Sunday 20th May

Sunday 20th was a lovely day, very hot even at 8.30 in the morning. I set off from Ripponden round the back of the town climbing up to Soyland Town. You can see the view from the picture below:

I got a little lost not long after taking this photo trying to get through Mill Bank to Cotton Stones. Try as I might I couldn't find the route. I knew I was in the right place with the pub, church and phone box all being clearly marked on map but I must have been missing a turn. It never ceases to amaze me how often you get a picture in your head about what the route should look like and it doesn't relate to reality. Simple things like give way signs completely change you're view of the route, you think there's a road coming in from the right and when you get there you find you're on the side road.

I decided to go up the side of the church at Mill Bank and get to Cotton Stones and on to Mytholmroyd. Stake Lane before Mytholmroyd was steep, wet and stony and just a little technical, like to have a go in the dry, then I headed for Midgley Moor.

Now the route from Midgeley through Broad Fold caused me some problems, I just wasn't concentrating and kept taking farm tracks instead of staying on the proper track, each time I got to a farm house I had to turn around. Nonetheless I got there in the end and started the climb up to the moor. The view was great on the way as you can see, the first picture shows the trail I'd climbed, this was hike-a-bike, not really rideable, the other image is looking north/north-east ish along the valley:




It was at this stage I realised I needed to keep an eye on the odometer and use my compass. At the top of the trail I had the option of two paths I thought, but with sheep on the moors you never know what are paths, bridleways or simply sheep runs, so I used my compass to push on along the right track. Later on I found myself at a t-junction of paths that really didn't fit the map which spread the seed of doubt on my earlier choice but taking the path that went west I came out on the A6033 at exactly the right spot.

It was at this point I realised I'd made an error with the maps I'd printed. I'd printed the tracks as red lines and because of the rather rough manner in which they were drawn they obscured the true direction and variations in the bridleway. I'd taken the decision to bring virgin maps with me as well and later on in the ride I became thankful of this.

It's definitely the case that moors are hard work, it isn't easy to cycle on soft peaty ground.

Crossing over the A6033 I headed off towards Lane Head and then Howarth. Now, it'd been a nice day, sun cream weather, and I felt in a good mood, heading off on the second day had sort of made it an adventure now. I was too far to turn back, on the Saturday I could easily have turned around and gone back home but being more than a day away it was onward and upward. Riding on the country lanes heading into Howarth I thought I might stop and get some lunch. Dropping into Howarth the sides of the roads began to fill up with cars and visions of tourist centres and somewhere good to stop started to fill my mind.

Was I in for a surprise.

As I entered Howarth I came across some old sharras, windows taped up in a criss-cross fashion all along the street and then groups of people all dressed in WWII battle dress. They town was having a forties weekend and to be honest they'd done an outstanding job, check out some of the pictures:











I particularly liked the two German's against the railings, they stood out a little more than the
others.

Anyway, it was too much of a struggle to get the bike through the streets so I had a hot-dog next to a road block and headed to Pickles Hill and then meandered around until Keighly, which I have to say I didn't like, typical big town, I got out of there as soon as I'd been to the bank. Riddlesden was next before going over High Moor, past Double Stones, Hang Goose Farm, and Cringles before messing about on bridleways and tracks to Addingham and Draughton.

Double Stones:


Here were the first indications of what was in store for the next couple of days but I never really recognised it at the time. Tired, with fast rolling tyres, I had soft peaty ground that went uphill for ever, it was hard and time consuming riding when I could pushing at other times practically all the way along the hill until the crest just before dropping into Bolton Abbey. It had taken so long I couldn't be bothered to stop and look at the Abbey, I didn't care about the ruins, I just wanted to get washed and fed.

Heading up to Westy Bank Wood, which was OK and then another slog across the soft ground until turning north-west to Barden Bridge. Again, stuff the ruins, food and beer were the only things in my head, so much so that for the last 5 km I stayed on the road all the way to Appletreewick and the world famous New Inn, 6.30pm, ten hours riding, bolloxed.

Was it worth it, you bet. I put my bike in the livery after I'd washed it down, had a cherry beer which was just so refreshing, got cleaned up, had a lovely meal, had an even lovelier beer, got my head down for 10 minutes which soon turned into and hour and a half before I went back to the bar for a couple of pints.

Good day, good evening, but oh so very hard.

Never mind, Monday was going to be my easy day, wasn't it???


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