Today's trip was a tale of two towers (plus a few lumps in between).
The first tower (after 15 miles) is an old favourite and can be read up on in posts
passim. Yes, it's
The Arqiva Tower (which everyone locally knows as Emley Moor Mast). Today may be the first time I've snapped it in anything resembling sunshine!
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As this leviathan receded behind me, I copped for a great view of tower number 2 in the distance (red arrow denotes)...
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In fact, the bloody thing didn't seem to be getting any nearer...
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Eventually, tower number 2 (25 miles in) was reached! This is
Victoria Tower and sits atop what is known locally as Castle Hill. The area contains remains from the late Iron Age and a 12th century castle. The tower, however, was built to honour Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897.
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Yeah, the cloud cover had dropped in by then. Ho hum. One last pic before I headed home was back across the landscape to tower number 1...
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47 miles ridden with 3,140 feet of climbing. It were 'illy.
https://www.strava.com/activities/396509561
I am very familiar with the Emley Moor mast. I have ridden round there several times. I have seen tower #2 in the distance but never gone that close to it, and I didn't know anything about it.
I am very familiar with the Emley Moor mast. I have ridden round there several times. I have seen tower #2 in the distance but never gone that close to it, and I didn't know anything about it.
[The ride report below was delayed because my nephew has moved to the area and I have been helping getting him settled in.]
I had organised another lumpy forum ride, which took place on Saturday in the lovely Forest of Bowland AONB. As has been usual of late, it had been difficult to drum up much interest in the ride.
@Littgull was up for it though and kindly offered to give me a lift. It did look for a while that it would just be the 2 of us riding, but then 2 of my non-CycleChat pals (Carrie and Kevin) texted me to say they would be joining us. And then
@Globalti said that he would come along with his son
@SamR and Alex (another non-CC member) for the first part of the ride. It is good to have a few more riders turn out. If it got to the point that it were only Littgull and me doing these rides then I might as well stop organising them, and just go back to doing private rides with LG, a few other local CycleChatters and my non-CC pals!
The weather forecast looked very promising for Saturday's ride. No rain, not much wind, sunny intervals, and mild conditions up to about 17 degrees. Ideal for cycling.
We all met up at Spring Wood visitor centre on the A671 above Whalley and set off on our way just after 10:00. It was still pretty cool at that time and I had dressed accordingly, but temperatures rose steadily though the day and I am convinced it was more like 20 degrees later on. I had to stop and remove my base layer mid-ride because I was overheating. Still, in mid-September that is a nice problem to have. It certainly beats being battered by hail in June, which has happened to me before now!
We rode along together as far as Beacon Fell, which is where we left Globalti, SamR and Alex (at the visitor centre cafe). It was tempting to stop there ourselves, but it was too early in our ride really. I wanted to make reasonable progress to allow time for a relaxed stop at Country Kitchen cafe in Waddington later on, and still leave time for an optional second loop after that cafe stop.
Here is a picture of some outstanding CycleChat members that I took before we left ...
I have added a 'modesty panel' because of those outstanding CycleChat members ...
(To spare blushes, and so as not to frighten those of a nervous disposition!
)
We continued with a descent off Beacon Fell into a steep-sided dip at Brockmill, to cross the little river Brock. I remembered being reduced to a grovel climbing back out of that dip when I first rode that way many years ago, so I was pleased to get up the climb without any difficulty this time. In fact, that became a feature of the ride. We tackled some steep climbs and I didn't suffer on any of them. I made an effort to start getting out of the saddle more often and that seemed to spare me the backache that I normally suffer on these hilly rides.
The weather just kept getting better and better, as did the scenery. A lot of my photos didn't really turn out because I was rushing to take them. Here is one taken by a blithering idiot standing in the middle of the road as the peloton bore down on him ...
From time to time, I would hear a groan as Littgull failed to engage his inner ring for the steep stuff. He is pretty fit, but he reckons his cassette's biggest sprocket is only a 24 which is a bit of a grind on his middle ring. More on that subject later ...
When we were heading round towards Marshaw, we came to a short, but very steep ramp so I sprinted down the road towards the foot of it to get there in time to get my camera ready before the others got there. Here's a snap of them attacking the climb, with tiny climber Carrie leading the assault ...
Go, girl, GO! 
I put the camera away and rode up at a more sedate pace
, but marvelling at how much easier I was finding the hills than I did when I was fat and unfit. These hard routes were torture for me in the bad old days but now I am fit enough to enjoy them. If I want them to be more challenging, I just speed up. If I want to relish the countryside, I slow down. What I don't have to do is suffer, or walk up the steep stuff!
By the time I got to the top of the climb I was overheating so I took my base layer off and stashed it in my bag before setting off in pursuit of my 3 riding companions.
We continued together and were soon overtaken by a fit-looking older rider. What struck me was that he was wearing cold weather kit. He had a full-length jersey on, full-length tights, and even overshoes. It seemed to be about 20 degrees and there wasn't much wind. How he wasn't cooking wearing that lot, I'll never know ...
LG and I continued as Carrie and Kevin dropped back for a while, presumably to have comfort breaks or take food out of their bags.
And then suddenly, something very strange happened ... LG and I got to the cattlegrid at the summit of the climb leading to the Trough of Bowland! We had been so busy chatting that we didn't even notice the climb! I used to struggle on that ascent but it failed to register on Saturday. (It isn't
really steep but it does average 7% for 1 km so it is not normally something you wouldn't notice.) Definitely getting fitter!
After warning the others to be careful on the descent, I set off in the lead. The Trough was looking stunning that day so I felt tempted to stop and take lots of photos but it is a really nice descent down the valley and I wanted to continue and enjoy it.
Something was going on at Sykes down in the valley, where the snack van is normally parked. There was a large crowd, a police presence and I saw photographers and a TV camera crew. We passed through at a respectful, cautious pace and proceeded on our way, but I made a mental note to search for information ... It turned out to be a service to dedicate a memorial stone to aircrew who died in aircraft accidents in WWII in the Trough of Bowland.
Lancashire Telegraph said:
A memorial boulder is being unveiled to mark the 25 airmen who died in aircraft crashes in the Forest of Bowland during World War Two.
The Venerable Michael Everitt, Archdeacon of Lancaster, will be leading the ceremony at Langden Brook near Dunsop Bridge, which stars at 1pm.
More information.
I did stop to take some pictures at the far end of the valley but they didn't really do justice to the splendour before me. I discovered later that I had accidentally knocked the camera's control dial off its 'auto' setting. I have no idea what settings it did use, but they weren't good! Still, I'd like to give you a flavour of what you missed if you were one of those CC members who had secretly toyed with the idea of coming along, but didn't. Here you go - the Trough of Bowland valley in autumn sunshine ...
Come and join us next time!
We regrouped and turned left to ride through Dunsop Bridge where we stopped to use the toilets and take pictures of the handiwork of the kids from the local school ...
We headed for Newton and looked to our right to see Waddington Fell towering up in the distance. It looked a bit intimidating, given the fact that we would soon be riding up it!
I was quite amused by this exchange ...
Littgull: "
It probably is not as far away as it looks."
ColinJ: "
How far away does it look to you?"
Littgull: "
About 4 miles."
ColinJ: "
How far away do you think it actually is?"
Littgull "
About 4 miles ..."
[Pause]
Littgull: "
Ha ha -it probably IS as far away as it looks!"
Brian, I have news for you - it was NOT as far away as it looked. I just measured it on my OS map and it was about 4 km, or around 2.5 miles!
A right turn at Newton led us to the foot of the last climb before our long-awaited cafe stop. Waddington Fell from that side has a few stiff ramps with slightly easier sections in between. As usual, Carrie was making it look way too easy and shot off ahead setting a pace that none of the rest of us could match. We had a discussion and agreed that since she has a significant age and weight advantage over us, it would only be fair in future to handicap her by lashing a car tyre to the back of her bike with bungee cords. We'd see how she liked climbing then!
Eventually we got over the climb and did a super-fast descent to the cafe where we enjoyed a long stop, sitting at a table outside in the sunshine. No way was that only 17 or 18 degrees!
It is an easy flattish ride back to Whalley from the cafe. Carrie had to get home to free her pooch from captivity and take him for a long walk so LG and I said farewell to her and Kevin in the town/village. They headed off back up the hill to the car park where Kevin had parked his van. Brian and I wanted to make the most of the glorious conditions and tackle the extra loop I had planned to take our distance up to a metric century so we turned left on the Clitheroe old road and then right to climb up over the A59 to Wiswell.
We turned left at Wiswell and headed for the village of Pendleton but were brought to a sh-
udder-ing halt by a scene of
udder chaos ...
We had an amusing chat with the farmer on the quad bike as we meandered along behind the herd. The cows were directing themselves, he was only there to watch out for traffic coming up behind. Nobody was leading the cows. When the road widened and we could finally get by, we could see that the beasts were just ambling along to the milking shed and directed themselves in!
We passed through Pendleton and turned right onto the lower slopes of the climb towards 'the Nick'. More moaning and groaning from Brian behind me, still struggling to engage his little chainring. I explained about endstops and gear cable tension but he told me that he has absolutely no mechanical aptitude whatsoever. I hopped off my bike and tweaked the endstop and got the shift working.
We got up the Nick o' Pendle ok and stopped to take a picture from the top. Here you go ...
We zoomed down the hill into Sabden and were about to do the nasty little climb of Black Hill to Padiham Heights when Brian dropped his chain when changing down to the little ring. I had obviously tweaked the endstop a bit too far so I found a position which enabled the shift without the chain loss and we did the climb. Another toughie that used to reduce me to a grovel on the bike or a walk off it, but again I got up ok. It was hard work but not a complete killer.
We did a little loop round the lane through
@totallyfixed's home village of Read, and then did a slightly artificial return to Padiham Heights up a lovely lane through the woods, dropped down to Sabden again, and then had an easy run back to the car park. (We could have gone straight back to the car park from Read but would have been slightly short of our metric century.)
A fabulous day out on the bikes in great company. 102 km covered with 2,000 metres of climbing (64 miles, 6,500 ft).
[A bit of a long report, but these reports will help me recall the rides better if I live long enough to be an old codger incapable of doing them any more!]
