Wet, Windy but never boring

One thing I can say about biking is it is never boring. Each ride is different and I always have some stories to tell. Today I could have really done with my camera there were so many funny occurences but due to the water falling constantly out of the sky it was left at home. I set off early again as I knew I needed to be home by lunchtime and found myself heading towards Asda, now normally this is fine as it takes me over to Rivington but I'd decided to head to Ramsbottom which is in the other direction. I made a decision then to go along a track I had explored with ali the other summer and onto the Darwen Moors and then over to the Strawbury Duck. The track started out nice and wide and took me through a golf course, soon it became narrow singletrack with roots and wooden bits to negotiate, some of it was quite slippy today. It comes out by a river and at this point I remembered that it ended with a near vertical climb. So it was bike on my back and a scramble up. Great fun, I like sections like that which I think makes me a little odd! I came out into a field of bulls and baby bulls, very cute till they started running at me, they stopped just before me and allowed me to climb over the stile. I was glad to put my bike down and noticed my Garmin hadn't recorded any distance while I was carrying - maybe I was moving too slow for it?

Anyway after that I headed along the Witton Weaver Way and turned right over the moors towards the A666, here I had a tough head wind to battle against and ended up walking with my bike to the highest point. Here there were a group of walkers sheltering behind a wall, they waved and one of them said I might see something but not to worry, I had no idea what as the wind was so strong I nodded and smiled. I headed off across the moors and on the first bit of downhill I pulled my rear brake and the lever went right to the bars without doing anything, a bit of pumping brought it back but it was a little scary. I wonder if this means they need bleeding? I carried on and then had to pull aside to let three 4x4's past. This seemed a little odd seeing as this is a public footpath, it is going to be upgraded to a bridleway at some point. A bit further along there were some more, then some more, maybe ten in total. No idea what that was about.

Out onto the A666 and then down to the Srawbury Duck with no further incidents and I decided to head home as it was getting a little late. Turned into a great ride, a trio adventure really. Now hopefully ali's adventure will work out later.

Stats from the Garmin so probably a little undermeasured:

19.14miles @ 7.9mph 122bpm
800m climbed