CUCC touring trip to Dimmingsdale, January 2004
The photographs can be found here
17 riders from CUCC, including Pete Turney who was on the CUCC committee
in the 1960s, left for a tiny little youth hostel in the southern part of
the Peak District, which was conicidentally next door to Alton Towers! A
fairly uneventful, if slightly damp, drive up led us to narrowing roads
and farm tracks where our hostel was located.
Saturday dawned rather grey, wet and windy, but hey, we were all up for a
good days riding! The MTBers set off bound for Castleton in the High Peak
for a day of off-road hedonism. Joining our number was one Pete Leek, the
second significant roadie this year after Rob Driver to defect to the
knobbly tyre brigade! In Castleton the group split into two with Paul
Newton and Matt Ward (ex bath) taking the faster group for a whistlestop
tour of the delights of the Dark Peak. I then led the slower group along a
favourite ride of mine.
We ascended up shivering mountain and then slid our way along the
bridleway leading to Hollin's Cross before pitching down into the Edale
Valley. A fantastically rutted and muddy track, made more interesting by
the driving rain, got everybody's eye back in again. Respect to Rachel
Fenton who was negotiating the whole affair on a very old, but venerable,
fully rigid Orange. After several comedy wipeouts we arrived in one piece
to continue into Edale and along to Jagger's clough and Hope Cross. The
desecnt from Hope Cross was one that Peak District legends are made of - a
bridleway consisting of mud and very large rocks! By this time we had
arrived at Hagg farm and the rain had gone from very heavy to torrential.
We unanimously decided then to climb up to Edale cross and then descend to
Rowlee Farm before hitting the snake pass up to the Snake Inn for a spot
of lunch. A broken chain and a few tired people later, we arrived at the
Inn in time for some fine food! Realising that time was going on and that
50% of our rider's brake pads had been eroded by the conditions, Pete
myself and Jon rode off back to Castleton leaving the brakeless Chris,
Rachel and Howard in the pub. A quick spin down the snake followed by a
sharp ascent up Blackley Clough led to the fast and very wet downhill off
of Win Hill. From there we headed back to Castleton where a forlorn and
wet looking Landrover awaited us.
After we'd picked everyone up we headed back to Dimmingsdale and out for a
meal at the Lord Nelson pub. And then sleep!
Sunday dawned dry, which was a bonus! Again the MTbers and the roadies
split, with the fast MTBers heading off on a route west of Ashbourne with
the remaining MTBers going on a local loop around ALton Towers for some
woodland action.
Thanks very much to everyone for coming along and making it a great fun
trip, in particular to:
Pete Turney for driving and leading the road rides
Pete Leek, Jon Blackburn, Shane and Paul for driving
Paul and Andrew for leading the rides and supplying a most excellent guide on the saturday.
Bart
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