Another Little Day Off (again)

Tobes
5 days ago
3 min read

A healthy gaggle of riders joined us for the customarily "village" organisation of a stabby 75km ride in the early winter sunshine of the Forest of Bowland on an impromptu Monday off.

The Forest is always glorious but it just cuts differently when it's bathed in warm(ish) sunlight during the day - all until a savagely cold Northerly wind caught our last few kilometers. Here are some details of the route we rode and the photos we took of a beautiful ride:

An Apple a Day...

The Plan was pretty simple - meet at the very excellent Apple Store above Scorton for a 10am roll out - the forecast was chilly with a strong Northery wind, but mostly dry and for late November, blissfully frost free!

We gathered in the car park of the Caf (free parking!), a rag-tag group with plenty of faces new and old. Given the quiet largely traffic free lanes that we would be rolling through from the start, we set off together, with any natural splits signposted for later in the ride and organic in nature.

The first main challenge of the day was negotiating the ford at Park Brook and then some very fresh and perilous hedge cutting immediately afterwards. The puncture that followed was not the last on a day littered with lanes covered in thorns and bits from the seasonal trimmings. There must have been 5-6 punctures at least in the group - ending a run of several trouble free rides for the Cold Dark North "Day Off" series.

We battled up Cam Brow and along the Trough Road to the historic (but not current!) Yorkshire borders at the Trough of Bowland. There we regrouped for the descent into Dunsop Bridge.

That Stabby B*****d In the Middle...

From Dunsop Bridge we rode onto the steep lower slopes of Newton Fell - and pushed on by an almost inperceptible breeze at our backs - we toiled to the top for (arguably) the best views of the day. The treat after all that toil was the very long, very straight, bumpy and very fast descent of Waddington Fell. It didn't disappoint.

From Waddington we rode around the South side of Longridge Fell and up the back side of what locals know (and fear) as Jeffrey Hill. It was on this climb that our weary limbs really started to notice the barrelling, freezing cold Northerly wind. The last section of this ride was going to be a battle in the early afternoon.

Get us to the Caf! (and then get us Home!)

The descent of Jeffrey led us flowing into Chipping (via more hedge trimmings!) and the very excellent Chipping Farm Shop. A little red ambulance and an egg barm was like manna from heaven. What a fantastic stop this was!

As wonderful as the hospitality in the Farm Shop was, the inhospitable state of the lanes out of Chipping led to more punctures and cold roadside minutes sorting them out! But we were prepared and efficient in getting go again.

The last 10-15km were a struggle. Some of us were running on fumes by this stage and those Bowland stabs just keep on coming, right to the end of the route! But we made it back to the Apple Store in time for the 4pm closing and the warm fires in the conservatory.