Today Andy and I did a very scenic and quite tough ride in the Peaks. In decent weather despite the murk we drove up in.
We started by doing a little bit near Ladybower, climbing up Hagg Side before dropping back down through Lockerbrook. A sort of ‘live firing’ warm up exercise. We made it up and down in one piece, although I was kicking myself at the bottom for riding it as defensively as I have in a long time. It was going to take some time to get back into the swing of Peak District pounding.
Next we roaded it up to the start of the main event, namely Cut Gate. A frankly impossible climb was followed by the open section, the up to the cairns at the top. The views were spectacular. Having seen the descent we would be finishing with, Andy mentioned that it is good luck to add a stone to a cairn. We both added a stone.
Next we moved onto the riverbed section with some interesting sections of alternating trials type rocky bit, loose bits and wheel swallowing bogs, we made it mostly unscathed to the armoured stream crossing where the stream and valley drop away to the left. Rocky singletrack now took over and we had a great run to the reservoir down the left hand track. Many kilometres with the occasional techy bit to negotiate. A brilliant descent, and one that really ekes out the height loss. Some worrying speeds were touched just before the final rocky corners. We had to retrace the last few hundred yards, but it was worth it to wring as much descent as possible out of it. We now took the trail over to the North America ruins and had some lunch before riding back up the peaty track to the junction with the main Cut Gate path. This section was boggy and not much fun, but at least it confirmed I was right to take the left hand option in descent.
On arrival back at the main track I discovered my obligatory random mechanical for the day. I noticed my chain had derailed over the cassette into the spokes. A bit of head scratching ensued until I realised my top jockey wheel was split right through the plastic. No more lowest gear for me. We now began the slog back up to the top, but I now remember why I love this section. Amazingly, this climb never actually seems that bad. One or two offs into peat bogs near the top notwithstanding, we made it back to the cairn for a quick five minute rest before the final proper descent of the day.
Line choices from earlier in the day were miraculously remembered, and I managed to descend the first section of this as well as I think I ever have. Andy also made a good go of this and I now realised that despite him saying a lot of time that he wasn’t over-confident, he never seemed to be too far behind!
The last section represented a guiding fail on my part. Despite all my talk of not dropping off to the right too early I did. We didn’t go so early as to end up on the walking track, but we ended up on some pretty intimidating steps. Apart from the very biggest one, I was well chuffed to make it down all of them. Before bottling a simple stream crossing to avoid wet feet. Go figure.
We finished the ride with admittedly soul destroying hack back to the cars, but a great day was had. I even managed to drop in at Eighteen in Hope to get some new jockey wheels, one of which is now fitted. No downtime here.
Big thanks to Andy for being a great ride companion, and a big shout to the ice age for creating such an awesome area to ride in!
Might see you Wednesday if work pans out ok.
