Mary Townley Loop - Sat 19th Sept 2009

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

any idea where you went? miles completed, hours on the bikes? can you plot it out on summat like bikehike? just coz i'm nosey.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

We ended up going back to the pike and then eventually followed a footpath down to the A646. What we could have done would have been to follow a grass road back up to the A671 from halfway down the footpath. There was a burned out vehicle on it so it obviously went somewhere. I followed it up the hill and it ended up at a disused quarry pit, so going the other way would definitely have brought us out on a proper road eventually. That might have been a better bet than our footpath.

back to the mtl. if the burnt out vehicle was the 4x4 then you were returning via the 'yellow brick road', that means you must have carried / gingerly pushed your bikes a bit to cross onto the yellow brick road. it's a horrible thing isn't it?

 

[ColinJ]

any idea where you went? miles completed, hours on the bikes? can you plot it out on summat like bikehike? just coz i'm nosey.

I would have said 'Ask Martin' but he discovered when we got back to Hebden Bridge that he had somehow hit the 'stop' button on his GPS so I don't think that he has an accurate tracklog.

We followed the MTL pretty accurately round to Deerplay, then we must have done at least 2 or 3 kms meandering about on the moor. After we had backtracked to the Pike, we followed the Burnley Way down the hillside until we met that grass road. We then went east along that until we realised that it fizzled out, so we retraced to the Burnley Way again and followed it down Dean Scout, then turned right along the edge of the woods and finally came out under the railway line on the Todmorden side of the Fish Ponds. After that we bombed down the A646 through Tod, and in the direction of Callis, before turning for Mankinholes and joining the towpath for the final stretch.

I've done a quick check on Memory Map and I reckon we'd done about 48 kms by the time we reached the A646, 10 kms along that and then another 2 kms on the towpath. About 60 kms in total with about 75% of it offroad.

back to the mtl. if the burnt out vehicle was the 4x4 then you were returning via the 'yellow brick road', that means you must have carried / gingerly pushed your bikes a bit to cross onto the yellow brick road. it's a horrible thing isn't it?

I think I know where that 'road' is but we didn't go up it that far so perhaps it was another burned out vehicle? It looked like it might have been a 4x4, or was it a pickup truck...?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

pick up truck 4x4 yeah that's the one. was there for ages before being burned out. it actually connects with the mtl about half mile before the memorial stone. the farmers lock the gates now across the cattle grids. you used to be able to turn left at the crown point junction and miss out that crappy half mile section of the mtl. i can see how it was easy to follow the bridleway sign at the gates, instead of turning left. local knowledge i suppose. just like that weird bit where you live. on the map it's not very easy to follow as it gets caught up in the jumble of other green lines. but on the ground is reasonably easy to follow due to the signs (mind you i did go wrong there once for half mile (when i met trio and red) due to a 'missing' blue disc). still a decent mileage and day out. must have been a massive relief when you realized you knew where you were?

 

[RedBike]

We crossed the A671, turned left then turned right too soon.

We followed the wrong track up the hill following the wall. Through a gate/ hole in the wall and followed a muddy track to the left of the wall.

We went further and further off route to the top of Theively Pike / the trig point.
To get down (After a bit of wondering around) we climbed over a style near the trig point and headed down a footpath that would have eventually re-joined the MTL where it crosses the railway line if we had followed it all the way down.

Just before rejoining the MTL we turned right at the foot of the Theiverly scout cliffs and followed this path to the road.

The paths down were almost rideable. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of riders who could of ridden all the way down. However, I decided I didn't fancy risking going arse over tit and walked a few of the steaper bits.

 

[RedBike]

Shaun. We always knew where we were. We just wern't sure how to get to where we wanted to end up.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

yeah, there is an amazing illegal path that comes out near the ram inn. takes some serious concentration to get down it in one piece as it's got handrails and slippy wood steps. probably the nearest to south shore we have round our way. yeah i do know where you guys ended up. it's a pity you were too tired and worried to enjoy!! if you fancy a short blast gimme a hollow.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

red,

not criticizing, just nosey. where you were are my local trails, i love em and think they are some of the best on the mtl (apart from the mile of a thousand gates).