37 miles offroad

I left the house later than I should have on Sunday to meet Simon and Dave for a “local” ride. Even though it’s a ride on the local hill I still had over 10 miles to ride to get to the meeting place at Peel Tower. The poor lads had been waiting for an hour! Oops.

We set off on familiar trails, Robin Hood’s Well (now a high speed descent rather than a technical slow-speed rock fest), Irwell Vale and over to Edenfield. At that point, it all got a bit mysterious. Even though I thought I knew the whole area, Simon was leading me to trails I never knew existed. Highlights included a mad trail through a disused quarry that reminded me in parts of the trail at Innerleithen – laugh-out-loud Big Dipper-style mounds of earth with a distinct trail linking them all together, the odd burnt out car here and there for a splash of colour. Ace. What’s more, the weather at the moment is fantastic – sunny but cold and no wind at all.

Simon was taking the photos, leaving me with no other option but to (try to) look cool….