Ribble valley/Yorkshire Dales ride, Sat 22nd June, 2019

[colly]

Got back around 6.45 after losing you all somewhere around Appletreewick. I did look for you, honest I did. Anyway I stopped at the Stridwood Tea rooms which was most likely just round the corner from where you stopped.

Ever grateful for @ColinJ for putting so much effort organising rides. They're always well worth the effort. (and mostly need quite an eftort too)

Nice to put a face to the Name @Sea of vapours, I'm sure we will catch up sometime on other rides. @Littgull, who I met on Blackburn Station was his usual cheerful self. Pity I didn't get a chance to chat or say farewell but there will be other times

I did around 78 miles for the day and about 4850 ft of climbing.
My garmin gave some odd readings ( such as a maximum gradient of 36.8% ) so I'm not so sure those figures are accurate. It also showed straight lines between Leeds and Halifax and Halifax and Clitheroe. It was switched of for most of the train trip but...what do I know?

Thanks again Colin

 

[ColinJ]

Littgull and I changed plan and cycled from Barnoldswick to Burnley on the canal towpath. We are currently waiting for a train back from here (too tired to cycle back on the A646)

168 km (104 miles) was my total, with about 2,500 metres of climbing (8,200 ft).

Will write about our day out tomorrow once I have had a good sleep!

 

[Sea of vapours]

Good to meet you too, @colly .

I won't steal Colin's ride report thunder, but my solo trip home, once I parted from Colin and Brian - the last 53km / 1,200m ascent - was a bit rushed, but I did make it back before sunset. Not by terribly much though: 1m13s to be precise. It was, of course, still distinctly light and I think I was pretty visible.

 

[Littgull]

Great ride, route and company. Many thanks to @ColinJ and @Sea of vapours (Mike) for the superbly scenic route. Good to meet Mike in person for the first time.

Sorry we 'lost' you near Burnsall @colly and always a pleasure riding with you and enjoying the bike chat and banter.

The extra miles from Barnlodswick to Burnley train station compared to Clitheroe station meant that I only needed another 1,8 miles when after I had ridden from Todmorden to Littleborough. I actually did an extra 2.2 miles which gave me a total for the day of 101 miles. Well worth clocking the 100 miles as that has given me my 8th imperial century of the calendar year. I got in the door at home at 22.40 hours.

I'm up early tomorrow to catch trains for a family meet up in Newark with son no2, daughter in law and 5 year old grandson so as well as seeing them it will be nice to relax on the train journey reflecting on our ride in the stunning Yorkshire Dales.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Glad you enjoyed the route, @Littgull ,and good to meet you at last too. That road you particularly liked has a twin, which is equally good, from Halton Gill back towards Settle, emerging at Stainforth. The resultant circuit of Fountains Fell is very good indeed I think.

 

[Littgull]

Sounds fantastic @Sea of vapours . Yes will definitely have to complete the circuit on another ride soon. The truly world class view of that stretch is further enhanced on bright sunny days at this time of year.

 

[ColinJ]

I have a guest so my 'report' is delayed! I may get the chance to write it after about 11 pm, but if not it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Carrie sent a few photos which I will look through and edit. (She insists on holding her phone in portrait mode so many of the snaps have lots of sky and road, relative to the more interesting stuff in the middle!)

 

[ColinJ]

PS While I think about it... @colly, let's see your piglet photos, and any others of interest!

 

[colly]

Piglets

PS While I think about it... @colly, let's see your piglet photos, and any others of interest!

Beat me to it by 20 mins

 

[colly]

 

[Littgull]

Crikey, what a contrast today has turned out to be compared to Saturday's group ride!

We had planned to meet my son, daughter in law and grandson in Newark for a family rendezvous as it is halfway between our home in Littleborough and theirs in Letchworth so meeting up there maximises the time we can spend together. But our day was scuppered by complete chaos on the railway network. Our 9.14 am train from Littleborough to Leeds was delayed by 25 minutes due to a points failure and then further delayed at Halifax due to another points failure. this meant we missed our advance booked 11.05 am train from Leeds to Newark. All the more galling as we had the foresight to catch the 'earlier' train than we should have needed to for Leeds. So we had to settle for the 12.05 pm train to Newark and 5 minutes before it was due to leave the train manager announces there is a serious incident adjacent to the line near Doncaster where a load of gas bottles have exploded and delays are inevitable as a cordon around the affected area is established. Eventually at 12.45 pm we are all told to leave the train as the incident was still ongoing and that train was now cancelled. Too late then to be worthwhile waiting to see if the incident got sorted and a later train could get us to Newark so we all ended up very disappointed. I would add that the train staff were absolutely brilliant throughout on a very stressful day for them too and even handed out the delay/cancellation forms for us to complete and return.

We were only discussing yesterday during the ride the unreliability and general frustrations for travellers (especially with regard to bikes and reservations for bikes) on the rail network. But in the overall scheme of things this is just a day to forget and I haven't heard of anyone being injured in the gas bottle incident which, of course, is the main thing to be thankful for.

 

[Littgull]

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Great pictures @colly and captures the scenic splendour of the Dales in fine style. I only took a couple pictures of the piglets and yours have turned out a lot better than mine so I won't put mine up.

 

[Pale Rider]

Great pictures @colly and captures the scenic splendour of the Dales in fine style. I only took a couple pictures of the piglets and yours have turned out a lot better than mine so I won't put mine up.

Aye, proper Yorkshire dales.

I did consider the ride, but 77 miles is a bit much for me in that terrain - only the mountain goat that is @Sea of vapours could call it 'unethically flat'.

The shape of the route meant I couldn't see an obvious short cut.

 

[colly]

Aye, proper Yorkshire dales.

I did consider the ride, but 77 miles is a bit much for me in that terrain - only the mountain goat that is @Sea of vapours could call it 'unethically flat'.

The shape of the route meant I couldn't see an obvious short cut.

Yes. I wondered about that.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Weeeeelllll....... I did say 'verging on' and 'in comparison to' [previous years]. There were certainly some less hilly bits every so often