Sunday 21 February 2010

More snow!

Woke up again to more snow so I was glad I had taken Simon up on his idea of a mountain bike ride as the other two options had been road rides. I woke up silly early after a bad nights sleep to snow. Lots and lots of snow, although not as much as our tuesday powder day in the Bolton Alps. A plan was made and I set out a little later than planned to get to Pigeon Tower for 10:30, the first off-road climb involved some walking at my legs and lungs seemed to have made a pact not to let me push harder. So I sent Simon a text suggesting he rode along Georges Lane to meet me. This worked well and after some brief discussion we headed through the woods as a walker had said they were pretty. Stunning should have been the word.

Then it was time to climb, back up to Georges Lane before up onto Winter Hill, well it was bound to have the deepest snow! Halfway up we stopped for a snowball fight and to build a snowman. I think my snowman buliding skills need some work!

Last bit of the climb was on tarmac and strangely gritted down the middle, no use for cars but perfect for a tired singlespeeder! Top of Winter Hill and we stopped to admire the view, or lack of one there was no visability!

Setting out down Simon kindly went first and showed me the crash sites. It was hard to pick a line and there were some nice snow holes that were big enough to swallow a trio whole!

At Belmont we tried for chips in the pub but it was closed so I had chocolate from the shop. Up the road, which felt like being off-road since it was snow covered. Before getting back over to Pigeon Tower, here we were chatted up by the local oddity - I blame Simon!

Down the descent to the fishing cafe since Simon didn't know it and back over towards Wilderswood before splitting. I was lazy and went home via Barrow Bridge.

It all seems to be melting already but I will be getting the cross bike out for commuting tomorrow just in case.

12 comments:

  1. Fantastic ride, thanks for coming :)
    I am so knackered now, will be in bed by 8.

    btw, it was you who attracted the local oddity this time!

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  2. even though i've never met simon, i agree, you probably attracted the 'oddity' ;)
    ...our 2 and a bit inches was all gone by tea time :(

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  3. I hope bumping into me isn't the bit of the ride that was the "meeting the local oddity"

    And, I can't believe Simon has not been to the fishing cafe!

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  4. He's not been to chapel tea rooms either!

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  5. Theres still loads of snow here. It's all kind of frozen though so its increadably hard work riding through / over.

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  6. Sounds ace and looks like a great time was had.

    What a kind chap Simon is for showing you where all the pitfalls were! ;-)

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  7. I'd never heard of the fishing cafe!

    I will make sure I pay it a visit along with chapel tea rooms soon!

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  8. Ha! I knew Londoners were fussing over our inch of snow!

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  9. you're making me want to run out and get a mountain bike.

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  10. You really should, mountain bikes are so much fun! Everyone needs at least one of each type of bike - I have a lot of bikes to buy then!

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  11. Fishing cafe? Chapel tea rooms? Never heard of them either - altho it has to be said I'm not a big cafe goer, but the cafe near darwen tower/tockholes does an ace bit of fruit cake. Got a streetmap link to these cafes?

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  12. Chapel Tearooms:

    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=362725&y=414470&z=120&sv=362725,414470&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=808&ax=362725&ay=414470&lm=0

    Fishing cafe:

    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=365710&y=411565&z=120&sv=365710,411565&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=808&ax=365710&ay=411565&lm=0

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