After having a mini break up in the mountains of Soria where the temperature at 2,000m was quite refreshing, it was back to local trails around the Ebro valley on Sunday. A 60km loop with 1,100m of ascent and 95% off road was hard work in 30degree heat. A nice feature of many of the rides around home is the river crossing on an unpowered ferry that relies on the river flow and a couple of steel cables strung across to shuttle back and forth, not sure taking 3 cars is entirely safe, especially when you see the unloading process, it's like a Top Gear African adventure episode. I was joined on my trip across by about 8 Spanish kids who dived in halfway across and swam the km downstream to Miravet. The ferry man looked a bit miffed as they hadn't paid the €1 fare.

Riding during lockdown or exploring where I live.

I can’t remember if it was on here or another place that I learned that bing maps have an OS overlay. I am lost without OS as a reference and I am too mean to pay for an annual subscription as I am not going anywhere at present. After the first week of lockdown I decided it would be ok to go for a short bike ride. It turned out to be longer than I intended as I strayed into one of those grey areas that I had passed by but have never explored. I drive through that area once or twice a week and had been intrigued by a ridge line that runs parallel to the road in the valley with no obvious way up to it. I had a look at the OS maps alongside the omtb maps on Basecamp so had a rough idea of what was there. I spent a few weekly rides exploring and finally settled on a number of loops and figure eight routes with some really tough climbs and all within a ten kilometre distance of where I live. Climbs were a struggle to start with but can now handle them at way over max heart rate range. I didn’t know it would go that far and I would live. Loving the 34-24 x 11-42 xt gearing. Occasionally get over enthusiastic and get front wheel lift but much less walking than there used to be.
One route that has always intrigued me is how to get to and from the Exe estuary without the long boring bit of NR2 through Otterton, Budleigh and Exmouth so I did a straight line on Basecamp then used OS to pick out tracks and bridleways created a gpx and set out to explore. I remember it well. The snooker on TV was rubbish the sun was shining and it was the hottest day of the year. Riding was lovely. I got lost met interesting people at a distance. Discovered lovely bits of the river Otter. Carried my bike over a narrow bridge and found lanes and tracks that were not on the track I was trying to follow. Eventually I reached open moorland with wide gravel tracks and stopped at the highest point overlooking Woodbury with the Exe beyond and still only fourteen kilometres from home. Time was running out so backtracked and home.
Last week I used NR2 (the boring bit) to get to Exton on the Exe then turned inland and climbed up through Woodbury to the point I had previously reached then using part of the Knobbler route set off back home. Woodbury Common has some fast gravel tracks and you get to play deep or shallow at the large pools of water. The map is not the country and closer I got to home the more amazing places I discovered. There are green lanes that just go for miles and it just feels so remote that it is quite a shock to suddenly arrive in the middle of a village. The final bit was a bit of a buggers muddle and required me to ride about a hundred metres on the main road with drivers overtaking me across double white lines on a blind bridge but I made it. I almost made it up the ‘’unrideable’ hill. Pushed the worst bit with no traction then got riding again to the top. A first for me - almost. I know how to sort out the final bit of the route now so once that is done, I shall have a new circular ride of road, track and gravel and all within twenty kilometres of home.

Yeah, we can now travel more than 5 miles here in Wales from today! So not far but a 30 minute drive saw me near Dinorwic quarry for a short pootle and to take in the views that I've missed for these past weeks. Saying that it was probably just as chilly as what it was last March!

20200706_162038 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200706_164439 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

There's some great bivvy spots here and I'm looking forward to dosing there again
20200706_164743 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

A quick loop over the local hill before the rains arrive tonight. Very blustery and the last couple of weeks of rain have made things a bit slape in places.

One of the tracks, actually it's a footpath and part of the Pennine Way has been completely flagged over since I last did it. There were some flags there before plus some duckboards to cross a boggy section but they've done away with those and it's now all stone, maybe 400m worth. That made that bit quicker but it was an absolute quagmire by the gate Then did a track, another footpath, that I'd not done before before heading home.

summittoppler wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:28 pm Dinorwic quarry

One of my faves spots too Jeffer

Have sent you a PM..

RIP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:12 pm

summittoppler wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:28 pm Dinorwic quarry

One of my faves spots too Jeffer

Have sent you a PM..

Cheers, I've replied

Not today

https://youtu.be/RncunZDzk3E

summittoppler wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:28 pm

There's some great bivvy spots here and I'm looking forward to dosing there again
20200706_164743 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

And I finally have a fat bike

That's a great place. I used to kip in the old quarrymen's huts on climbing trips back in the 90s. We used to go exploring the quarries on wet days, and in the climbing mags there were photos of Johnny Dawes and Paul Pritchard crossing the rusty old steel hawsers that were stretched across the quarries, My mate and I once went to do that, but when we saw the actual state of them we went nowhere near it.

'Steel hawsers' - aye, for the Blondin wagon hoists. Fascinating stuff, here's a model re-creation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxv_wnS8df0


The Hanging Tracks Of Doom were reserved for the real nutcases to try and cross



Sadly now collapsed, so that particular Darwin Award is no longer available.

RIP wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 8:23 am

Did you ever try to get across them?

When the quarries started being developed by climbers in the 1980s (we'll ignore Joe Brown's earlier forays for this) they discovered the local kids had a "route" up through them that involved walking out along water pipes (9" or 10" diameter) then grabbing chains and climbing up them to get to irons stuck into shot holes, etc. Apparently one of the chains wasn't long enough so it was extended at the bottom with a chain from an old toilet It was real life video game stuff.

The Llanberis quarries were shut overnight with no warning - the workers turned up one morning to find the gates locked. For many years the old huts high in the system still had their work jackets hanging there from the day they'd left them. Quite eerie.

Something similar happened at the Nantlle quarries - which I think is where the Dawes/Pritchard hawser shots were actually taken - Cath and I had a wander round those one day and there were still complete tap and die sets laying on benches in the engineering sheds.

Escape Goat wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 9:26 am

RIP wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 8:23 am

Did you ever try to get across them?

Well I was going to but, er, my mates didn't, erm, fancy it. Obviously I was outnumbered so we moved on elsewhere. Ahem. Of course I would have done if on my own. Obviously. Erm.

I remember visiting Pen-yr-Orsedd in the early 70's and the Blondins were still in place and operational. Only one tower left standing now sadly, although it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.




The whole area is fascinating, as Bob says because they just 'stopped' there's lots of artefacts still there unlike around, say, Bethesda where they continued quarrying with modern equipment.

'work jackets' - goats ate the bottom halves of them so they ended up a bit short .

The 'chain route' is still do-able but not sure if the actual bog chain's still there . The highly dodgy ladders are though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceGK-c0J83c

2 out of 3 for Sheffield's Edward VII postboxes.


Followed by 100km of gravel, lanes, mud, roots, clay, puddles and lots of nice people. 'Twas a good one.

Good one today, bashed out 120 miles on the (SS) grovel bike. Mix of back roads and varying standards of gravel track / path, round the Trossachs!

Landslide wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 3:52 pm 2 out of 3 for Sheffield's Edward VIII postboxes.

Oh I see how it is, I point out that there's 2 on the Island and someone has to come along with 3

I must say, that box requires a clean and repaint, you should send a strongly worded email to Royal Mail and get them on the case

htrider wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:11 pm the Trossachs!

No, it's no good, I've tried but I can't hold back. That location always puts me in mind of iffy 1970s sitcoms, as per: "I had a really painful experience in the Trossachs", "well I'm not surprised in those trousers".

Anyone up for the mission of visiting the oldest (1853) postbox? Apparently in Barnes Cross, Bishop's Caundle, Dorset. Can't be more than a couple of hours ride for you Sean .

RIP wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:21 pm

htrider wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:11 pm the Trossachs!

No, it's no good, I've tried but I can't hold back. That location always puts me in mind of iffy 1970s sitcoms, as per: "I had a really painful experience in the Trossachs", "well I'm not surprised in those trousers".

sean_iow wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:14 pm Oh I see how it is, I point out that there's 2 on the Island and someone has to come along with 3

Pretty sure it was Reg that pointed it out.
*Goes away and checks*
Yup.
Please point your opprobrium in the direction of Leighton Buzzard.

Eh? Oh aye.

Nae bother - Sean can nip out and cover the 'oldest one of all' up the road in Sherborne as mentioned above then we're all square

RIP wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 8:24 am Eh? Oh aye.

Nae bother - Sean can nip out and cover the 'oldest one of all' up the road in Sherborne as mentioned above then we're all square

I've just had a look where that is. It's 50 miles from the ferry. That's getting close to how far I can get and still get back again the same day. Looks like a mainland bivi could be on the cards. It's not far past Blandford Forum so I could use the lovely concrete hut (hovel) I used on the winter bivi

Looks like you have to take a small person along with you to complete the picture.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... tials.html

Actually, there's your ride aim! Post a card to yourself in the oldest postbox! Brilliant. That would put you well in front of Landslide and the rest of us cranks .

Yesterday's ride was a good one. Made my new audax / lightweight roadpacker bike official with a solo 300 that went well. Well, apart from the headwind riding west in the morning that dropped so I had no return leg benefit. Rode out to the Cotswolds and back and was reminded on just how beautiful the roads are around there. Stunning, I'd say. I've ridden and adjusted a loop over the last few years that takes in a number of roads in the area around Snows Hill & Andoversford, up on the 250-300m flatter high ground with views across the tops out to Cleeve Hill and the Malverns, then returns via Sustran 57 along the Sherborne valley / river Windrush. The home leg is flatter and more open. Riding east on the home leg with the low evening sun behind me and a long shadow in front is something that takes me back to roadpacking to Lake Constance and the Eurobike show, with the scenery of the N Cotswolds being not too different to NE France it was like being somewhere else entirely (the feeling-flaky ~250-270km point helps blur things). Next trip will be a 'lazy 400', will take some basic sleep-out and brew kit and spent more time in the western/Cotswold half.

jameso wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:46 am Yesterday's ride was a good one. Made my new audax / lightweight roadpacker bike official with a solo 300 that went well. Well, apart from the headwind riding west in the morning that dropped so I had no return leg benefit. Rode out to the Cotswolds and back and was reminded on just how beautiful the roads are around there. Stunning, I'd say. I've ridden and adjusted a loop over the last few years that takes in a number of roads in the area around Snows Hill & Andoversford, up on the 250-300m flatter high ground with views across the tops out to Cleeve Hill and the Malverns, then returns via Sustran 57 along the Sherborne valley / river Windrush. The home leg is flatter and more open. Riding east on the home leg with the low evening sun behind me and a long shadow in front is something that takes me back to roadpacking to Lake Constance and the Eurobike show, with the scenery of the N Cotswolds being not too different to NE France it was like being somewhere else entirely (the feeling-flaky ~250-270km point helps blur things). Next trip will be a 'lazy 400', will take some basic sleep-out and brew kit and spent more time in the western/Cotswold half.

You got some pics of your roadpacking iron horse please James...

Sorted out the end bit of my new circular route by riding up to here
IMG_20200710_123706056_HDR (1024x576) by michaelwex10, on Flickr

Then down here
IMG_20200710_124322086_HDR (1024x576) by michaelwex10, on Flickr

Up here
IMG_20200710_130702372_HDR (1024x576) by michaelwex10, on Flickr

Which leads to lots of this
IMG_20200710_140155693_HDR (1024x576) by michaelwex10, on Flickr