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

A Frosty Start To The Year

Ride Date: 12/01/2014

Location: Duffield

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Basil & Tony

The first ride of the year gave us a very cold & frosty start at the church in Duffield, with everyone wrapped up warm, we set off up the steps onto the plateau between Duffield & Coxbench where we rode across crisp fields in bright winter sunshine just having to avoid some deep tractor ruts on the way to the first descent at the top of Coxbench Woods.

The frosty start at Duffield Church

We rode the trail down through the woods , (where Felly definitely did not fall off a few years back), all the way down to the tarmac and then set off exploring back in the woods along some new trails that ran perilously close to shear drops, this new trail takes you right down to the main road, and with a bit of fine tuning will become standard on this ride.
Then after a quick blast down the short bridleway to Derby Road we rode a nice and pleasant climb on singletrack and fire road all the way to the peak of Morley Woods. I have to admit I was hoping for something similar to Shining Cliff once at the top, but we found it to be proper downhill stuff with some fairly hefty jumps & drops, so after making our excuses to the lad's up there on their 200mm+ travel bikes we set off down the less aggro side of the trail and on to another new section, Castle Wood. A bit of a cheeky one this, but it was reasonable fun, with the mud and we were soon back down on Derby Road again.

Looking towards Coxbench over the frosty fields

The rest of the ride was the usual Belper circuit written about elsewhere in the blog, we did have to avoid the farmyard on Wyver Lane due to the standard winter axle deep cow shit. Longwalls lane was it's usual good self & we made a more direct diversion to The Chevin avoiding the big & frankly pointless climb to Hazlewood. 
Once on The Chevin it was very hard going on the climb to the top with plenty of mud and also Sunday Ramblers, or Satan's Spawn as Matt calls them. This ended up being a telling blow for some of us and myself and a few others must have just rolled down the other side and down into Milford, we briefly lost Tony for the ride back to the carpark, but found him already there and feeling very under the weather.
It had been a hard ride due to the conditions and also my slight underestimation of the distance with it coming in at nearly 20 miles! Might be worth trying again in the summer when the trails are dusty.

That left a visit to the Bridge Inn to warm up and have a well deserved pint.

3D View of the terrain

Below is a first edit of the video, this may get replaced with a different one once me & Tony have exchanged our versions. There is also a bonus out takes video!

View the ride on Endomondo - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/285407061/151189

A year of trails

Ride Date: 2013

Location: Lots

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Ryan, Tony, Basil, Dan, Simon, Carro, Neil, Pete, Howard, Damian, Alex, Mark, Ady, Dan's Mate & Rob

A review of 2013

January

The first ride of the year saw a new place and a trip West to Denstone for a Basil led ride, on cue the rain started as soon as we left work and just got worse & resulted in Mud, Neil moaning, destroyed brake pads & a badger! We said we'd be back in the summer but have not returned yet.
The end of the month saw another new place discovered by Basil, this time a fast trip down the A38 to Hopwas woods, again the weather was not on our side, but once in the woods we were sheltered, this was the ride that gave us Tony's first and most famous "tree hugging" episode & Ryan's sprained ankle. 

Ryan's Bike at Hopwas

February

This month gave us a trip to Dale Abbey, better weather but still a lot of mud about, so much so that some people wheels actually stopped turning on the climb towards Locko park.
Later in the month a small group went on a Sunday ride to Sherwood Pines and tried out the downhill area for the first time.

March

With the first signs of spring in the air Dan took us on a off-piste run around some of the natural side of Cannock Chase. There has been some suggestion we should make Cannock a longer day at least once and do combine the man made trails & the naturals in to an epic!

Carro's legendary "gear problems" flaring up again at cannock 

April

Winter was back with a vengeance, a planned Easter ride to the peaks had to be cancelled due to snow drifts. So after much deliberating we took the safe option of Sherwood Pines which saw a record turn out of 13 riders for a sub zero blast and half a dozen goes on the downhill section.
Later in the month saw the weather improve massively with the first dip into Black Rocks and as we were to later discover we had only skimmed the surface of Black Rocks and the riding available between Ambergate & Cromford, we followed this up in the same week with a good Ticknall ride on the Foremark side, where Tony yet again showed his love for trees & Basil kicked me off my bike.

May

In May we revisited Hopwas and suffered a ridiculous amount of punctures between us and Simon had an "incident" on the tricky bit by Tony's tree. Later the same week, myself and Carro explored further into Black Rocks & also tried "Brown Trouser" for the first time.

The Trig point at Black Rocks

June
June saw a record 5 rides, starting with a full run of Cannock Chase, followed by further tweaking of the Black Rocks loop, there was then another small outing to Sherwood pines for a few. Later that month we were back for another full circuit of Cannock where Mark took his first ride out with us and went a peculiar purple colour at the top of the "bastard climb" on follow the dog. A few days later we tried the Derby Loop for the first time, which turned out to be only the second wet ride of the whole year, and it was incredibly wet, Pete also joined us for this one.

July

This time we were back on the standard Black Rocks & Cannock Chase combo again, the Cannock ride being memorable for Si falling foul to some Northshore & myself face planting on a jump. Also very hot weather was upon us.

Cannock Chase

August

August only gave us two rides due to summer holidays, the first ride was the usual Black Rocks affair followed by an improved route up to Hearthstone Lane. From here things went a bit dramatic as Carro, according to witnesses, decided to take the "Brown Trouser" descent at "Full Chat" and proceeded to go arse over handlebars at the bottom of the first section. The rest has been talked over many times, but involved a makeshift sling, some swearing & an air ambulance. As I write he's still not back to full strength, but is well on the way. The second ride was back to Cannock for a standard full run, memorable mainly for the flying ants!

September

September was the start of a new era, some very unpopular shift changes put a stop to our usual weekly rides, so the monthly Sunday morning ride was born. The first ride of the new era took us to a new area heading west of Bakewell into the Wye Valley. A good ride with a good mix of terrain. The ride also sparked the regular after ride pub visit, something that has carried on since.

The Famous "Tractor Shot"

October

Another Sunday morning ride, this time making a first trip into Shining Cliff for a bit of an explore, followed by the standard Black Rocks. There was also an evening ride to Ticknall.


 November

Off to Cannock this time, a first time for Matt & Damian, likely more memorable for Damian due to the "Swamp" incident! It was also the debut of Tony's GoPro. No pub this time, instead it was bacon butties.

December

2 Sunday rides this time, at opposite ends of the month. First was a revisit to Ambergate, with a faster run through Shining Cliff & Black Rocks giving us time to investigate Crich Chase, which did not disappoint, and with many options available we may not have seen it's best yet.  This should also lead now to an "Ultimate" Ambergate ride involving all four descents in one ride! The second ride was a trip to Calver kindly lead by Matt, A bitterly cold but clear, sunny day saw several great descents followed by a very welcome lunch in the Derwent Water Arms, a perfect way to finish off 2013.

Glorious winter sun at Calver

2014

Lot's to look forward to in the new year, more good quality rides, talk of trips into Wales & North Yorkshire to try their Trail centers, certainly the Ultimate Ambergate ride, a Matt led ride around some of the famous sections around Ladybower, early talk of summer evening rides each month, plus many more new rides. Hopefully we'll see Carro back in action very soon!
Thankyou to everyone that has been involved in the rides during 2013!

A Calver Christmas

Ride Date: 28/12/2013

Location: Calver

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt & Howard

This ride took us back to Calver, the destination of the first ever post on this blog, for this years Christmas ride. Plenty of absentees this time including Dan due to headset trouble , Basil due to Center parcs, Ryan & Rob due to colds & Tony due to a bad back, some say down to his hard work with Santa over the last week! I also had some back trouble myself, but was OK for most of the ride, just struggled on the steeper climbs.

We set off through Calver village on a crisp sunny morning with Howard sliding off on some black ice at the first junction, good job he had his new knee pads on. Soon we were at the foot of the first big climb, it was just as difficult as I remember but it wasn't too bad especially with the good views lit up by the winter sun. After negotiating a few gates we were soon at the top and decided due to the small group we would make some "on the fly" route decisions and adapt as we went along. So we carried on past "Old Man's Demise" and headed for the quarry descent down into Eyam. The descent was nice and quick although it looks like the council have seen fit to resurface a good section of it, making it fast, but not technical. The last short section however, remains untouched and a good bit of fun.

Next up was a very pleasant climb on the roads up to Riley's Graves at Eyam, with a small break in the village center on the way. This led us to the start of the very good descent down through the woods to the road below, it didn't disappoint, throwing up rocks, ruts, roots & fallen trees. 

The View From The Bottom Of The Riley's Grave Descent

A short bit of tarmac led us next to the blast down to Stoney Middleton which was as good as I remember from last time, worthy point of note, if you ever find yourself at the bottom of this descent put your hand in the roman spring, lovely and warm flowing water especially in winter.

Next up was the steady 3 mile climb back up to Old Man's demise via Coombs Dale. Once at the top we hit Old Man's Demise, another excellent descent that is now a shadow of it's former self due to the council's over zealous resurfacing, it's still a good blast down, but with no real skill needed.
All that remained was to ride back down the first climb we had come up, despite a few interruptions from gates, this proved to be a decent end to the ride.

We finished off with a pint and a nice bit of dinner in the Derwent Water Arms, very nice chips and I'm told, by the other three, that the homemade pies were very nice too.

Dave with his well earned pint, albeit in a "ladies glass"!

Below is my first go at a video of the ride, feel free to add constructive criticism!  

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/280138459/151189

2D gradient profile

3D Gradient profile

The Chase

Ride Date: 01/12/2013

Location: Ambergate Woods, Black Rocks, Crich Chase

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Ryan, Tony & Rob

Back by popular demand & with the knowledge we gained from the last ride out this way, we left the Hurt Arms car park as a gang of six welcoming back Rob who had previously joined us for the sub-zero blast around Sherwood Pines back in April. Absentees this time included Basil & Dan due to "mechanicals" & Howard due to Santa duties!

We set off along the road in the early morning sunshine with plans to improve on the last time by getting in at least one more descent, either Hearthstone Lane, Crich Chase or both. We took the usual fire road climb up to jackass lane and into the top of the wood at good steady pace, where we met some other riders who were setting off to the woods behind us. The ride along the ridge saw the first fatality of the day with Rob succumbing to the rocks and roots that were incredibly well hidden under the autumn leaves & taking a blow to the ribs.
We all met up at the top of the first descent, which again proved tricky for some due to it's nature and took a bit of the flow out of the section, I do have a plan to slightly alter this first bit and make it more flowing as I know there are a couple of other trails leading down from the ridge and maybe also include the woods to the left of the final climb up to the ridge from the fire road, hopefully more on that the next time we ride here. 
The second half of Shining Cliff was the usual fast, fun & flowing section made all the more interesting as a lot of rocks had a nice green coat on them. That just left the fire road climb up to Alderwalsley, where some front runners went the wrong way (that'll teach you for riding off ahead!). 

The winter sun peering through the trees as we rode back up the fire road

Once on the tarmac we had the chance to enjoy the fantastic winter sun on the way up to Black Rocks where with a small stop for Matt to fix a puncture we took time for a quick drink and to take in the views over the area.

A quick puncture repair, just below Black Rocks

Black Rocks was it's usual fine self from top to bottom with nothing to report other than fast, dry trails and we were soon down at the canal side in what seemed to be record time.We made the decision here, seeing as Rob was starting to feel some discomfort due to his earlier fall, that we would miss out Hearthstone Lane & we would divert left at Whatstandwell and climb up to Crich Chase, while Rob would head back along the canal and have a well earned coffee back at the pub.

So Crich Chase it was then, almost brand new territory for us (except for a brief look by me earlier that week), based of some Strava investigation we were aiming for what seemed to be one of the most popular descents, strangely named "The Bishop's Pointy finger", rather than ride the path from the corner of the road down to the wood, we opted to ride just a bit nearer to the reservoir and down to a slightly too high stone wall where we wrestled the bikes over completely missing the stile only 25 yards away, we'll remember next time!
The ride down through the wood despite a couple of stop/starts and us apparently veering slightly from the planned route, ended up being really good with a very nice of tricky bits and faster sections, we will definitely  add this in as a must do part of the ride, I can't believe it's took us so long to get in there and try it!

That just left about 100 yards of canal where we met back up with Rob at the pub and enjoyed a pint in the glorious sunshine and mild temperatures, not too bad for December


Below is Tony's long awaited second movie of the ride, enjoy!

 

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/273628360/151189

Swamp Monster!

Ride Date: 17/11/2013

Location: Cannock Chase

Riders : Jake, Deley, Matt, Howard, Dan, Tony & Damian

Just a quick entry this time, we all met in The Birches Valley car park at 09:30, just missing Ryan due to a "session" on the pop the night before, but we had new member of the group Damian, who is a friend of Tony's & also had a brand spanking new bike to try out!

We set off along a small detour at the beginning of follow the dog as "Twist & Shout" was closed for some repairs to bed in, and started the proper riding at "The Stegosaurus" which has caught a few out in the past and this time it's first victim was Howard, who flipped out on the rocks. The second and more spectacular victim came very soon afterwards, with Damian misjudging the wet and slimy northshore and sliding, new bike and all into the swamp below, where it appeared to completely engulf him!
He was pulled out and gathered his bearings to be greeted with the standard "Swamp Monster", "What's That Smell?" & "Oh, So It Was You That Fell In Then?" jibes, which carried on at least a few sections into the Monkey trail, and some of it even from complete strangers!

After that the rest of the ride went fairly uneventful, the trail was in good condition with only a few slightly damp areas & before we knew it, we were back at the cafe for a well deserved bacon butty & a hot cuppa.

One other thing of note, it was Tony's first run out with his brand new GoPro, below is the directorial debut of our very own Spielberg. It loses a bit of quality as I had to downscale it to fit inside the 500mb limit of the free Vimeo account.

Enjoy!

PS. should you be a masochist, you can now put in your email address in the box at the top right of this page to find out the instant I upload a brand new and interesting post!

Having a minute after "Tom, Dick & harry"

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/269683995/151189

Dog Bites & Broken Nails

Ride Date: 20/10/2013

Location: Ambergate Woods & Black Rocks

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

The plan was a variation on the usual Black Rocks & Hearthstone Lane ride, with the introduction of some riding in Ambergate Woods. We met as always in the Hurt Arms car park at 9:00am with the weather still mild, but with some intermittent drizzly showers.

We crossed the river and started the climb up through the woods following the bridleway as we went and it wasn't long before everyone's waterproof had come off due to the humidity. After some stiff climbing we reached the tarmac of "Jackass lane" and progressed along this much easier undulating road before turning right back into the woods. One final burst of energy up past the car park saw us at the start of the trail along the ridge.
Despite the heavy rain of the previous week we only had to dodge a few puddles as we rode along a good bit of single track with plenty of rock, roots, ups & downs. 
As Ambergate woods is fairly new to all of us, I'd done a few rides in there recently to try and find the best trails to ride, soon we came to a point where I hoped we could link up to a nice descent I had ridden a few weeks ago. it started of very promising with a very steep section with drops, rocks & hairpins thrown in, with most of us being beaten by the terrain, with Alex even breaking a nail! Matt decided he was going to make it down in one if it was the last thing he did. See the video below for the story.

 

Once Matt had nailed it we found the descent I had I previously ridden and followed it's twists, turns and surprises all the way down to the fire road. When linked together these two sections will make a really good tricky descent, there are various grades of obstacle on the way down including jumps & drops, all avoidable if needs be. We then made our way back to the top of the wood, albeit via the wrong route (my fault), although I'll remember next time.

Who knew that Meerkats lived in Ambergate Woods?

Once out of the woods we followed a steady path over the fields & through Kennel Wood to Alderwalsley, somewhere along the way I lost a screw from one of my cleats, so that needed a bit of tweaking, then we rode a bit of tarmac climbing to Wirksworth Moor and up the path to Black Rocks.
From here it was the usual Black Rocks fun, spiced up a little after the recent rain, which seemed to make us all a fair bit faster, we had a minor stoppage half way through for a quick tube swap on Tony's rear end. Before we knew it we were flying down the "Chute" and popping out on the canal. From here we decided to head back as time was not on our side with the exploring in the woods & a couple of mechanicals. So we decided to leave Hearthstone Lane & Crich Chase for another time & finished with a blast back along the canal, with weaving in and out of the Sunday walkers & Matt getting "nipped" by a very lively (or frisky) Collie, we were soon arriving at the pub for a pint (which Howard very generously paid for), plus it was still warm enough to sit outside!

All in Ambergate Woods is a superb addition to what is already a very good ride at Black Rocks, add in Hearthstone Lane and you've got 3 belting descents & there's still Crich Chase & Thacker's Wood to explore!

See the full route here http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/260148572/151189