I dropped off the road at Houndkirk moor, a big carpark, already starting to fill. I got a fly to the back of the throat and spent 3 minutes husking up air and phlegm, promising blind it wasn't a bad hangover. The moor was frighteningly warm. I had a chat to mountain bikers and passed umpteen walkers before dropping down to Froggat Edge.
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| Edgey |
I've not ridden Froggat Edge, my nervousness about taking on a footpath now legally open to cyclists has kept me off it but it was time to break that rule if I was going to enjoy doing as much riding as possible in the Peak.
The ride along the edge was wonderful compared to dropping down the busy road but I soon realised my error. A million and one people were out on foot enjoying the mid-day sunshine of New Years Day and exercising their new years resolutions. Everyone was happy and friendly, including me, but it made for incredibly slow progress. I was so addicted to it though that I continued on down Curborough, before going wrong, dropping into Baslow then spending the next thirty minutes trying to fight my way over to the route again, around the back of Chatsworth. In the process I found a really neat Bridleway I didn't know existed.
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| Morning sun on the moors |
I thought I'd cut a bit git of the route out. At 94 miles I knew I wasn't going to do it all so when I realised that, no, Youlegreave and Alport dale were still to go, I was a bit worried. I sat and ate some sandwich in the setting sun and hoped for the best. I love the trail through Gratton dale. I hated it the first time and thought it would be awful to do it the other way around but it is so remote, so quiet so still, so... burried... and I hardly noticed it pass until I was back on the road.
Before I knew it I had turned off on to the Pennine Bridleway. A zoom out on the map showed me paralell with Moneyash and by now thoroughly dark. It was time to forget the route and get back home the most enjoyable way possible given the darkness.
I "plotted" a course North, taking note of the stars to avoid too many clicks on my Garmin screen and wasting the battery. If I just kept following the Plough, I was going North. Somewhere between there and the North star was even better. And so my nav by starlight began. And whilst I was looking up there, it was truly tremendous. What a perfect night for stargazing as I cycled, the highest point around and away from the road. I didn't have a clue where I was, where I was going but these bridlepaths kept appearing as links across a dark earth and I just turned the pedals.
Eventually I started to recognise junctions, then town names, then roads and paths. I stopped just outside Great Hucklow (Christmas lights were amazing) to eat some food and text my husband I was OK but would be a while. Through a mouthful of crisps I declined a pick-up. I carried on along the road which took me past Abney Gliding club and down to Grindleford then, debating which way to go home, opted for Surprise View followed by a dose of Burbage Edge - thankfully the one permissible bridleway devoid of people so late at night. All that to avoid my out-and-back routes crossing over eachother.
At the Norfolk Arms, they did briefly before I turned for Wyming Brook and another little bit of off-road riding in the dark to pass the miles away from the roads and traffic.
Finally, on reaching the A57, I stopped messing about and dropped like a stone into the valley, leaving myself one final hard, steep pull up to our house.
I fell through the back door exhausted at 10:30pm. Now that's how you start a new year.
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