OK, let’s get the ball rolling.

Went exploring in the north eastern part of the Dales. Maybe not my best idea 😕

Parked up a bit to the west of Masham and took one of those lanes marked up with red dots. Within fifty metres of setting off and just out of sight there was a twenty metre wide ford. Ah well, not too deep. The track was OK and led out on to the moorland. A “no vehicles” sign indicating the start of the death zone.

Competition time: spot the bridleway! It’s marked on the map so it must be there, mustn’t it?

The valley has lots of old small scale coal mines or diggings, you can see some of the waste in the above shot.

Onwards and ever upwards until I came to the end of the track. A fine bit of moorland singletrack awaits. What a mate would call “nadgery”. It took me all the way to the skyline.

This was where things started to go wrong. The OS map has a bridleway heading back north http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=408593&Y=478801&A=Y&Z=120, could I find it? Could I ****! So back down the nice moorland singletrack to pick up the next bridleway to the east. This started out OK …

but looks can be deceiving, the above was as good as it got and by the first beck crossing any semblance of a track or bridleway or path had long since decided to relocate elsewhere and so began an hour of pushing and carrying the bike through heather up to waist height trying to link up freshly burnt or cut areas.

These boundary stones were just in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately that meant so was I!

Eventually I reached the skyline and a fence. about 100m beyond this there was a track which my original route intended to join. It gave a great descent down to West Scrafton.

A bit of road then it was a climb back on to the moor.

At the top of this I wandered around a bit, my intended route was this bridleway http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=410263&Y=482981&A=Y&Z=120 but after about 100m of it which had been cleared by strimmer to get to shooting butts, I had my doubts so turned round and took the track to the south. The drop down to Darnley Beck was great fun, then it got a bit frustrating.

The track was in a deep groove filled with thigh high heather. Under all this was a slot with a firm base and about 8″ wide which was great until the slot deepened and you came to a sudden halt with the pedals sat on the ground either side of the slot with both wheels off the ground! The bits that were rideable were great.

Several times I looked across the valley trying to spot the line of the bridleway I had wanted to take but there was no obvious line through the heather and bracken. Maybe something to check out in spring when there’s less growth. Slowly things got better and more “moorland like” until eventually I popped out on to a farm road. Virtually a freewheel down this all the way back to the car.

Meant to ask: has anyone ridden that bridleway on the north side of Birk Gill that runs under Brown Beck Crags down towards Slipstones? Would be interested to know what it’s like.

Ha! I’ve done that one, made the same choice to ignore the BW and sat there with my pedals on the edge of that groove. Such a promising route on the satellite images, such an unrideable disappointment in real life.

I went over from Nidderdale via Deadman’s Hill.

I think the BW doesn’t really exist for much of its length, just heather and bog-bashing.

So far only a couple of short bimbles with the Doug last night and this afternoon.

Got caught in a couple of monster showers today. Rode past various other walkers and riders sheltering under trees as we stubbornly soldiered on.

Not the usual ride but a ride none the less.

https://instagram.com/p/B0FqtXzh9ZG/

I think the boat is the one used at the climate protest in Leeds earlier in the week.

Out on a bivvy ride in the Dalwhinnie – Corrour area. Saw lots of film crew, cameras, drones, helicopters as they are filming the new Bond movie.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDmCeZ]P1050891[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDnqRc]P1050885[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDmBLV]P1050899[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDnoW5]P1050901[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDmAAt]P1050907[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

@whitestone…especially liked the boundary stone picture…a great find

a couple of short rides due to junior’s sport commitments:

Friday afternoon…a favourite pic and only a few mins from the Orchard Cafe:

usually just wait for the dust to blow off the bike but truly winter down under had to wash bike!:

and an urban Sunday sunset:

Sunny Staffordshire. July rules!

Another short Dales loop. West Burton, up over the moor to Horsehouse in Coverdale, down the road to Carlton then the BW back over to Waldendale and a quick pint in the Fox and Hounds in West Burton. Everything’s bone dry and at least this ride was rideable!

Built a couple of ramps and a skinny for me and the kids to play on

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Also built a ramp as well as a skinny. Samuels hand slipped off the grip with the rain hence the crash #mtb #mtbscotland #mountainbike #mountainbiker #buildaramp #mtbkicker #mtbgrom #kidswhocrash #mtbcrash #mountainbikecrash

A post shared by MTB Scotland (@mtbscotland1) on Jul 19, 2019 at 10:42am PDT

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More ramp play #mtb #mtbscotland #scotlandmtb

A post shared by MTB Scotland (@mtbscotland1) on Jul 21, 2019 at 10:20am PDT

Nice relaxing Sunday afternoon ride. Strayed into the white peak for a change. Third ride on the signal. Feels just right now with a 35mm stem.

Weekend camping At a £6 a night campsite basic but plenty enough, 3 days of riding looping from Elterwater was trying out a 29er and it was ace fairly low level but plenty of tech with  a free lunch at Coppermines YHA  BIKES ARE ACE

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDJ4Cy]67421067_10157598696361474_6272485498820755456_n[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDHkGP]67223381_10157602022436474_6974744056517623808_n[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDJ4Vx]67606200_10157602022726474_3649180316930670592_n[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gDHkAX]67403334_10157602021856474_703718039123656704_n[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Gentle gravel-style ride on the rocket this morning (hitting Helvellyn tomorrow so didn’t want to tempt fate and hurt myself today).

And then another slow trundle this afternoon with the dog.

Whitestone- I am fairly sure I did this back in the mists of time when it was known to locals – for obvious reasons- as ‘The Slot’ . It was no easier pedalling then.

Rode ‘the north shore’ on Friday. Rain meant it was pretty slippy in places but great to ride with my best mate constantly seeing as he demo’d an e-bike.

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Had fun riding the north shore today and got to ride the whole time with @buly79 thanks to an e-bike demo! Would love to have spent more time there but same goes for most of the riding spots round here! #northshore #froome #mtfroome

A post shared by Alison Clarke (@golfchick24) on Jul 19, 2019 at 7:53pm PDT

Rest day Saturday so went for a 14km walk to a breathtaking spot

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A post shared by John (@buly79) on Jul 20, 2019 at 7:16pm PDT

Today slogged up twice to ride dark crystal and comfortably numb.

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Rode dark crystal and comfortably numb today with my first proper bear encounter but my newly purchased bell worked well! Have to admit that after six years of ownership I’ve now reached the limitations of the bike and it’s getting tired with better bikes out there and it’s now stopping my progression. #darkcrystal #worca #whistler #bearencounter #santacruzbikes #santacruzbronson

A post shared by Alison Clarke (@golfchick24) on Jul 21, 2019 at 6:53pm PDT

Decided tomorrow to ride top of the world and a 3 lap pass too!

Had a rather warm potter around some of the Yorkshire Wolds finest lanes and tracks. Lots of nettles and foliage, some nice views but generally just nice to be out in the fresh air. Gravel bike was hard work in places, but mostly doable.

On the roads around Dunkeld, Aberfeldy (again)

My 10yo son is like a goat at climbing but is slow and cautious at even the gentlest fireroad descent and often prefers to walk down a gradient. Take him to a pump track and he’ll be fine on moderate rollers with similar gradients, so this weekend we went to Mars (part of an old local mine that has been sculpted really nicely for riding), an hour later with gentle progression (and a little bribery of a new minifigure) he’d beaten away some personal demons!

Descending at Mars video. (anyone know how to embed vimeo?)

Mars is great as we could work up from a really gentle incline to this, and moving on the gradients just get steeper and higher.