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