Rocks, converted railway lines, roads, cake and friends

Originally we had a Dales ride planned but after a Bank Holiday spent climbing over snow drifts Sarah fancied something rideable, fair enough I guess. A group of us (Me, Al, Sarah, Vikki, Ali Mills and my Ali) met at Dove Stones for a nice 34miles pootle. To warm up I rode over, it was a perfect morning and felt like it was going to warm up. The first section was mainly Pennine Bridleway over to Tintwistle. It was mainly nice wide, dusty trails with some fun rocky descents, here I was very glad of my disc brakes but Al was having the most fun on his full sus!

There were a couple of bits of snow where we had to walk but mainly there was a path to the side. The snow also seemed to come just on the uphill when we were ready for a rest!

Onto the trans-pennine trail and we were all glad of some flat riding, oh actually slightly uphill riding along the converted railway. It wasn't long before that ran out and we had a nice switchback climb up to another bridleway, the road looked as if it may have been the easier option when we descended back to join it.

Linking up side roads we dropped into Holmefirth and the long awaited cafe. Ali had been finding it hard by this point, something to do with working away meaning very little riding this year, so was extremely happy to reach the cafe. She tucked into soup, followed by quiche, followed by two scones! Sarah of course had to have tea!

All that was left then was 4.5mile uphill on tarmac, followed by 4.5miles downhill on tarmac.

What a fantastic day in the sunshine. 22miles to the ride and 34miles of riding gave me 56miles for the day.