A Change Of Plan

The one where, It was windy, muddy, Tony lost a shoe & Ballcross took several victims

Ride Date: 23/02/2014

Route: Bakewell>Haddon>Youlgrave>Birchover>Daley Dale>Chatsworth

Weather: Temperature - 9°C, Wind - 16mph ↑, Humidity - 78%, Conditions - Cloudy.

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

After a trip "down south" to Cannock a few weeks back & a first meeting with the legendary Bear, we were back in the peak district again. the original plan was to ride north from Bakewell towards Calver, but some on the fly decision making saw us ride most of the Rowsley Loop from the White Peak book.

Things started off steady enough with a warm up along the Monsall trail and then around the back of Haddon to the A6. Matt was on his new winter hard tail and was making a few tweaks along the way, we were also stung with a few punctures along this first section. It was during a puncture repair session our plans changed and we opted to head out towards Youlgrave.
It wasn't too bad a climb up the old bridleway, but once on the muddy fields at the top it became very hard going with heavy mud and a strong headwind. Once we made our way through it was time for the first tricky descent of the day, with a series of tricky, rocky switchbacks down to the River Lathkill, this gave Howard a chance to try out his new dropper seatpost. Not sure of many incidents, my descent went ok apart from drifting into a fence right at the end.

The River Lathkill, a scenic spot for some much needed refuelling

After a short rest we set off again, climbing up into Youlgrave village and down over the River Bradford and up and over the fields, which despite the recent rain was a lot less muddy than in August 2012. A bit of road work took us to Birchover, past the Druid's Inn and on to a long fast track all the way to Darley Dale. A slight error on my part took us the wrong direction and needing to either ride back up the hill we'd just ridden down, or take a cheeky footpath shortcut back to the road. "You'll be fine, there's only a couple of streams to cross" said some random bloke with a dog. It all started well with some nice twisty singletrack in and out of the trees, however it didn't last with several offs, bikes stuck in axle deep mud & at one point Tony losing a shoe to the bog monster (he managed to wrestle it back though). We needed Haribo & Worms after that to recover. 

In the muddy woods near Darley Dale

A short a ride took us back up to the A6, followed by a blast to Rowsley (I think the wind might have at last been with us at this point). It was here we decided on our next plan of action, which were either back to Bakewell by road or Chatsworth via road or offroad, culminating in the famous Ballcross descent. We opted for the middle route and followed the road to Chatsworth, then left through Edensor and up the rough track towards Bakewell, this proved, for many to be the killer climb at the end of a very tough ride, but we all made it up in one piece.
That just left the final descent through the woods, this did not disappoint, with all the usual roots, gulleys & rocks made all the more sketchy with a healthy dose of mud. There were plenty of incidents on the way down for most, with Tony's over the bars being the most spectacular.

"Have A Banana"  Tony takes on some energy

That was it, just over 20 miles of hard winter fun, which we finished off with a walk down into Bakewell for a well earned pint in the Queens Arms, unfortunately basil couldn't join us, but was very generous in contributing towards the beer fund!

3D View of the terrain

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/300009640/151189