has anyone been up to either of these places recently?
if so what are the conditions like for this weekend?
mucho grassy ears!!

Lee Quarry is made out of rock, the conditions will only change if it snows surely?

(Rain being a given obvs)

saturday = 6 degrees and heavy rain.

sunday = 3 degrees and heavy sleet.

‘bracing’

We had our first dusting of snow last night. Its not stuck though. And, like everywhere, we’ve had A LOT of rain.

The surrounding moors are sodden, but Lee and Cragg will both be fine, so I’d say you’d be better off up there than Gisburn. Like chapaking says, they’re all made of rock! I’ll be heading up to Cragg on Sunday Morning.

Edit: hmmmmmm – actually having looked at the forecast of heavy rain, high winds, and wind chill down to -1, I might stay in bed, then go to the pub instead 😀

Following this ‘cos we were thinking of heading to Gisburn on Sunday…

thanks guys. i have a feeling that gisburn will be pretty boggy in places and would prefer to do the quarry. i’ll have to see what the rest of the group want to do.

Edit: we’re going tomorrow morning so probably best to decide tomorrow once i meet up with the group and see what the weather is like.

Post up here and let us know Gonzy! We’re thinking Gisburn ‘cos it *should* hold up reasonably well, and at least there’s some trees to hide from the sleet!

will be fine, the only isue with cragg is that if it rains heavily there will be puddles in the dips so you end up hurtling down into cold water splashiness

Post up here and let us know Gonzy

if we go to gisburn i will do.

i’m not a big fan of some of those sections through the trees at gisburn. you cant build up any real speed through them and for me they ruin the flow of the ride too much. plus theyre a bit tricky to ride through with wide bars!!
rest of the trail is good though!!

Gisburn will be fine, if you’re happy with the weather on Sunday! Hully Gully is muddy and cut up, and just not much fun at the moment – I normally avoid it at this time of year and stay on the red.

Aside from this, Gisburn isn’t boggy at all. There are quite a few decent-sized puddles, but if you go Sunday you’ll be getting wet anyhow.

If the temps are low, watch out for ice on the top boardwalk.

Cheers MartinHutch, that was basically what we were thinking, I can’t imaging Hully Gully is great as a bog. Were thinking a quick loop then play on the Hope Line for a bit, which should be pretty weatherproof.

Can’t say I’m exactly *happy* with the weather on Sunday, but as it’s the only chance I’ll get to ride for a couple of weeks I need to make the most of it.

Hully Gully is a lot more fun when it’s dry, put it that way, and the traffic it gets in January will affect how much fun it is in June.

Hope Line is fine. Homebaked (the through the trees bit) is running brilliantly at the moment (one of the flowiest bits for me!)

I love Homebaked (that’s the first proper descent bit through the trees right?). Could quite happily do that a couple of times too.

Homebaked definitely the best bit of Gisburn!

There will be water in the dips there and the top boardwalk is terrifiying when frozen; are there any plans to chicken wire it?

C

Not sure what the forecast is but I always think that Gisburn can have quite a lot of big puddles and I wouldn’t fancy Lee Quarry in high wind. I’m not too bothered about puddles but high wind at Lee Quarry could lead to instant death!

Worth bearing in mind too that they have just redone the jumps at Lee near the seesaw and the last downhill section and are asking people to keep off them for a few days. Tape is up.

Be bloody cold up in both quarries, I;d do Gisburn instead, much less exposed.

I was at Gisburn yesterday and it was mainly OK with largish puddles in some of the dips. The hailstones shortened my ride to the bottom half of The 8 though, and made the trip back to the A59 interesting to say the least!!

Echo Northends comments, yesterday morning was great, bit wet in Hully Gully but Swoopy,Homebaked and Hope line fine.
Richard

Its a fair point. Lee and Cragg can be grim in rain and wind, as they’re so exposed. But the other 2 days a year, they’re great!!! 😀

Gisburn it is then…. 😀

Chicken wire on the boardwalks? Fine until you do get it wrong, then cheesegrater city. The boardwalk is normally grippier than it looks, it’s just that you can’t see a thin film of ice, so it’s best to check before you get to the first corner on a cold day.

Last time I didn’t check, I flew off with one leg either side of the boards. That was quite painful.

Yeah I’ve always found the boardwalk ok in the wet, and I HATE the stuff. Don’t think chicken wire would make much difference if it was frozen!

Mrs Binners encountered a group of disorientated ramblers half way across the Gisburn boardwalk, walking up them, towards her, as she was blatting through. Apparently there was a LOT of swearing!

Ramblers and boardwalk. Evil squared.

binners, I don’t suppose you fancy a leisurely assault on the western slopes of Blackstone Edge on Sunday morning do you? I’ll be dragging my gravity challenged mate along with me so we won’t be breaking any records 🙂

I was at Lee mid week and it’s fine.

It will be cole up there this weekend and I’d expect a little ice given the snow we’ve had.

Mid weeks was almost all dry though so a safe enough bet to head up there.

We’ve done a lot over the last couple of years to consolidate the Gisburn trails, starting to bed in nicely, wet but not muddy.

Wet I can handle 🙂

flyingmonkeycorps – a bit late one here but we did gisburn yesterday but hopefully you’ll still see this before you go out….
boy was the weather grim
it was very wet and windy so dont forget your waterproofs…the trail wasnt too bad pretty much rideable in most places
through the trees it was reasonably dry but the exposed roots were slippery as are the boarded sections so be careful of those
there were quite a lot of puddle…most are fine but be careful with those at the bottom of the little humps as any exposed rocks are now hidden and could catch riders out
if its wet and windy like it was yesterday be aware that it will get very chilly in the exposed areas especially on the top half of the loop beyond the hope line
hope line was fine though
we didnt hit hully gully as it looked quite churned up in places
the car park next to the hub looked pretty busy but we didnt see hardly any riders out on the trail…oh and in case you dont know you have to pay for parking now £3 all day and thats on either car park
enjoy the ride

We went yesterday and I would concur with what Gonzy said! Numb feet and hands ahead we had a good day out.

the only time it stopped raining was when we got to the top of the hope line…

gloves were absolutely soaked as were the shorts. shoes were full of water and the right shoe had mud from when i stood in what i thought was a grass verge only for my foot to sink to just below the knee in thick mud!!

Any news on what Lee Quarry / Crag is like at the moment, hoping to go there (somewhere!) tomorrow.

Thanks,

Can see Scout Moor from my window and it looks fine. I’m heading up there tomorrow.

My bike froze on Deerplay this morning. Clouds were gathering when we got home. Probably some snow later but should be ok tomorrow, no rain at least, might be some ice early on.

Lee/quarry is too wind generally but at this time of the year, fahgeddaboudit… 🙂

Home baked at Gis – I wouldn’t even call it a descent, just a really good tech-section. If the build-quality of HB could be applied to the rest of Gis, it would be superb IMO.

PP it is slowly as the volunteers and FC maintain the contractor built stuff.

Lee quarry update now I’m home, ugh, no snow, too warm but looking like rain and it’s really windy.

Just got back from Cragg. Great conditions on the ground; puddles frozen, odd patch of snow and no real muddiness!! However it was mentally windy to the point of being almost unrideable towards the far end, (away from Lee).

I’ll just be sticking to Lee tomorrow I think, based on how hairy Cragg can be in the wind.

I managed to get blown off (fnnarr fnarrr) twice when I was up at Cragg. Icy but grippy, you’ll be fine.

Been at Gisburn today, breezy and cold but perfectly fine to ride. Enjoyed.