Ride 21 of 31

Fuelled by the constant stream of homemade cake that husband of mine seems to making I left the house at 8.30 to meet friend Carolyn at 9 for a morning whizz round the moors. A slight Autumnal nip in the air made me wish I'd worn a base layer but once I got going I wasn't too cold, I certainly can't have been as chilly as the man I rode past changing his pants in the middle of a field next to a tent. I got to our meeting place and we decided to ride up to the Pike (local hill top stone tower, see photo), from the top we discussed riding down the more scary bit off the front of the hill and then opted for the nicer roll off the back. A very wet track then took us over the moor to Lead Mines Clough. On the way we met a man on a road motorbike who must have taken a wrong turn somewhere and then bizarrely passed "catalogue man" in leather shoes, stay press slacks, smart shirt and jacket slung over his shoulder, what on earth he was doing on that wild, soggy, sheep poo strewn bit of Lancashire is anyone's guess. A few more bits of up and down and we were flying along a fast bit of bridleway by the reservoir when we encountered one of those "la-la land" groups of walkers who are 4 abreast across the whole path and although looking right towards us seem unable to actually see us, a squishing was narrowly avoided. Just after this I opted out of doing another climb feeling I need to save a bit of something in the legs for tomorrow and took the road home, first bend and coming towards me on the opposite side is a group of octogenarian roadies the front rider of which seemed to be wearing a tweed deer-stalker hat. I got back to the house full of tales of how busy it seemed in the hills this morning.


Vikki