I did some tiling not in the Peak District last week and with some urban riding for a change. With a gentle bit of moorland road with nice views to warm me up.
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We're going to need a bigger bin!
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So that'll be easier than of late I thought. Nope. And more nope.
I decided on spur of moment to carry on along an off road spur as it led to a couple of moorland tiles I had to skip on a previous ride due to fading light. Well it's only a few more KM.
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An extra 13.6km, which as I had suspected when looking at maps at home, may be more sensibly ridden on an MTB. In fact I noticed MTB tyre tracks to the side, avoiding the rock garden I rode on my 33mm tyre shod CX.
[I do like a bit of technical riding]
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I also cut a corner on a road section which again went off piste. Which although lovely, made previous off excursion seem like tarmac due to being 25% double track up then 45% down, 25cm wide, overgrown and with a quarry to fall into should you mess up.
Though as is quite frequent of late, I see the Flatlands of Manchester in the distance.
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I had a brief respite from lumpy terrain as I looped through some flat urban areas and even along a canal and along a euphemistically named road.
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Today's loop started next to the M62 and crossed over and under it several times on way around the region, but then more Pennine Bridleway [which can be incredibly hard going in places, it was 25%+ in pic below] replaced the easy urban riding and I was losing light due to the very slow average speed because there was a LOT more off road than originally planned. So when I got to the top of route if was rather dingy indeed, so I decided to cut off last section as riding moorland in dark was not wise. Ironically caused by my riding a previous section I avoided for same reason.
But at least time time I had brought a front light with me. Not my heavy proper off road lights though, so a lot of the time I rode without light because my night vision was better than the commuter light in twilight and I didn't trust the battery to last. Made for an interesting last hour or so.
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The Motorway here and the path along side it are actually the dam wall for Scammonden reservoir.
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But car is only a KM or so to go from here. Woohoo!