Mud, Rain & Badgers

Ride Date: 08/01/2013

Riders : Jake, Ryan, Neil, Deley, Basil, Howard, Ady & Dan.

With several days of nice and dry weather with a few glimpses of sun, spirits were high as we walked to our cars from a hard day at work. We all set off on a short journey west down the A50 to Denstone for our first crack at a route in the Churnet valley. As we drove along in convoy the heavens opened, "just a quick shower" I reassured myself as it continued to rain all the way to the carpark and while we got ready.

We set off along the road and onto the disused railway line, which we expected to be like the High peak Trail, however we were greeted with loads of water and mud, not to worry though, we've had a lot worse over the last 12 months, so we set off and at good lick for about 4.5 miles just skirting a few metres away from Alton Towers.

The former railway track, in believe it or not, drier conditions

At the end of the track there is a tunnel which is sealed off, so we took a left and followed the road for a short distance and went down into Dimmingsdale & Threap woods where we rode around looking for some useful trails to ride, this was however proving difficult mainly due to the weather & that the place was new to us. Eventually we came back to the road and headed for the Youth Hostel on top of the hill where we found some ridable trails, albeit very "sketchy" with lots of wet rocks and roots, which lead to a very muddy track littered with branches and logs (presumably to aid vehicle grip), this proved to be a fun and fast downhill which provided a few thrills and spills and lead us, eventually back down on to the disused railway.

The railway was even wetter by now and darkness had set in, but we still maintained the pace we had in the other direction. Then without warning Ady stopped, did he need a quick piss or had he spotted something? It ended up being the latter as he had seen a creature in the undergrowth, we all stopped to look and saw a Badger!! 

A Badger - Yesterday  (not THE Badger though)

Without any prompting a few broke out into chants "Badger, Badger Badger!" to which the badger now only a few feet from us turned, shrugged and promptly buggered off!

So after that excitement wet set off back along the trail and into our cars, it's worth noting I don't think I have ever been that wet in my life! Still we are used to all this rain and mud now, and it didn't ruin a good burn out, which hopefully will set a foundation for discovering a bit more around there.

Bonus: For those who burst into song & for those who had no idea what it was all about:

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/117987340/151189