Ride Date: 03/07/2012
Riders : Jake, Tony, Carro & Dan.
Start point was at Tony's house in Long Eaton, after a short delay waiting for Carro after he had been "Deley-ed" we set off with a few spits of rain, along a nice stretch of canal all the way to the former Stanton ironworks, with a short pause to see where Tony used to work. We then took the road to Stanton by Dale and diverted with a steady climb over the fields to rejoin the road at "No Man's Lane" (watch out for slippy stiles, I speak from experience!). This lead us down into Dale Abbey and through to the main road. A short ride took us onto a bridleway and then we got a bit lost (My fault!), however some on the fly navigation through some very wet fields helped us back onto the right track and on to the Derby Road heading towards Stanley.
Taking a right onto "Dale road" before the Bridge Inn with the rain now persistent, we followed a bridleway past some barns and up a small climb before taking a left at Hagg farm now a nice fast, but muddy downhill stretch and through a nice stream and onto "Cat & Fiddle Lane"
We made our way by road back towards Stanley and took a right turn at the White hart pub onto Morley lane. We peeled off to the right at "The green bench" (remember that landmark!) and followed the trail all the way to Lime Lane, The rain was getting worse!
A bit of rush hour road riding took us to the entrance to Locko Park on the Oakwood side, we followed the tree line path through the park all the way back to the main road near Dale Abbey again, we followed the path straight over the road and up past a farm, and dropped down into Dale Abbey village near to the church, then a small climb up to Hermits Wood where we took a small breather and climbed the steps to look and the fabled "Hermits Cave" , Dan chose to ride the steps back down, as did Tony & Carro, but after seeing them both take a tumble I chose the wimp option of walking down, we then carried on along the trail and back to the road at Woodpecker Hill.
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| The Team Outside "The Hermits Cave" |
As time was drawing on and we were all soaked through we decided to take the fastest road back to Long Eaton, with the Dan obviously feeling left out at being the only one having not landed on his arse at some point that day, he proceeded to miscalculate a wheelie and add himself to the list.
So just under 25 miles all in, a good route that was great fun despite the rain, it would be good to try it in the dry though!
A snippet from the Bike Cam (a bit blurry in places, due to the youtube anti shake filter, it looked better without it)
See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/68597490
