Taking a day off on Friday and just fancy a blast somewhere because I’ve done nothing but big epic rides in the Lakes, Peaks and North Wales all year. So I thought I’d venture up to Gisburn, 2 laps round there, then drive down to Bacup and do the Loop round Lee and Cragg Quarry.

Criminal as it may be given that these places are not far for me to drive to I’ve never ridden either of these places before, so I reckoned on the following times based on my own speed and what I’ve read:

2.5 hrs for the Gisburn laps
50 mins drive to get to the quarries from Gisburn
2 hrs to do the quarries including the link between them up & down

Anyone agree, disagree with those timings, need to tell the wife what time I’ll be home. Thanks

Anyone agree, disagree with those timings, need to tell the wife what time I’ll be home.

well , that is good ! appreciate ! haha ! 🙂

It’s so she can have my tea on the table, some coffee brewed, a cake baked, a hot bath run, and be stood next to the washing machine ready to wash my dirty kit 😉 !

It’s been suggested that it’s better to park at the Stag car park on Cowpe Road at the Cragg Quarry end then do Cragg Quarry first, then the link down to Lee quarry and then take the main road back to the Cowpe Road car park, apparently nobody claims from Lee Quarry to Cragg Quarry!?

Last time I went to Gisburn I had a massive flat and got four lads into trouble with their wives ‘cos they stopped to help out. So don’t be doing that. :wink.

Seriously there’s a lot of opportunity for time loss faff in that. Two laps of all of Gisburn might be a bit optimistic in 2.5 hours unless you’re doing it at race pace (you can cut a bit out though if you run short of time and fire road out). Don’t forget to leave time to visit the Dog and Partridge in Tosside for flapjack and hot beverage (they have bike bits and a bike wash too).

The Lee / Cragg link sounds realistic although there are lots of routes round Lee so it depends on which you pick and how much time you spend in the middle of Lee messing around on the pump track and trying out the various drops and variations.

Thanks for that Clover. Have you done the link between Cragg and Lee quarry in the up direction or just parked at Cragg and gone down ?

Lee quarry is more of a pick and choose/session site. The circular red route is fun but is not long.

I would head straight up to Cragg via Lee, as it’s a push from the Stag do Cragg (as many times as you fancy) and then head down to play in Lee Quarry

remember to leave your car in sight and make sure everything is out of sight

I’ve done up from Lee to Cragg and back. The link’s fine – nice gravel track artistically arranged into curves with rocks for jumping off at regular intervals. Cragg is one big grin. Lee is more pick and choose as portly says.

Bacup tends to live up to its dim reputation for nickage. Don’t leave anything nice in view…

we did Lee-Cragg and Cragg-Lee on the Northern Chapter ride a couple of weeks ago. It’s a bit of a schlep from Lee to Cragg, but it’s better than riding over the moors or along the main road. Th ride up from Cowpe to Cargg is not bad

Going from Cragg back to lee, two points to remember

1) some of the jumps *really* kick your back wheel up, so be ready for them

2) there’s a point where the trail branches, take the right hand branch up the hill if you spot it, then you get the full read descent and the option to join the black, rather than joining the read halfway down.

apparently nobody claims from Lee Quarry to Cragg Quarry!?

link road is an easy climb, not tried riding up cowpe rd but I’d guess it’s bloody hard work.

Thanks for for the advice.

TBH I’d already taken the claim that ‘no one does the climb from Lee to Cragg’ as BS and having looked at where you need to park on Cowpe Road and the route up from there as well as having to do the main road tedium at the end = no brainer, I’ll be starting at Lee.

How did it go?