Went on another epic yesterday evening, from here up to Bowland Knotts and then down through Gisburn Forest/Stock’s Reservoir, on to Tosside and then home via Rathmell and Settle. Pretty amazing ride that I planned before my chain snapped weeks ago and I’ve been putting it off and putting it off – mostly due to the climb from Mewith lane up to the top of Bowland Knotts which is quite substantial. But I’d run out of place I wanted to ride and thought I’d give it another go.
Got lost three times (given my pseudonym is that terribly surprising?), the first of these was on the route I’d picked to get from home up to the road that goes up to Bowland Knotts:
Crag Lane was quite nice but just after Stoops Barn the track appears to end in a gate into a field, it’s not clear on the map if you need to go through the gate and then follow the wall, or remain on the forest side of the wall and bushwhack your way up through the boggy land that makes up the corridor of treeless land between the wall and the forest proper. When I got to the gate the separated that first field with the next one I realised that I indeed not on the correct side of that wall and that the track I should have been on was on the forest side of the wall. Before climbing back over a gate just beyond the wall coming down (the map) from “Birks Plantation”, which left me in what I can best describe as a boggy (even after all the dry weather we’ve had) sunken lane/stream bed. I’d hate to have to use it as wet as it normally is around here. And I won’t be going up (the BW climbed as it went toward the bottom of the above map) it, though I may one day use it as a return if I ever go up Bowland Knotts from the other side (given the hills, that’s unlikely).
The view from the top of Bowland Knotts was stunning, in one direct there was the panorama of Pendle Hill (where the witches lived) and in the other the Yorkshire 3 Peaks plus the Giggleswick Scars and Attermire above Settle. It was the first time I have really visited somewhere I thought I’d 100% want to live here… though good luck getting planning. It’s also a little isolated and I’d imagine difficult to get a good internet connection there.
Once I arrived in Gisburn Forest I went down the wrong path, not realising that the route I had planned out weeks ago took me down one of the bike trails and not the main fire-road/logging trails as I was expecting. Having realised my error before getting too far off the beaten track I made my way back to the small signpost that I had missed when first passing. It was a labelled cycling route, a “Red” route called The 8, which is (according to the Forestry website a figure of 8 track for advanced riders, 11mi long. Now I was only doing a section of it due to it being literally on my way (and not realising that I was going to be doing it). But it turned out that rather than something to actually fear – like I had been due to all the videos I had seen of people coming unstuck on various mountain bike trails I had seen on YouTube – it was quite fun. And something I plan on doing some more of the next time I go there, though given the current weather (hot & dry) I think that that will have to wait until it’s cooler & wetter, as I do not find hot weather especially very pleasant.
On finally leaving the forest at a place called Tosside I went sailing down the hill toward Settle and Long Preston, only to realise several miles later that I was on the wrong road and needing to return to Tosside to pick up the correct route instead. Having set off from home at around 7pm I hit Settle by-pass at around nine thirty, stopped in Settle for some snacks and was home for ten, which was about what I had expected. Of course today (and now tomorrow, ride was on Tuesday, most of this was written on Wednesday, but it’s now Thursday) I was so tired I got pretty much nothing done including going out at all on my bike. I need to either pace myself better or ride more so I’m fitter, somewhat worryingly I’m putting weight on at the moment, even though I’m exercising more and eating more fruit/veg, more healthily, going to talk to the doctor about that, I have hope that I can maybe start taking one of the dieting drugs (Wegovy etc). Last time I asked it was still a limited trial, it now seems to be more widespread.
For my next long ride (hopefully today, Thursday), I’m not entirely sure where I will be going, I will poke my map a bit and see if something can be worked out, it might well be over toward Malham recreating the route that I did with my nephews last summer (when I first tried an eMTB), but I need to look more at it as I have come to the conclusion that I prefer ascents to descents and I don’t much enjoy very rough tracks, which a lot of the descents on the limestone seem to be.
I tracked this journey with Komoot, which seemed to track my journey pretty accurately, but I was hoping for more in the way of “speed over this section” type of information, so on my next epic I think I’ll give Strava a go – I’ve tried it before, but I was using it to try and find groups to cycle with so didn’t actually track my rides with it so much so I’ll have to see how that actually goes.