England : Lancashire ColinJ's 103 km or 107 mile 'Back from the Dead' forum ride Sat 29/03/14

[coffeejo]

Is that the Swan? @coffeejo

When I said "in" I meant "near"!

These were the ones that caught my eye originally:
http://www.thelordnelsonlangho.co.uk
http://www.theroseandcrownhotelclitheroe.com

 

[coffeejo]

More here.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

If you were thinking of using a barn, does that mean you've camping stuff? How about a bit of wild bivvying? Spring wood is very nicely kept.

 

[Biscuit]

If you were thinking of using a barn, does that mean you've camping stuff? How about a bit of wild bivvying? Spring wood is very nicely kept.

Camping barns on the YHA are converted barns.. like a standard YH but unmanned, so you just get a pin code for the door on the day your due to arrive. However I do have a bivvy bag and tarp, which I'm using at the beginning of March, ( down south). The bit in brackets answers your question I think :-)

 

[ColinJ]

View attachment 35899
Who's that handsome chap?

How can we tell - we can only see his wrist!

I'm thinking of the nearest YHA. Slaidburn is fairly near but is very remote.

Slaidburn is a lovely location. If you wanted to stop at the YH, you could catch the train to Whalley on Friday then cycle on our route to Dunsop Bridge. We go straight on to the Trough of Bowland, but if you turn right it is only about 7 km on that road to Slaidburn village. There is at least one pub there as well as the YH. In the morning you could ride out to Dunsop Bridge and wait for us to arrive, or ride back towards us and meet us coming towards you. When we get back to Whalley afterwards, you could catch your train home from there, or if you were having another night at Slaidburn, ride back to the YH by the same route you did on Friday evening?

It would be brilliant to come up and do this ride if only to meet some of the others like coffee jo. Have you a limit on numbers Colin?

I can't tell anybody not to come because they are public roads, and anyway I would never want to pick and choose who could and couldn't turn up, but ... I would worry about responsibility of looking after a HUGE turnout! Keeping track of everybody, lengthy queues at the cafe and so on. 25-30 would be great, 100+ would be scary!

At the moment, the numbers are looking manageable and I am already recruiting people with GPSs to help guide other riders. I'll post some GPX files later, and I might write a route sheet for people to print out and carry so everybody knows where they are going.

We will be going on some very narrow roads and we shouldn't annoy drivers by creating a slow-moving road block so I will probably suggest that we arrange ourselves into a few smaller groups with gaps in between for drivers to use to overtake us more safely. Most of those roads are not busy but every now and then we will encounter cars.

There is no point in everyone stopping every time somebody gets a puncture or needs a pee. As long as everybody in each particular group sticks together we should be fine. It would probably be better to arrive at the cafe over (say) a 20 minute period rather than everybody descending on them at the same time.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Dont forget to factor in a certain amount for last minute wastage wusstage

 

[Biscuit]

Slaidburn is a lovely location. If you wanted to stop at the YH, you could catch the train to Whalley on Friday then cycle on our route to Dunsop Bridge. We go straight on to the Trough of Bowland, but if you turn right it is only about 7 km on that road to Slaidburn village. There is at least one pub there as well as the YH. In the morning you could ride out to Dunsop Bridge and wait for us to arrive, or ride back towards us and meet us coming towards you. When we get back to Whalley afterwards, you could catch your train home from there, or if you were having another night at Slaidburn, ride back to the YH by the same route you did on Friday evening?[/quote

Thanks for that I'll take a closer look at the map tonight. I've stayed at Slaidburn before when MTBing round Gisburn Forest. The pub opposite the YH does great food too.

 

[ColinJ]

Dont forget to factor in a certain amount for last minute wastage wusstage

I know very well that at least 1/3 of riders will mysteriously come down with colds the night before if a deluge is forecast!

OTOH, I have had people turn up unannounced on my rides before now. One guy turned up just as we were riding out of the car park!

A sunny day might bring out a few non-committal people who would otherwise have a lie-in.

Speaking of wusstage and non-committal people ... are you up for it, Phil?

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I know very well that at least 1/3 of riders will mysteriously come down with colds the night before if a deluge is forecast!

OTOH, I have had people turn up unannounced on my rides before now. One guy turned up just as we were riding out of the car park!

A sunny day might bring out a few non-committal people who would otherwise have a lie-in.

Speaking of wusstage and non-committal people ... are you up for it, Phil?

I will see what the weather is like the day before, as a reminder this was taken last March/April time.

 

[tubbycyclist]

I'm thinking of the nearest YHA. Slaidburn is fairly near but is very remote. There are some camping barns such as this

http://www.yha.org.uk/barn/chipping-camping-barn

but it sleeps 15!! @ColinJ I'm guessing I might be better off finding something at Whalley? Waddya reckon?

Plus there's a train station at Whalley. Hmmm.

Another option for you - join the Hebden Bridge start instead - there is a YH 4 miles away at Mankinholes. It will be downhill from there in the morning to the start (see what I did there).

 

[ColinJ]

I will see what the weather is like the day before, as a reminder this was taken last March/April time.

I haven't forgotten! I think the ride might be postponed if that happens on the 29th March ...

I have been writing a routesheet. I have done the outward leg so you might as well have that now. Before anybody asks - I am not going to convert the distances to miles for you. If you want imperial, divide the numbers by 1.609 and round to 1 decimal place! It's not perfect, but if somehow you manage to lose everybody else, and everybody else loses you, it should allow you to find your way!

ColinJ forum ride 29/3/2014 routesheet, outward leg.

SO = straight on
TL = traffic lights
O = roundabout
X = crossroads
LHS = lefthand side
RHS = righthand side
L = left
R = right
BL = bear left
BR = bear right
sp = signposted

WHALLEY to GLASSON DOCK

Start Spring Wood picnic centre car park, A671, above Whalley
SO TL, descend hill
R at mini-O at 0.8 km
Cafes on LHS after ped crossing & before bus stop. WAIT THERE FOR HEBDEN BRIDGE GROUP!
L on B6246 at mini-O at 1.1 km
R at T at 5.4 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
BL at 6.5 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
SO at X at 7.9 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
SO at 9.4 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
SO at Bashall Eaves at 10.2 km
Continue gradual climb to Cow Ark at 13.6 km
BL and descend to Lees
R at T at 15.4 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
Stay on that road through Whitewell to Dunsop Bridge
SO at Dunsop Bridge at 22.3 km (sp Trough of Bowland)
Ride the glorious Trough & assemble at summit at 27.2 km for group photo
L sp Scorton at 31.5 km MAKE SURE YOU DON'T RIDE PAST THIS TURN!!!
SO at 33.8 km
BL at 38.2 km
R at 38.7 km sp Bay Horse/Galgate
SO at X at 39.5 km sp Bay Horse/Galgate
SO at X at 40.6 km
SO at X at 41.1 km
SO at X at 42.4 km
SO at 43.0 km sp Galgate/Lancaster
BL under M6 at 44 km
Cross A6 SO at TL at 44.7 km in Galgate
Take care on s-bend under viaduct at 44.9 km!
BL at T at 45.0 km
Stay on that road until L on A588 at 48.0 km
Immediate R sp Glasson Dock
SO at mini-O at 49.2 km
L at 49.7 km (Tithebarn Hill)
Cafe stop at Lantern O'er Lune on RHS at 49.8 km

 

[ColinJ]

Updated list of people who might do the ride:

• ColinJ
• Accy cyclist
• bromptonfb
• Rockymountain
• Pennine-Paul
• potsy
• MartinQ
• coffeejo
• Christopher
• dan_bo
• middleagecyclist
• Mickthemove
• Martin Archer
• SatNavSaysStraightOn + OH
• smokeysmoo
• pubrunner
• Alun
• skudupnorth
• Steve H
• colly
• tubbycyclist
• Stu Smith
• Biscuit
• phil_hg_uk
• oiljam
• I like Skol
• totallyfixed + dr_pink
• Littgull

 

[Littgull]

Updated list of people who might do the ride:

• ColinJ
• Accy cyclist
• bromptonfb
• Rockymountain
• Pennine-Paul
• potsy
• MartinQ
• coffeejo
• Christopher
• dan_bo
• middleagecyclist
• Mickthemove
• Martin Archer
• SatNavSaysStraightOn + OH
• smokeysmoo
• pubrunner
• Alun
• skudupnorth
• Steve H
• colly
• tubbycyclist
• Stu Smith
• Biscuit
• DiddlyDodds
• phil_hg_uk
• oiljam
• I like Skol
• totallyfixed + dr_pink

Hi Colin

Great to see you are now back planning a forum ride.

An impressive roster of 'might be' riders including many familiar friends.

Please add me to the list.

Cheers

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I'm really tempted by this one (probably the 60 miler) but don't know at the moment whether A: I'd definitely be available and B: how I'd work out the logistics.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I'm really tempted by this one (probably the 60 miler) but don't know at the moment whether A: I'd definitely be available and B: how I'd work out the logistics.

Dont worry just stick your name down you can always wuss out later