RSF Grinton trip Day3: Fremmington Edge & Healaugh

By Sunday our numbers were down. A couple of guys went off to do their own rides leaving seven of us to do this short loop. I'd originally planned that this day's ride would be shorter, but as these things go when you havent had chance to try a ride out... this turned out to be a full day's worth of cycling.

Heading out of Grinton, we rounded a corner at what looked like a back street to be confronted by a vertical wall of a lane. There was a tiny reprise before another steep section emerged that kept rising and turned from a smooth track, to a bumpy one, to a fully lumpy one. We stopped a couple of times to 'admire the view' and nodded hellos to mountain bikers who were also climbing up Fremmington Edge.

Nick pushing his bike is a rare sight

Amanda & Ged almost at the top

Ian showing off with his sensible gear ratio, suspension & tyres

Atop Marrick Moor the wind was still fierce as we climbed further albeit a more gradual incline. We met some land rovers who were off up the tops for motoring fun and also some scrambling motor cycles. But we carried on beyond the tracks and towards a grassy descent where it took a little while to figure out just where the bridleway was. Soon we were enjoying some smooth descent, but this soon turned in to a technical rocky downhill section. We all lined up awaiting our turn.
The cold winds had frozen my hands and I interspersed riding with pushing since my raynauldsy fingers made effective braking impossible. But everyone else fully enjoyed that descent.

Passing some beautiful landscape, we were soon at Langthwaite & the pub.

Those who ride with Simeon were well prepared with packed lunches. Alas the Red Lion was lacking much food choice, so a couple of us cycled up to CB Inn heading up towards the Tan Hill Rd. The view up Arkengarthdale was amazing and the sun was trying to break through.

We enjoyed a really nice lunch & this place lives up to it's reputation.  Amanda left the ride here to spend the afternoon with her husband and the rest of us enjoyed some more climbing up the other side of the valley along the side of the wonderfully named Cringley Hill.

This was a really fun bit of moorland followed by a fast descent to Nova Scotia, so fast that we managed to miss our intended turn off, but instead found a steep bit of tarmac to enjoy that brought us to Healaugh where we took the road and then the greenway along the riverside to find a perfect afternoon tea stop in the form of a beautiful view whilst flasks and rations were pulled from saddle bags.

The last section brought us back to river level & we negotiated tree roots on a very narrow path. We were back in Grinton in no time.
Ian, Nick, Eileen, Stephen & I went to the pub for halves and brews and it was mild enough to sit outside.  Ged headed back up to the hostel for his lift home with Dave. A lovely way to end a brilliant weekend of cycling.

The map for the route can be seen here.

I had thought I'd take the monday morning commute by car to rest my legs after three challenging days in the saddle, but I was greeted by such glorious weather that I couldnt resist a cycle commute and I havent had any days off the bike yet. And my legs are telling me about it!

It was lovely to meet up with riders that I see so rarely, but the usual suspects turning up was as always greatly appreciated - you know who you are ;-)  Thanks for your company & making the trip brilliant!
Special thanks to Gerald (in his mid-70s) who was the only person to complete the full three days with me & was great company. On Sunday morning at breakfast, he'd asked if I was feeling fit this morning, to which I replied 'of course', his reply 'I was worried about that'.

Planning and leading rides for a group of well seasoned cyclists can be a little bit of an intimidating experience. Our club certainly has some massive personalities and some very strong views are held & I think that the history of past rides & leaders can sometimes get in the way of new people trying out those shoes with confidence.   Since I didn't know this area at all where others did, I had been filled with trepidation at the start of each day, but by the end of each day I was buzzing with the success of the routes and the enjoyment that everyone seemed to have had.

RSF Grinton trip Day1: Richmond

Way back last October, following an audax from Richmond, I penned in a RSF cycling trip to Swaledale to explore the area a bit more. The danger of booking anything so far in advance of March is weather risky - this time last year we had plenty of snow and ice, thankfully the long weekend this time turned out weather wonderful.

The hostel had filled up pretty fast (with what turned out to be a school party, not of little ones exploring the outdoors, but six formers on a mathematics residential weekend!), so some of the group stopped elsewhere - inns, tea shops, tents & campers!

 
The Friday morning started out chilly, but bright as fifteen of us zoomed down the steep hill to join Route 71, which happily had been closed to motor traffic whilst some road repairs took place. The cracks in the road were minimal for a rough-stuff rider, but we had been duly warned to take care. The lack of traffic made a lovely carefree start to the ride and we enjoyed views across the River Swale valley as we sped along in the morning sunshine.


Our first bit of rough by How Hill was accompanied by the echos of gunfire from the military ranges and we popped out at the quaint hamlet of Downholme.

The gusty wind helped us up to the top of Downholme Moor. We admired the views from atop as Phil fettled with his bike.

After this was a lovely long descent all the way into Richmond. Initially straight with a nice gradual decline, you could really let yourself go without too much concentration. The last, steep down into Richmond opened up a smashing view of the castle as we rounded a sharp corner, alas being on road and going at speed with cars now a factor, nobody could stop safely to take a photo. (I'll remember that view for next time).

We lunched in sunny, blue skied Richmond. Sadly the ancient centre resembles a carpark whenever the market isn't on - the church and monument become the centre of essentially a big cobbled roundabout - I always think it's such a shame letting cars into this beautiful ancient town centre.

The climb towards Whitcliffe Scar through the woods was delightful; you're up above the town in no time and from this side of the valley the views are magical...

... And the woods are muddy!

At Marske we headed for the hills for an additional loop around the side of Skelton Moor, then back towards the river, although despite the path following the river course, it was far from flat as it climbed up to Marrick.


The evening sun was closing in and there was now a certain chill to the air as we waded our tyres through farm muck, which is where I picked up a massive thorn and pfffft, I had a puncture so close to the end of the ride (only the second of the day for the whole group). Stephen came to my rescue and we were heading back up the hill to the hostel in no time, which certainly warmed us up.

I believe le tour is venturing up that steep road - the tarmac seems far too smooth for regular car useage.
To say I'd not had time to head up here to try the routes out, this one turned out to be perfect.
A map and gpx can be viewed here

In the evening some new guests had arrived at base, so we spent a good few hours chatting over drinks in the hostel. 
Day 1 was a fantastic start to the trip!!

York hen party trip

This weekend I loaded my bike panniers up & set forth towards York to meet up with the hen party goers. Rather than trekking on the road, I'd planned to take the Leeds Liverpool Canal all the way to it's eastern end and then join some of the National Cycle Route.

I started on the familiar stretch of Route 68 that the RSF Family Friendly Group ride on a regular basis.  I had planned on doing the ride as a DIY 100k Audax, I set my gps to record.

Pendle Hill from Reedley Marina

I was making fantastic time and had reached Salterforth in an hour. This stretch was the easy part though. It's well surfaced until you reach East Marton.

A bumpy stretch of tow path slowed my progress significantly. With heavy panniers in tow, rutted ground made the rear of my bike a little unsteady and there were one or two hairy moments where I had to fight to stay out of the water. It made things interesting... pretty much all the way Bingley.

The pretty views kept my spirits up as I slogged on.

Looking at the ground, there were dozens of muddy tyre tracks all over the place, its very obvious that people want to cycle here & do cycle here, so why the local authorities in the area dont put some proper provision of a decent track down, goodness only knows. Improving the towpath quality would keep it in better condition for everyone to enjoy!

I was very pleased when some smoother surface was under my wheels again. Cycling on the canal when carrying a load means one thing; unrelenting peddling! Bingley's Five lock rise was pretty much the only bit of free-wheeling of the day. But I stopped to take a picture :-)
 

My progress was going guns again and I reached Shipley and onto Leeds without much effort.


I met a father & son who had cycled from Liverpool on the canal over the course of the week. I dont often see young teenagers touring, so it was refreshing to see this lad out & about with his dad. After chatting for a while, I sped off - I still had some miles to cover.

The ride towards Leeds had lovely open views before the cityscape appeared. In the bright sunshine, the modern high-rise buildings made the city look more American than British and the canal took me right into the heart of a newly developed area.

From here, I followed the Route 66 signs, which took me out of the city without fuss. One deprived area was a bit grim (probably more so because I was on my own in an unfamiliar place), but I quickly left that behind and found myself in the blubell lined woods leading to Temple Newsham, where I decided to have my lunch... at 3pm!

From here I'd planned to use various bridleways to take me to Tadcaster. I reached for my gps... it had glitched and was not recording my route. I was somewhat irritated that this meant I couldnt submit the ride as an Audax and I was making reasonable time on the route. Heyho.

I beetled round various interesting looking bridleways enjoying seeing what I could find now I didnt have a time limit to make.

fields of lovely smelling rape

I reached Saxton, where my b&b for the night was and called them up to check if I should turn left or right at the main road.
When I arrived, they were stoking a fire for me and I had a big pot of tea and a slice of cake waiting. It was certainly a warm welcome at the Old Presbytery b&b and I enjoyed relaxing in the chair listening to the clock tick and the fire crackle - after a day in the saddle, I could have fallen asleep there and then!
I wandered into the village for a pub tea and returning, the other guest had checked in for the night & we nattered for a few hours by the fire.

By morning, the rains had arrived, it was drizzling as I had breakfast, but by the time I was due to leave, it was torrential. I had a short ride into Church Fenton to get the train to York (I had planned on cycling, until I saw the forecast) & was sopping by the time I got on the train.

waiting to board

I dropped my bike off at the secure cycle parking and enjoyed a lovely weekend of hen-do festivities including a chocolate making workshop at the Cocoa House York followed by a lovely canal boat cruise with a bbq and dancing in the evening.  There was much singing, dancing & drinking!

River Ouze

 Thankfully we did not literally 'rock the boat'

York Minster

The train journey home

 I wasnt so rough that a ride home would have been tough, but I got the train home to enjoy the company and have a leisurely morning in York enjoying the sunshine and the spring flowers in the minster gardens.

More party fun when the wedding arrives. I might convince Stephen to cycle to the wedding - after all, it's not as far away as the hen do was!!

My legs are now feeling better prepared for the summer's 300+mile tour.  In fact, when I got off the train, I had a mile of uphill and even with a loaded bike and high heels, I managed to sail past a guy on a road bike (always a good feeling - tho I'm often overtaken by real speedsters).

And I'm now decided that I'll stick to organised Audax rides rather than faff around with technology that somehow always seems to let me down.

That was an awesome week of riding!

152 miles of unadulterated FUN miles in the last week.

Regrouping after Silsden

It started with two days in North Yorkshire starting from Skipton for the Rough Stuff Fellowship AGM rides. We had members from Newcastle, Scotland (George Berwick), the distant south, Wales and of course a strong presence from northern members. We got pretty lucky with the snow, finding roads that had been cleared and since the snowdrifts hadn't yet started the big melt, it was mainly ice free.

Bolton Abbey

Day 1 (gpx file) was a lovely road ride onto the moors above Silsden to take us to Ilkley for lunch before returning via Bolton Abbey & Embsay steam railway. Lots of lovely hills to enjoy and stunning views.
 

'Harold'

Old LMS tourism adverts

All kinds of bikes do Rough Stuff riding

Day 2 (gpx file) took us to Airton via some brilliant off road tracks skirting Flasby Fell through Cragg Wood and lots of swooping up & down N Yorkshire roads through pretty Bell Busk, Gargave, Broughton & Carleton in Craven by a very churned up disused railway.  Seeing the little lambs with plastic ponchos on to stave off the cold weather was by far the highlight.

Bridleways are my ideal riding terrain

It was lovely to meet new faces, see members I dont get to meet with too often and also enjoy the brilliant food that Rendevous Hotel had to offer.


On Wednesday I did my first ever Audax - a total of 70 miles from Marple across Cheshire round the dairy farms beyond Tatton.
I'd planned on swapping the tyres on my hybrid for skinnies, but the night before saw one or two technical mishaps and I ended up taking my 60s tenspeed. I had thought 15kmph was a generous lower speed limit... until half way through.

A slow lunch, paired with a steel steed with unfavourable gearing meant I ended up spending much of the time riding solo and that  really hit my time. I spent some of the ride keeping up with one or two packs of road clubs, but I couldnt keep up with them comfortably. When riding solo, navigating really slowed me down; stopping at every junction to double check my route and keeping eyes open for the controls.
At 50 miles I was sure I wouldnt make the time limit, I was totally disheartened, alone and wondering just why I was doing this. By 60 miles and the last stretch being the off-road option, I was beaming away, flying along the lovely Middlewood Way, listening to the birds and giving it all I had, not for the time limit, but for the elation of flying along.

The last hill was hard, but the last checkpoint, the pub was at the top, which spurred me on. I made it with a minute to spare!!!
A kind gentleman offered me a drink and we spent the next hour chatting about audax rides and routes - he started last year and it was useful listening to his stories and enthusiasm. I didnt catch his name, but do hope he can make some rides out with RSF soon as he sounded keen. 
I've put some more rides in my calendar - ones with slightly more generous lower speeds (just to be on the safe side). Still undecided if I should swap the hybrid tyres and go on that.

Yesterday S & I got the tandem out to have some easy fun with the RSF Family group.  Young Theo is now showing some good progress on his new bike and our youngest member was busy sleeping away on the back of his mum's bike despite it being off road!







Today I headed for the Calderdale Hills with 15 other RSF riders from the Yorks & N Peak S Pennine groups. Calderdale borders on those two areas as well as Lancs. The area overshadowed by Britain's highest motorway, the M62. It was lovely to be led around an area I'm not very familiar with.
It was also nice that there was no biting NE wind that has been the bane of many rides for what has felt like months.

The impressive dam at Baitings Reservoir

Typical northern moorland views

Sowerby Bridge

Wainhouse Tower

Thanks to all those who have organised the rides I've tagged along to this week & the good company along the way. It's been brilliant.