

Route: Riverside CP, Bollin Valley, Chelford Road, Cottage Entrance, Rocks, The “lost” descent!, Swiss Hill, Wizards Well, Cottage exit, Artists lane woods (a.k.a. Windmill Wood), Owl, Artists lane off road climb, muddy cut through,Chelford Road, Legh Arms.

Conditions: Cool & Breezy.

Stats: Shubbery in mechs x 4

Notes:

Butty’s joshing about a Poynton start and finish reveals a lack of preparation for folk to say Yes! instead, given the high winds, we go Poynton friendly with an Alderley excursion.

This turns out not to be exciting enough for Trolls!?

Gathering at the bridge on Manchester Road, we are humbled by the vaping unicyclist who pulls some sweet moves to jump from pavement to road to pavement whilst getting big air!

He truly justified the blingy gold anodising 🙂

Our skillz levels in comparison were getting stuck in the first kissing gate (El Pres claims that it was because his giant is longer than his old five!!…Fnarr …Fnarr)

Our NOT RETIRED ops leader Slim, has pre ordered food, but the steak night offer temps some of our number to change their minds, and he pop’s in on the way past to update the kitchen.

El Pres finds muscle memory from all those commutes from his IBM @ AZ days and shoots off the front up Chelford road, whilst the rest take it easy and chat.

To mix up the AE format, Stunt wants to do the big downhill first, and claims he knows how to find the fabled rocky chute exit that has never been found without El Pud leading the way!

This is all the excuse Slim needs to fiddle with his precious pressures again!

The going is definitely easier without leaves on the trees..although leaves on the ground can hide all manner of evils! Confident route leadership is shown part way down the descent when a Right hand side navigation away from the path is signalled. Butty’s garmin appears to agree. Regrouping we find that we have “lost” Pete…both pairs claiming that he was with “you”!!

Apparently he followed a pair of lights which turned out to be walkers with big headlamps!!

A stiff push back up is needed to get to a suitable high point where we can be found! But it means we get to do the top part of the descent again 🙂

Groundhog day at the turning point…we set off and within a minute we have found the path..and it becomes what we remember! with the pedal catching rocky cleft at the start.

Its running well, and there is what appears to be a wall ride exit…but the speed needed is beyond what Butty and Paul can manage.

Swiss hill is ticked off and we head back to the edge where Butty points out his (disappointingly small) rock of doom to Paul! I swear the path gets narrower each year, concentration required!

We head back towards the road from the beacon, and end up where we want (but probably not by the route we thought we on..there is definitely a bermuda triangle effect in that part of the woods)

Time for the Artists lane down and up, which is just muddy enough to be challenging in the softest bits, then a reverse corner cut, and down the road to arrive bang on time for 9pm as promised.

We are honoured to be in the front room, and arrive to steaks with 2 bottles of red on the table.

It’s not a bad wine deal offering! Food is demolished rapidly, if we were being picky than we might suggest they were on the rarer side of what we ordered (but for£12:50 including half a bottle of red we weren’t!)

Troll trolls us with posts of dubious beer in Stoke (evidently more dangerous and exciting than being with us!!)

Wine leads to cheese, then more wine! Discussion on the best temperature to serve cheese leads to revelations on how some like their meat at room temperature!!

Dunc and Nic arrive on foot, with the tales of erratic navigation on the golf course, and the priceless quote “every fingerpost was a hole!”

The evening is definitely sliding towards an Axis with Presidential approval for Whisky.

One wobbly rider beat “runners” to Tythy…so it must just have been the wildlife being treated to the usual rendition of Dear Little Flo??

An excellent night.