Back in the Saddle: September - Peak District

Well, we finally managed to organise another well attended mountain biking trip at the end of September. The hockey players were away at Chesterfield on Saturday 27 September. Nev and Hedd headed up that afternoon, pitched the tent in Edale and headed out for an evening ride in glorious weather.

We rode from Edale and took the Jaggers Clough bridleway up to Hope Cross, from there we descended "The Beast", walked back up and finally headed back towards Edale by the same route to meet the victorious hockey players: Ed, Adam and Stu.

Nev riding from Jaggers Clough towards Edale

High spirited hockey players, a long wait for food and the arrival of another two riders that hadn't been near their bikes for a while (Tom and Ash) meant overindulgence on a rather grand scale and the Old Nag's Head in Edale.

We awoke early on Sunday morning with shocking hangovers to the sound of heavy rain pounding the tent - not ideal. The process of getting up and getting the tent down was a very slow one, but we eventually left the campsite at about 10:30am, not bothering to try and reclaim our noise deposit!

We headed to the Woodbine Cafe in Hope for some breakfast. We were still nursing hangovers, but at least the weather was improving.

After yet more faffing, we finally got riding at about 11:45, heading up to Hope Cross in the sunshine.

Ed and Ash after a spot of maintenance on the climb out of Hope

Rather than repeat "The Beast", we headed on to the Blackley Hey descent. Everyone enjoyed this, although Ad did take a bit of a tumble on some loose rocks.

Tom (with game face on!) and Nev at the bottom of the Blackley Hey descent

From Blackley Hey, we crossed the A57 and headed straight up the Rowlee farm switchback climb.

Ed, Ash and Nev reach the top of the Rowlee farm climb

We paused for a break at the top, we'd made good progress to this point but one or two of us were still not feeling at our best!

Eventually we headed North and took on the "Suicide Brake" descent. This was most peoples favourite from the day, with some great opportunities to gather some speed and a few mildly techy bits to catch the unwary.

Ed taking on the "Suicide Brake" descent at pace

After a puncture repair (Hedd) and some snacks at the Fairholmes visitor centre (near the Derwent Reservoir Dam), we headed off around Ladybower Reservoir and after helping a family with a snapped rear mech hanger and twisted chain, we began the climb up to Whinstone Lee Tor.

Team photograph at the top of Whinstone Lee Tor (Ed, Nev, Stu, Tom, Ash and Ad)

From the summit, we headed East and after a good start disaster struck as Tom and Nev missed the right turn that the rest of us had taken to deliver us to The Ladybower Inn. Adam set off to look for them, but unfortunately they'd decided to head back to their car so they could use their mobiles. Eventually the call came, and the rest of us headed back to Hope by road. It was a strange end to a very enjoyable weekend - good beer, good riding and great company!