Wet As An Otter's Pocket

Basil's Big Peaks Bash.

Ride Date: 29/11/2015

Distance: 17 MIles

Climbing: 3000ft

Route: Mam Tor > The Beast > Potato Alley > Hagg farm > Roman Road

Riders : Jake, Matt, Deley, Basil & David


It had been in the planning for some time, Basil's good wife was off on a jolly so he was going to make the most of it, a Peaks epic was chosen, based on the routes Myself & Matt had ridden during the drier months.
The weather forecast was grim, gale force winds and heavy rain, but mountain bikers are not put off easily, although a couple of slackers jibbed out.

We met at 8am in the car park in Hope, true to the forecast it was unpleasant to say the least, Basil had even been out and invested in some rather fetching waterproof "Camo" trousers in anticipation of the predicted tsunami. We set off towards Castleton and remarkably the rain abated and by the time we had stopped for a puncture repair on Mam Tor's broken road it had all but stopped leaving us with just the wind and this is how it remained for the rest of the ride apart from a few mini showers.
As we left the broken road and climbed out onto Winnats we felt the full force of the wind, luckily as we switched back onto the Edale road it was behind us and pushed us up and over. The descent of Mam Tor's North face was epic as usual, Deley was on Gate Detail this time as watched us blast through onto the rough stuff, we all grouped at the bottom and started the push back up to hollins Cross.

Braving the weather at Hollins Cross

A quick drink and photo to send to Carro (one of the lightweights who failed to make it!) and it was back off down the next descent into Edale, this proved a lot sketchier than the last one especially with the wind behind us, but everyone was grinning at the bottom. There were plenty of thrills and spills on Mam Tor, with everyone but Deley going "rubber up" at some point or another!
We left Edale again with the wind behind us and climbed up to Hope Cross via Jagger's Clough. At the top of Hope Cross we bumped into a good size group who were also out braving the weather, they opted for Potato Alley so we went with The Beast, we planned to sprag of to the left part way down, but completely missed it, I was too busy following the babbling stream down to the bottom to notice!
We regrouped at the bottom to discuss the next plan, the tough choice of pushing up the beast, or pushing up Hagg Farm, we chose the former and followed it up with Potato Alley, then with another puncture stop and the climb up to Lockerbrook Heights. Another decision point, with the weather taking it's toll, we decided to do Hagg Farm & then push back up The Beast again to Hope Cross, then finish with the Roman Road back into Hope. Hagg Farm was great, fairly dry, the Roman road was a sodden, it as fantastic through blasting through the big puddles back down into Hope.

A good ride despite the conditions, the weather, especially the wind made it very difficult, so we didn't get as much milage done as we had planed, we'll have to do it in the summer next year.

The normally calmer stream at the bottom of Jagger's Clogh

That just left time to warm up in the Old Hall Hotel with a nice pint.

Autumn Ashover

Autumn Ashover loop, deep in Derbyshire.

Ride Date: 18/10/2015

Distance: 16 MIles

Climbing: 2000ft

Route: Ashover > Kelstedge > Ashover

Riders : Jake, Matt & Deley


Ashover is one of those rides often called a mountain bike classic, but the most well known loop is only 7 miles, so is usually seen as a bit short to make a day of. Seeing as most of the trails can be ridden in both directions we knew there must be options for extending it. After an exploratory ride back in spring as part of a much larger loop we came up with this variation.

We met for the last 8am start of the year at the useful & free to park Ashover Village Hall, the morning was slightly damp, but not raining as we rolled down the road before dropping onto the stepped bridleway at the back of the Poets pub, this was followed by a ride/push up to the crossroad of trails at the top. This was the start of the first proper descent, along the edge of Cockerspring woods, it's fast and twisty made more interesting with all the loose rocks being well hidden under a layer of fallen leaves. As we hit the road still rolling, we sweep round and back up a steady farm track climb back to the top and this time head along Coffin Lane, mostly rideable except for the quarry section in the middle and then out onto the road at the top. As we are now much higher up it's a fair bit foggy & the few lights we have are put on just in case. There's a steady spin on tarmac now for a short distance as we head to Vernon Farm, we briefly lost Matt as he over shot the start of the trail, but were soon back on track. Vernon farm is very similar to the last descent, but the first half is a lot narrower, with steep sides and some step downs added to the mix. It's around a mile long, so always good value, it ends at a nice stream, before a little climb up to Kelstedge.

The stream crossing at the bottom of the Vernon Farm descent

There is then a short link up bridleway back to Ashover, from here we did some on the fly tweaks to the route and decided to roll back into Ashover, past the start and The Poets pub, this time dropping down and along the edge of the river, which brought us out neatly part way up the farm track climb from the first descent. Once back at the top we chose another trail, this time heading North West along singletrack and out via various types of farm track & road onto Slack Hill, luckily for us we only had a very short climb to the top & then followed the road back to the top of Coffin Lane. This is another mile of uninterrupted descent, things got a bit sketchy on the flagstones at the end due to the speed you can get up to!
As we had some time left before the pub opened, we decided to do the Cockerspring Wood descent again, this time though, there was a fallen tree blocking the path, weird as there was no wind and it was a sizable tree, after dragging ourselves & the bikes through it we hit the descent for a second time & then back up the farm track, where we passed a dog that was almost as big as the cows in the field, a Newfoundland, I forget the exact stats but it something like 2 years old & weighed 11 stones, also it's bark shook the ground!.
That just left the drop back down into Ashover, rockier & rootier than the previous trails
with a split in the middle where you have to choice of steps or rocks.

Turned out to be a very good loop, the trails were bone dry, the descents were excellent, not much in the way of horrible climbs. it'll certainly be on next years calendar.

And we were still a bit early for the pub! Luckily the landlady of the Mucky Duck was very obliging and let us in & served us early (she had previously kept the pub open for us to have a late meal after a long ride in spring). There had been no plan for food, but Deley was peckish, so you've got to join in havent' you? The burger was ace, Deley's Ham, egg & Chips looked pretty nice too!

Above The Clouds

A Linacre Re-mix due to the Chesterfield marathon.

Ride Date: 20/09/2015

Distance: 25 miles

Climbing: 2900ft

Route: Baslow>Curbar>Sheepskulls>Cartledge>Shillito

Riders : Jake, Matt, Deley, Howard, Basil & Liam


This was planned to be a ride based on last years Linacre loop, However due to Chesterfield Marathon we had to make a last minute change & moved the start to Baslow. Everyone got the new plan, with one exception, however this time he got the start time right, but failed to remember Chesterfield was on lockdown.
Anyway, on with the ride. This one as is generally the case, started with a brisk warm up climb, this time we left a very foggy Baslow and climbed for 2 miles up onto Baslow Edge, there was a minor pause half way up for a bit of tweakage on Deley's brakes, many hands made light work and we were soon off again. as we reached the top of the climb we were met with the most stunning temperature inversion across the valley and fantastic blue skies above us.

The view over Baslow

After lots of photo taking we set off again along Curbar edge where the views got even better, the riding itself was superb with the trail along the edge being bone dry and fast, plenty of grins by the time we got to the road at Froggatt. A short amount of tarmac then a swing of to the left and the not unpleasant climb up past the hunting lodge and them onto the bridleway over Totley Moor, we did take a slight wrong turn and missed out the walled descent, however we still managed a quick blast on Sheep Skulls. We then hit the nice fast, Horsleygate Lane bridleway  bridleway, before the excellent & famous Cartledge descent, it was superb as usual. A short link up BW took us out on to the road at Barlow.

Deley enjoying the views from Curbar Edge

Coming out of Barlow, we dropped onto another BW, this time one that had unfortunately been sanitised by the fun police at Derbyshire County Council since last time Matt had ridden it. This led us to a gruelling off road climb up to the main road & at 18 miles in a few were starting to flag a bit. time for a quick drink and energy boost, then off again heading back towards Baslow Edge via Shillito Woods (Moist), I think a few had some "incidents" along the edge of the woods, but details are sketchy.

The rest of the ride was incident free as we made our way along baslow Edge, negotiating a healthy group of large Highland Cattle. This just left a descent at speed back down into Baslow.

Another view of the inversion from curbar

A good ride all in despite the last minute change, I probably preferred it to the previous ride from Linacre & well ridden by everyone, being 25 miles it was a fair bit longer than our usual Sunday rides.

Not Howard's Day

Summer in the Amber Valley.

Ride Date: 23/08/2015

Distance: 21.6 miles

Climbing: 2700ft

Route: Shining Cliff > Black Rocks > Crich Chase

Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Paddy, Tony, Howard & Liam


First ride after the summer break, with a few missing due to holidays & Paddy's first outing on an Ambergate ride.

All the usual for the most part, starting with the nice warm up climb through the woods to the first section of trail, Tony was the first casualty with an OTB about halfway down this section where the rock step is, the short following climb up into Shining Cliff was start of things to come, with myself & Howard having some drive train issues, mine turned out to be a bent tooth on the small chain ring.
The ride along the top was good fun and the descent down "Millstone" to the fire road was nice and dry, more trouble for Howard's gears & he also ripped the hose out of his Reverb actuator. I must add that up to this point we had assumed that Carro had overlay/forgotten/couldn't be arsed (delete as applicable) but a missed call from him showed he had the time wrong and was at the Hurt Arms, luckily for him it was the best place to happen, a few quick directions and a short ride down the fire road had him joining up with us for the rest of the ride. By now it was getting warm and humid as we climbed back up to the top of the wood and over the fields towards Black rocks. Howard was having even more gear trouble and finding it difficult to go on so left us and headed back by road & canal. 

Time out on the way to Black Rocks

Black Rocks was  bone dry and running well, Matt had a rare off at some point on the way down to the first gate. The rest was incident free as we dropped down onto Intake Lane, also this time we added in the new section of trail I had spotted on the way to the Gully on a previous ride, safe to say it went down well, the trail pixies have done a great job & although a work in progress it's very ridable and great fun. Some whispers suggest it will be extended when time allows. Down on the canal some discussions were made as to the route, due to some time constraints & a bit of tiredness we opted to skip Riber and head back, with Myself, Matt & Carro opting to do Crich Chase. We lost Carro at some point on the way down to the campsite, half my fault for saying keep left & half is fault for taking it too literally! Some shouting eventually drew him towards us & we were back on track down to the canal.

A converted roadie??

Everyone else had buggered off by the time we got to the pub, a nice cold pint of 1664 in the sun finished the ride off nicely.

Dark Peak Double

Two Mid-Week Dark peak Epics.

Ride Date: 23/06/2015 & 21/07/2015

Distance: 27 miles each

Climbing: 4000ft (ride 1) 4500ft (ride 2)

Route: Hope > Mam Tor > Hope Cross > Derwent Edge

Riders : Jake & Matt Plus Mick for ride 2


Ride 1 started just outside Hope and began with a steady warm up along the road through Castleton and up the broken road of Mam Tor, then a bit more road before taking the north descent down towards Edale, then a mix of riding and pushing back up to Hollin's Cross, before descending back down another great trail to Edale and the not unpleasant offroad climb & short drop to Jagger's Clough. Next up is the short but killer climb to Hope Cross & a decision point, we opted for "The Beast". Now I'd only ever come up The Beast as a short cut, so was more than chuffed to clear it clipped in & without dabbing, the only negative was a rock strike near the bottom that resulted in a fair whack on the shin from my pedal.
Next choice was a push up Hagg farm to Lockerbrook, with the sun starting to warm up this was a very tough climb. The reward, Lockerbrook was excellent as usual & almost dry on top. Time for a quick break at Fairholmes.

The usual excellent view from the broken road

For Ride 2, we were joined by Mick, the start of the route was the same as Ride 1 as far as Hope Cross, from here we chose Potato Alley, another superb descent, then over the snake and up via Rowlee Farm to Lockerbrook. Again the ride down Lockerbrook was a delight, probably my favourite in the area. Then we had a steady roll to Fairholmes for refreshment, the highlight of which was a malfunction of the "99" machine which gave me and Matt probably more Mr Whippy than we needed, still it cooled us down, but I felt a bit sick afterwards.
From here it was same again with the tortuous climb to derwent Edge, from where we decided to ride down the cheeky bit and on to Cutthroat without stopping, again it was bone dry. Once down on to the road we opted to climb up Hagg Side (where the flies were abundant) and do Hagg Farm, then push up The Beast to Hope Cross.

Taking a breather on the way up The Beast

Once at the top of Hope Cross, it was a case of pedal at full chat down the Roman Road in to Hope, well that was the plan, I had a game of chicken with a ram and Matt had a blowout, might have even been both tyres, memories are fuzzy after the sheep altercation.
That was all fixed with a pint in the Old Hall afterwards though.

Two cracking rides, i think if I was forced to chose then I may prefer ride 2 as Potato Alley is a faster ride than The Beast and climbing up Hagg Farm was a bitch, whereas Rowlee is all rideable, either way, we might have to squeeze another in before Christmas!

Cut & Dry

The Annual Summer Cut Gate Ride.

Ride Date: 12/07/2015

Distance: 21.8 miles

Climbing: 3000ft

Route: Ladybower > Cut Gate > Langsett

Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Deley, Scott & Phil


There was a bit of light drizzle in the air as we met on the banks of Ladybower for the high anticipated Cut Gate ride. Carro was slightly late, misjudging the travel time & Paddy had the runs, so couldn't make it.
This was the first outing of Deley's new beast a lovely long travel Lapierre Spicy.

We started off nice & steady down to Fairholmes and over the dam then along the banks of Upper Derwent Reservoir and up a shortcut. After some hiker biking and pushing to the top we checked the maps and found that we had taken a wrong turn and were heading away from cut gate, we retraced our steps, which ended up being a pretty good descent back to the road, although Scott came a cropper on the way down.
Back with plan "A" we headed round to Howden Reservoir and up the rock steps and switch backs of Cranberry Clough. Here we passed a very brave or crazy woman who was attempting cut gate on a touring bike with big panniers & wearing flip flops (her, not the bike). Phil being the gentleman that he is, gave her a lift up with her luggage. At the top of this section, as it turns into the grassy bit before the slabs we took a minute in the now baking heat of the sun, Dave & Scott also took this opportunity to head back and left the 4 of us the carry on. 

The Classic Cut Gate Slabs

Refreshed and ready to go, we rode the slabs and pushed up the final section to the cairn. From here on the top "Lunar" section was wonderful & dry, with the exception of the perma-bog in the middle. Then came one of the 2 big rewards, the descent down to Langsett was superb tricky, rocky, fast, sketchy, everything you want and seemed even better than my first ride there. Everyone was grinning as we dropped through North America to Langsett.
Another rest point, we made the decision to flip back from here, rather than visit the cafe.
 

The Langsett End Of Cut Gate (North America)

Time to retrace our steps, the tough, but rewarding climb back to the plateau was made a bit tougher by the headwind, as before the going was good, so the riding was steady, until the perma-bog, rather than push my bike over some firmish ground as I did on the way out, I was "encouraged" by Matt and Phil to go for it over the marsh, well it worked for them I thought, so off I went, I think I was about half way across when I realised I might not be carrying enough speed & the bike stalled in the mud, that's Ok I thought, the ground feels firm under the thin layer of mud & water. I put down my right foot to steady myself & sunk up to my thigh. I had to be dragged out, after the laughing had died down a bit! Luckily there are plenty of streams up there to wash down.
As we came to the top of the drop down to Howden we paused to replenish energy ready for the descent ahead. I opted for the switchbacks rather than the steps this time and the ride down was ace as always.

That just left a steady ride back along the reservoirs followed by a refreshing pint of Farmer's Blonde in the Yorkshire Bridge Inn, we managed to find a nice table out in the sun too!

2D Ride Profile

3D Ride Profile

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/559410329/151189

East Is East

A tour of the Eastern Moors.

Ride Date: 14/06/2015

Distance: 19.5 miles

Climbing: 2400ft

Route: White Edge > Curbar Edge > Houndkirk Moor> Devil's Elbow 

Riders : Jake, Matt, Basil, Howard, Tony & Liam

Missing Deley & Scott due to 50th birthday celebrations, Happy Birthday Deley!!
Missing Carro due to general slackness (his own admission!).

Another 8am start, quite enjoying these early morning meetings, nice & quiet on the trails. We did have a slight delay due to the postcode being vague, but were soon underway with the warm up climb up past the hunting lodge and onto White Edge. it was a lot dryer than the previous visit here, still a few puddles about, but no real mud. Liam, despite being on his first Mountain bike ride, was taking to it like a duck to water, however fell foul on a rocky drop, sustaining a nasty hand injury that made riding difficult, but he carried on and we were at the Wellington Monument for the first break in good time.

Breaktime at The Wellington Monument

With energy levels back up, we set off along Curbar Edge, now a fully fledged Bridleway, so can be fully thrashed without fear of reprisals from the red sock brigade! It was on here that Howard became the second casualty, with a spectacular over the bars effort, he came away unscathed though and we carried on this superb trail all the way to the road. A short climb on tarmac took us back to the cars & the midpoint of the ride.
Here we bid farewell to Liam due to the hand injury, Howard due to fitness & Basil due to socialising. That left myself, Matt & Tony to sample the rest of what the moors had to offer.

Excellent Views From Curbar Edge, All Part Of The Experience!

First up was some steady Bridleway work out onto Totley Moor and climbing up to the Trig point, from here we rode an epic descent along side an old dry stone wall, it was fast, steep and littered with rocks and step downs, an excellent test. We dropped out on to a bridleway and on to Sheep Skulls, a downhill inspired trail, hand built and like a rollercoaster for bikes, great fun & well worth the push back up. A bit of leg work took us up Blacka Hill and onto Houndkirk Moor, it was starting to rain a bit and with the strong winds was quite grotty, fortunately it was short-lived though & we left the wide track on to some "cheeky" singletrack over the moor, weird sensations aplenty as despite it looking like you were going up hill, we were actually going at a fair old pace down hill, Tony had a minor off in the heather and we took some "advice" from a walker. A good twisty descent though and as we popped out on to the road we still had the best to come.
Devil's Elbow it's called, probably a fitting name, it's only half a mile long, but it feels a lot more, it's got the lot, roots, rocks, drops, off camber and it finishes off with a fast swoopy section, superb from top to bottom, Tony summed it up nicely by saying that from 90% of it he had no control over his bike. 

Pushing back up a tamer section of Devil's Elbow, Matt obviously still grinning from the descent!

At this point we were feeling tired especially after the excellent workout of Devil's Elbow so we opted to push back up and roll back along the road to the cars, not without taking a minor detour to do the climb to the hunting lodge in reverse, it was a fitting finish with a fast flowy descent back to the cars.

Just time for a nice pint of Hobgoblin Gold in the Grouse Inn

Another great ride, tweaked from it's previous incarnation, the second half adding some excellent trails to the loop along the edges.

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/542194779/151189

Wye Valley Special

A remix & tweak of the first ever Sunday ride, nice & dry.

Ride Date: 17/05/2015

Distance: 21.5 miles

Climbing: 2600ft

Route: Miller's Dale > Cheedale > Wormhill > Priestcliffe > Monsall

Riders : Jake & Matt

Loads missing for this one, reasons too numerous to mention, a production Saturday didn't help either.

We went for an 8am start, seeing as these nice light mornings are too good to miss, plus we can have the trails to ourselves, after a short wait for Carro, only to find he had overlay & wasn't going to make it we set off for a short 1km warm up on the Monsall trail followed by the stiff, rocky climb up to the hamlet of King Sterndale and across a couple of fields to the first short, but fun descent into Horseshoe Dale then the satisfying steady climb weaving around the rocks up to the road. A short section of tarmac took us through Chelmorton and the steep climb at the back of the church, along the undulating single track and the fast blast down the Pennine Bridleway to the A6, another short section of road and it was the steep, fast descent into Wye Dale as we had previously done on the first ride.

We took a quick break and headed up the switchbacks (scene of Basil's chain snap on a previous ride) through many sheep and up to the farm where the famous "Tractor Photo" was taken last time.A bit more road was followed by some trail & fields, this time bone dry and into Wormhill. Straight across the road and on to the good stuff, starting off with single track between dry stone walls, then switching to tree lined, then on to rocky craziness, we were only stopped by a gate and a puncture on Matt's rear wheel. 

Unusually for me, I didn't take any photos, so here's one of the descent from Wormhill robbed from MBR magazine

Not even stopping for a breather we were of again, with the steep but short climb up the the solitary farm house at the start of the Limestone Way & and our route back down to Miller's Dale, another great and long descent, ruined a bit by the amount of gates. Again pushing on well at this point, we headed out of the valley and up a tough off road climb and following the farm tracks out to Priestcliffe, meeting some very courteous Quad riders & some not so courteous Motocross riders, not much of interest trail wise, but the views were nice and with a short stop for tyre pressure adjustments we soon hit Brushfield, from here you get a small up then it's all down, getting steeper & rockier as you drop onto the Monsall viaduct.
All that was left was a nice 2 mile warm down along Monsall Trail back to Miller's Dale.

After packing the bikes up, we had a steady walk to the Angler's Rest and Farmer's Blonde all round, well you can't turn it down can you?

Not a bad ride all in, helped with the dry conditions, it's a good example of what the White Peak offers, and apart from a very minor tweak we can make before the steep drop into Wye dale, it's probably the finished article and a ride we'll likely add each year.

 

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/524007866/151189

Ashover & Beeley Beast!

A Midweek Escape with Gale Force Wind & A Smidge Of Rain.

Ride Date: 06/05/2015

Distance: 31.5 miles

Climbing: 3400ft

Route: Ashover > Kelstedge > Holymoorside > Rowsley > Two Dales

Riders : Jake & Matt

This was all set to be a multi purpose ride, not only a midweek escape, but also a reccy of Ashover in anticipation of a revisit later in the year for a Sunday ride.

With a usual 8am start we headed out of Ashover and round the back of the Poet's pub, with a nice stepped drop down and over the river and a push up what would be a superb descent at the end of the ride, once at the top we took a right and had a superb blast down through Cockerspring woods, before climbing back up via a steady fire road to where we started. Then a bit more climbing through more woods and a quarry led us out onto the road. We then headed out towards the delightfully named Robriding & hit a superb descent down into Kelstedge.

Time for a break at the bottom of a cracking descent into Kelstedge

After a short rest we were off again, via a slight detour due to an error on my crib sheet, a few miles of road work and we were on another short, but sweet down through some woods, before popping out on the road and then on to a strangely satisfying climb up and over the fields to what would be the highest point of the ride. By now the wind was really picking up, made even worse by being so exposed out on the moor.
We soon had some respite though as we swung off the road and dropped down into the many woods above Rowsley, some lovely twisting, undulating singletrack took us on our journey through the woods, there were plenty of trails in the woods an there was much talk of finding a way of adding it in to a Chatsworth or Bakewell ride in the future. We should have taken a bridleway through more woods back to Beeley Moor at this point, but due to some logging operations by the Haddon Estate we had to detour, although this did give us a superb, albeit cheeky footpath blast down to Beeley village.
From here it was more road, this time a 2 mile stiff climb back up on to the top of the moor, the wind was now trying it's best to drive us off the road at this point, plus despite my timely statement that we had got away without any rain, it decided to rain! We dropped down in to Two Dales on what was in hindsight not that interesting a trail and then started to head back to Ashover.
Once back at the bridleway, we retraced our steps from earlier, with the excellent (in name & fun) Coffin lane descent, followed by the equally superb rocky, rooty drop back down to the river in Ashover leaving us just a short push up back into the village.
We just managed to sneak in to the Mucky Duck (Black Swan) for last orders, I can't remember what I ate, but it was more than welcome as I was famished, I do remember it was washed down with a pint of Sharp's Atlantic.

A bit of an epic ride all in, should have no trouble sorting a good route for Ashover later in the year plus also the promise we saw in the woods around Rowsley.

 

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/517001087/151189

The Whole Enchilada

The one with Dry Trails & All Four Descents.

Ride Date: 19/04/2015

Distance: 20 miles

Climbing: 3000ft

Route: Shining Cliff > Black Rocks > Riber > Crich Chase

Riders : Jake, Matt, Carro, Tony, Howard, Dan, Deley, Scott & Ricky


Notable absentees: Baz - Potato planting, L.i.am - Slacker! 

A springtime Ambergate ride was planned, initial interest was looking bleak with only a few confirmed but as the date rolled nearer more were showing an interest, so to hear two text message alerts on the ride down had me fearing the worst, however I shouldn't have worried as I could already see Dan, Howard, Matt & Tony in the car park, one text was from Carro saying he was on his way, the other, an even bigger surprise was from Scott asking us to wait for them. In the meantime Ricky drove up, all of a sudden we were heading for double figures, only one missing, newcomer L.i.am, he wasn't answering his phone, so we gave him 10 minutes and set off.

Standard fayre, the stiff opening climb up through Ambergate woods seemed to pass quite quickly on the cool fresh morning & regrouping at the top we set off on the first descent down to the fire road, i tried out a new GoPro angle, but a miscalculation in the positioning gave some interesting results. next it was up and along the ridge with Scott taking the first fall, I'm told it was quite spectacular. We dropped down from the ridge on to our favourite Millstone descent, which was dry and running superbly & regrouped again on the fire road. here we learned Ricky had an "incident" and his bike came off worst, snapping off a gear cable guide, luckily it was the front dérailleur, so some tweaking of limits got him going again.
On the climb up out of the woods we had a pause to try out some jumps and trails, then on with the climb up to Black Rocks.

The Crew Take A Breather At Black Rocks Trig Point

Black Rocks was it's usual great self, even the link up after the mid section was dry and ridable again, there was some fast riding on the way down from the trig point to the canal, Tony vocal in his praise of how his new bike was tackling the varied terrain. We dropped down to the canal (I will do the steps one day, honest) it was decision time, Deley & Scott opted to ride back along the canal, no shame there, especially as Scott had not been out since Linacre back in September. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else was eager to try Riber as it would be a new descent for all but myself, Dan & Carro. 
We paused towards the top of the road climb for Matt's customary jelly sweets, this time Jelly Babies, some comparisons were made between Carro & half ton heifers while the jellys worked their magic and we set of to the summit. I make no secret that I love the first section of the Riber descent, fast, rocky, great stuff, been too long away. Matt suffered a puncture on the way down and we stopped for repairs after the fork. It was here we learned that L.i.am had just risen, gone midday too! But was going to meet us at the Hurt Arms afterwards.
Next up was the tricky single track through the woods and onto Carro's Demise or Brown Trouser to everyone else, This was Carro's first time down since the broken collar bone back in August 2013 & I'm pleased to say we all made it down without injury, although Howard did take a small tumble near the bottom. We then hit Bow woods, as usual I think we ended up with a different route down to the road, there is also some suggestion that matt had an altercation with a tree, but I didn't see it myself!
A steady ride back along the canal led us to Whatstandwell and the final decision point.

Tony, Ricky & Howard took the canal back, all three had done extremely well nailing 3/4 of the ride and deserved the 2 mile glide back to the pub. The remaining four, Me, Matt Carro & Dan, unperturbed, headed to the climb to face the final prize of "Bishop's Pointy Finger" in Crich Chase, this is a great option, although just blasting down the centre trail is great, this route adds some steep terrain, dropping into the camp site, leaving the superb single track out, the jump through the gate & the excellent rocky gulley down to the canal, this being the only bit of wetness we encountered. The 100 yards of canal, back to the pub for a well earned pint. Great effort by everyone involved.

And that was it, all four done, superb ride, superb turn out, the weather smiled upon us too staying cool and dry....Perfect!

 

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/505760762/151189

Kinder Surprise

The one with Steep, Rocky, Snow, Ice & A Sheep Dog.

Ride Date: 03/03/2015

Distance: 13 miles

Route: Chapel Gate, Rushup Edge, Roych Clough, Coldwell Clough & Jacob's Ladder.

Weather: Temperature - 1°C, Wind - 20mph →, Humidity - 85%, Conditions - Sunny.

Riders : Jake & Matt


A nice mid week opportunity for a ride, with everyone else stuck at work Myself and Matt opted for the all weather kinder loop & met at Edale for an early 8am start. It was freezing cold, but the forecast was dry & sunny, so wrapped up well we headed out along the road towards the first climb of the day, up Chapel Gate, it's a tough climb that gets steeper before levelling out again over the top where we came to the first descent of the day, the famous Rushup Edge, it's a trail now embroiled in controversy as Derbyshire County Council have seen fit to attempt to resurface it without consultation with any of the parties that use it, but great work from Peak District MTB , Ride Sheffield & Keeper of the Peak has seen the work stopped for time being, with a view to having it returned to it's former state, or at the very least maintained in a correct manner. Anyway it was partly down to the aforementioned "repairs" that I had my only tumble of the day early on in the descent with my front wheel somehow getting locked into the apple size stones they have spread over the trail. The rest of the descent was still tough going with some very deep frozen snow which was stubbornly hanging about due to the sunken nature of the trail.

As we approached the road, we swung right and followed the trail around the hill and onto the day's second big down into Roych Clough, this was where the steepness started, with big steps, cobbles and rocks it had the lot, starting out technical and finishing fast through a stream it was great fun, this led onto the climb up Mount Famine, one of those climbs that is strangely satisfying, where you just plod away, picking your line and you are soon at the top.

The summit of Mount Famine

Time for a breather at the top, despite a biting wind, we were able to take shelter behind the steep banks of the trail, once refreshed we started the fast descent into Coldwell Clough, staring of shallow and icy, then becoming steeper as it dropped down through fields of cattle, giving us occasional drainage bars to skip over & the only splashes of mud we saw all day. This led us into the nemesis of the ride, the killer 2 mile climb to Edale Cross and the pot of gold that is Jacob's Ladder. The climb starts out badly with more of the classic Council resurfacing, it's steep and tough to ride on, it's even tough to walk on. Once past this section, it flattens slightly and goes back to the natural rocky retain, again it's tough, but it is ridable, it's a bit like the climb on Cut Gate out of Langsett, where you get that feeling of triumph as you clear a particularly tricky bit without dabbing. The final bit of the climb was perhaps the most difficult, with lots of sheet ice making grip with tyre or sole almost impossible.

On the way up to Edale Cross

The climb was worth it though as we were faced with Jacob's Ladder and the huge, long drop back to Edale. It starts out very, very steep, it's "I'm going over the bars" steep, not only that it throws in steps, rocks & snow, just to spice it up even more. It mellows very slightly in the middle, where we had a short pause as Matt had a blow out, it was then back on with it where the trail turns more to a rocky single track before a sharp left and even rockier between two stone walls down to the bottom. You now feel the descent in every muscle of your body, it's an exhilarating ride down, the views, if you can take your eyes off the trail for long enough, are stunning too!

This left a fast blast down farm tracks to the road, my turn for a puncture on this section, then a steady ride back on tarmac to Edale, where we were even treated to a pro sheepdog in action. 

Time for lunch, a trip to the Old Hall Hotel at Hope where I had some very nice Tibshelf sausages with mash, all washed down with a pint of Castle Rock Harvest Pale 

All in a superb winter route, almost no wet and superb trails & views, certainly one we'll do again.

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/479870807/151189

A Slice Of Bakewell, With Cold Custard

The one with Mud, Cold, Mini Eggs & The World's Most Excitable Lamb

Ride Date: 22/02/2014

Distance: 17 miles

Route: Bakewell > Pilsley > Chatsworth.

Weather: Temperature: 1°C, Wind - 23mph →, Humidity - 100%, Conditions - Cloudy.

Riders : Jake, Matt, Howard & Carro


Note - I've skipped the Cannock write up as it was the standard Dog & Monkey with no significant incidents, although it was good to see Ricky & Basil's brother David out with us for the first time!

On with the Bakewell ride, a strange ride, with some new bits, some familiar bits & some bits in reverse. We met as usual near the railway station and headed down hill swinging round on to a bridleway that climbed out behind the Thornbridge brewery over the fields towards the Monsall Trail, it was a good tricky climb up, with plenty of mud & then a skittery drop down on to the trail, broken up with a few gates. Once on the Monsall we headed West for a short distance and then left it following roads through Great Longstone & towards Hassop. Here we swung off through a farm with the obligatory axle deep dung and on to a very nice descent into the valley. A short climb up through the woods brought us out on an undulating trail meet the road at "13 Bends". Almost straight across the road was a fast bridleway with a stiff climb up to Pilsley where we paused for Matt's Mini Eggs and a breather.

Mini Egg break & Carro's puncture that never was!

We left Pilsley village opposite the Chatsworth farm shop and took a right towards Bakewell, this was the first long climb of the day, climbing steadily up to the start of one of our favourite descents, the Golf Course, I think we took a slightly different route this time, but it was still great fun slip, sliding all the way to the bottom before climbing back up via the road.
Next up was the road to Edensor, I've only ever done this as a climb, this time it was going to be all down though! It was fast & the winter ruts made it quite tricky in places & we soon emerged at Chatsworth.

We progressed via road to Calton Lees & started the long, but strangely satisfying climb out towards the farm. It was here pushing up the steep field, that we met the Lamb! it seemed very excited to see us and stood atop of a grassy knoll where it bleated as loud as it could at us as we struggled past. From here conditions played a big part with the woods being very hard going due to general winter bogginess, good for the skillz, but tough at the end of a ride. We ended up taking a slightly different route back by traversing the woods and coming out across the golf course and back to the cars.

Not too bad a ride all in, conditions were what are to be expected for the white peak in winter, so it goes without saying, that it would probably be better in summer.

We are back in the Dark Peak for the next couple of rides, a mid week escape involving Jacob's Ladder & then a Sunday visit to Derwent Edge, check back soon!

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/475606029/151189

Christmas Calver Winter Snow Special

The one with Snow, lots of snow.

Ride Date: 28/12/2014

Distance: 9 miles

Route: Calver > Eyam > Stoney.

Weather: Temperature: -1°C, Wind - 0mph →, Humidity - 100%, Conditions - Sunny.

Riders : Jake, Matt, Howard & Tony


Notable absentees, Deley - Skiing, Basil - Centre Parcs, Carro - Christmas Over Indulgence, All the rest - Slackers!

Due to some significant snowfall in the Midlands on Boxing Day, this ride was touch & go right up until the day before, but we decided to throw caution t the wind and ask the question of whether we were Mountain Bikers or flower arrangers, the answer was the former, good job too, as this turned out to be one of the most memorable rides ever!
We met, as usual at the Derwent Water Arms where many things were discussed including the journey in, Christmas pressies & look at all that snow. Despite the snow, it was a wonderfully crisp & sunny morning.

Road Block! A snowy Chatsworth park was a feature of the journey in.

This was also the day for Tony to present his new bike to us all, despite owning it from way back in October, this was his first chance to get out with us.

The standard Calver route was planned and we set off with the nice stiff warm up climb out of the village, we were almost at the top when Tony started to feel unwell & despite his best efforts, had to turn back, leaving just the 3 of us to continue. The rest of the climb to the top of Old Man's demise was fun & tricky with ice & snow, however the descent down Old Man's was altogether different, almost untouched snow of a good depth which added a nice twist to the speedy trail.

Matt heading into the blue on the snow covered Old Man's Demise

Rather than risk The Necker, we chose the usually fast bridleway down to the bottom of Black Harry, however due to the snow, again almost untouched, along with the hidden drifts it proved hilarious trying to keep speed and traction, blasting through axle deep snow, twisting & weaving our way down to the bottom.

Howard, on the bridleway down to Black Harry

It got a little less snowy from here on in, only because the route had seen a bit more traffic, but it still provided a challenge with the quarry, Riley's graves & Stoney being their usual excellent selves. Once down at the warm spring in Stoney we decided to head back rather than climb back up to Black Harry. A nice warm pub and some dinner to take away the chills were just what was needed, and there ended a fantastic ride, the snow certainly made a huge difference to what is a favourite ride, adding an extra layer of skill & I'm pleased to report there were no tumbles of any note.

The stunning view & blue skies over towards Calver from Riley's Graves

Only one regret from this ride, I wish I'd not forgotten to take the GoPro to record some footage, you'll have to make do with the pictures, hopefully I'll learn from it.

Check back soon (I'm on a roll now) for the story of February's Bakewell based ride which involved mud and a rather noisy lamb!

View the ride on Endomondo - http://app.endomondo.com/workouts/451631301/151189