I organised
a scenic forum ride which took place yesterday and I thought I'd do my ride report here to get it a wider audience. Maybe the report will encourage more of you to turn out on my rides in future? Only
@Littgull turned out to join me, which was a shame given how splendid the route is. Once again, he was kind enough to drive me out to Whalley where the ride started and finished.
The weather has been all over the place in recent weeks but we got lucky yesterday. It was still a bit windy but not so bad that it really affected the ride. It never created danger on the fast descents, and I don't remember any time where we were grovelling into a headwind. It did create a bit of a windchill but we had both dressed for it. The sun was actually shining off and on for the first half of the ride. It clouded over later, as forecast, but we didn't see any rain all day, which was nice! I had looked out of the window at 06:00 and it was pouring down then, and we got more rain here last night, but the ride itself was spared!
We set off from Whalley and had a nice easy warm up ride through Mitton, and then an easy drag up though Bashall Eaves to Cow Ark, where we took a right turn, and right again to join a lovely road that I first checked out last year when I did this route solo.
LittGull on road from Cow Ark, Three Peaks of Yorkshire Dales in the distance
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As you can see, there was not much traffic! We saw quite a few cyclists over the course of the day, but relatively few cars in most parts of the route.
We crossed the B6478 on its descent from Waddington Fell to Newton and continued for a more kms along our quiet lane before rejoining the B6478 as it comes up from Slaidburn.
We descended to Slaidburn and left it on the lovely road which eventually climbs the Cross o' Greet. I am definitely getting fitter! There are a couple of steepish sections on that climb which I found really hard when I was overweight. Yesterday, I didn't even have to use my smallest chainring to get up there.
We stopped at the summit to admire the views and take a few photos. We could see big hills in the distance straight ahead and I thought that they must be the Lakeland fells of Cumbria, confirmed by examination of my OS maps today.
Distant Lakeland fells from Cross o' Greet
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I told Brian that the descent to follow was a glorious one, but to watch out for wandering sheep and tight bends. I nearly crashed on that descent the first time that I did it - I had been too busy enjoying the scenery to watch where I was going!
The first part of our descent yesterday was down the road in the photo above, and then we turned left towards Lowgill. We turned left again, rather than following the more obvious road to the right signposted Wray, which was where we were going to have our cafe stop. Brian asked if we were going the right way. We were, because I have found a really interesting little lane which takes a more direct route to the village, albeit with some steep descending and climbing on the way as we have to drop down into the valley to cross the river Hindburn. This lane almost fizzles out to a dirt track, but not quite! As Brian commented, it was almost like riding up someone's driveway.
When I did the route last year I discovered that the local council had resurfaced a few kms of the lane with immaculate new tarmac, and without any of those horrible chippings embedded in it. It is absolutely fabulous to cycle down, but I still can't get my head round why they did it! We have busy roads all over the place up here which are in an awful state, and here was road surface perfection serving just a few farms! In fact, at Wray, that road is signposted as a
No Through Road. (Strictly, it
isn't, as we demonstrated, but I can see why they want to discourage motor traffic from using it.) We speculated that either a local councillor lives up there, or the EU had decided to throw a few hundred grand into rural road maintenance in that part of England!
Soon enough we emerged into Wray. It looks a nice little village, though all we really saw of it was what we could see from our stop at
Bridge House Farm Tearooms. There were already a few cyclists there ahead of us. Verdict on the tearooms ...? Excellent! It is a really nice place to stop, not the cheapest cafe in the world, but treat yourself - nice food and drink, lovely location, great farm buildings conversion, friendly staff. Tables outside for those sunny days, and plenty of room inside if the weather disappoints.
I fancied an ice cream after my scone and coffee. Brian wouldn't take any petrol money so I bought him an ice cream instead!
It was a very leisurely stop but even so, I was surprised to see that it was gone 15:00 when we finally got back on our bikes.
We rode back more briskly than we had done on our way out. On the 13 km section of road from Wray to Keasden we picked up a nice tailwind before turning right and beginning the climb to Bowland Knotts.
I got caught out by the climb in exactly the same way as last year! The road goes up and up and up, and then apparently reaches the summit. In fact, that point is only at an elevation of 305 metres. The road crests, flattens out for about a km, and then kicks back up towards the actual summit which is at an elevation of 422 metres.
We stopped up there for some more scenery-ogling and to take some more pictures.
Littgull at Bowland Knotts, with Pendle Hill 20 km to the south behind him
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I gave another warning about the following descent. It was probably not needed because Brian is a careful descender, but better safe than sorry, eh! Years ago my pal Bill got distracted by the scenery down there, veered off the road, got launched over his handlebars and headbutted a dry stone wall! Yesterday, I spotted the exact place that he did it. He was really lucky not to have maimed or killed himself. I'll Streetview it for you ...
HERE!
The road continues down through Gisburn Forest, crosses the causeway at Stocks Reservoir, and then climbs back up for a while before a nice long descent to the village of Holden, where we turned right and began the last leg of our ride, all but one hill now behind us.
As we proceeded along the road between Holden and Grindleton we increasingly picked up a headwind, but not enough to worry us. What was more worrying was the fact that road was surprisingly busy, and that a few of the drivers were MGPTC (Must Get Past The Cyclists) d*ckheads! You know the type - slow-moving traffic 50 yards ahead of the cyclists, oncoming traffic, drivers accelerate hard to get by, then veer in to avoid head on collisions, almost side-swiping the cyclists off the road, and then slam brakes on to avoid rear-ending the vehicle in front. The cyclists then catch up and are held up by the cars!
Once we had passed through Grindleton, most of the traffic went straight on towards Chatburn and Clitheroe. I made the mistake of going that way last year. This time we turned right and took the quiet route through West Bradford, Waddington and Bashall Town, before returning by the same road through Mitton that we had come out on in the morning.
I don't remember riding up the little hill from Whalley to the car park at Spring Wood, which probably confirms my improving fitness. I am usually grovelling by the time I get there at the end of my forum rides, and grovelling sticks in the mind!
We spotted something a bit disturbing in the car park - new
Pay and Display signs. That car park has always been free, so Brian was a bit concerned that he might have got a parking fine. It turns out that the machine is not connected up yet so we were ok. Just a warning though - remember to buy a ticket if you park there once the scheme comes into force! (Charges are (initially, at least!) only going to be £1 for the day, so nowt to worry about. Revenue to go towards maintenance costs for the visitor centre, car park, and grounds.)
I enjoyed my day out with Brian. It is just a pity that more of you couldn't make it!
Oh, my distance for the day including to and from lifts was 110 km (69 miles).
**** I am doing a 200 km forum ride in Cheshire on Sat, 27th June. The idea is that it will be 'audax-style'. If any of you have ever fancied doing a longer ride, this might be one for you. SEE
THIS THREAD.
