Crew: El Pres, Mr Inc, Stunt<\/p>\n
Pub: El Pud, Dunc, Nick<\/p>\n
Route: BL, New Road, Back Eddisbury, Zag, Walker Barn, Charity, Narina, Hardingland, Smithy, Witches cottage, Charity, Extension, Standing Stone, Nessit, White Rabbit descent, upper ressies, Five Clouds Bottle & Tap.<\/p>\n
Conditions: Light Rain to start, lots of surface water, clear later.<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/p>\n
An afternoon for the weather geeks to be obsessively watching the rain radar as a huge lump moved up the country, what seemed certain was that there would be some rain about at the start of the ride..how much a good question. Another good question was if there was a direct correlation between the forecast, and the number of stuck at work excuses that came thick and fast from mid afternoon…;-)<\/p>\n
For those who did ride, the treats started before it had begun with a spectacular orange sky topped by dark scudding clouds, like a huge fire with thick billowing smoke, with red leaves on the trees like leaping flames in the foreground.<\/p>\n
At BL radar again consulted as the first fine drops began to fall, go East it said, so we attempted to, lights on form the off (first dark ride of the season)..New road trees still in enough leaf to keep us dry as it got heavier. A short pause in a dry patch as a particularly heavy burst swept past, and a cunning plan to head further east by cutting back up back eddisbury. Not a bad route to avoid super steep sections, overtaken by 6 friendly riders on the bridleway as the rain once again came at us, eventually forcing jackets on.<\/p>\n
Heading up charity tarmac we overtake a few of their stragglers, and head up the offroad.<\/p>\n
Leap frogging with them all the way down a very wet and greasy chazza and into Narnia, where they cut left just before the bench.<\/p>\n
We having stopped to admire a wonderful red crescent moon low over the hills.<\/p>\n
We carry on and down to witches cottage, then Hardingland, passing a stripped to the waist fell runner (did we see him last week?).<\/p>\n
Lots of water in the streams and puddles everywhere, taking a bi of getting used to this mud stuff! Amphibians are loving it, plenty of frogs and toads on the road, we avoid them all, but some have already fallen foul of earlier traffic.<\/p>\n
We are doing well on time, and given the muddy conditions, realise that fire road ascent back up to charity and round the tops is the best route (legs and lungs silently weeping at the thought of the slog uphill).<\/p>\n
Just past the smithy we see the bareback runner heading downhill, pass the riders again regrouping at the fire road entrance, and head up into a now quiet forest. Conversation drops off as breathing gets more laboured, but the rain has stopped and there is less water on the trails. We are all glad to be back at charity again, pub choice is for novelty (after some quick googling closing time) and a TNR first for the Five Clouds in town near the library! we post and carry on.<\/p>\n
Heading up there are two deer jumping the lane across to the fields, stopping we see a stag with four more does, they decide to head back into the trees.<\/p>\n
Lots of loose big rocks down charity and the extension, but no dabs reported!<\/p>\n
More deer just after standing stone, and a purple silk lined tweed flat cap (slightly chewed) on the path…strange happenings??<\/p>\n
Pace is kept up to get us to Nessit, drop by Dan’s bench and then head downhill rapidly.<\/p>\n
Wet tired and muddy we arrive..to be greeted by El Pud already sampling the ales! The Thai next door it about to close early, but Mr Inc negotiates a take away we can eat at the bar, who have offered to let us bring the bikes through to the back! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
10 beers on tap, with some interesting fruity and sours, some Hells lager, and coffee stout in the mix.<\/p>\n
Half pints the game for mix and matchability, we rapidly descend into ribaldry and banter, and positively drop further with Duncky and Nick.<\/p>\n
Score 7 of 10 samples by closing time, with only one that was a “brave choice”.<\/p>\n
Axis of evil head to Puds for a whisky fuelled end to the evening, whilst the tythy boys beat a hasty retreat.<\/p>\n
Good venue! Ace night \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crew: El Pres, Mr Inc, Stunt Pub: El Pud, Dunc, Nick Route: BL, New Road, Back Eddisbury, Zag, Walker Barn, Charity, Narina, Hardingland, Smithy, Witches cottage, Charity, Extension, Standing Stone, Nessit, White Rabbit descent, upper ressies, Five Clouds Bottle & Tap. Conditions: Light Rain to start, lots of surface water, clear later. Notes: An afternoon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tnr-2018"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3874,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/android-finder.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}