Well, I got up late, so I didn't have time for the looong ride I was hoping to do today
So I did some quality miles.
Up to my old house in Mankinholes (where the stone sheep are
).
I pottered down to town, and started up the hill (there's a good few contour lines round here
Hills? This is a hill!
By the way, I notice that I erred on the cautious side - that wall top right is the vertical.
This road is cool, cause it narrows to footpath width at the top, and so cars can't cut through (though they would probably scare themselves stupid if they tried
)
I struggled on up, winding past the farms, over The Rough, where there was a mountain biker twiddling his granny ring, while I was huffing and puffing away on Mac's woefully inappropriate gearing. But I couldn't catch him before he branched off to go up to the reservoirs on the tops.
Through Lumbutts, stopping to take a pic of the waterwheel tower I mentioned in my 'Up the Cliff...' ride. This photo is not taken from the bottom, but about four or five metres up the side on the road
I thought I deserved a bit of roughstuff again (you can't keep me off it!
), so I took a bit of the Pennine Bridleway past the side of the Top Brink pub (very nice). This used to be my walk to the pub & back, cause it comes out at the top almost directly opposite my old house.
You can see the characteristic line of worn stones typical of many of our packhorse trails round here. These routes seem to go back to the iron age, and some of the stonework is mediaeval.
Next is what I came here for. A sharp right and a short rise to rush to reach Mankinholes Cross - one of many stone items round here with religious connotations (the Abbeys owned all the grazing lands), which seem to be waymarks.
Trespassing to photograph the Cross, I re-learned a basic skill - don't climb the gate your bike is leaning against, unless you
want it to fall over
That's the view towards Stoodley Pike type direction. Here's looking across the Calderdale dip (you hardly know it's there) towards Blackshawhead
Saving the best till last, I took two more photos from there, but I'll put them in in a minute. First, let me tell you that I descended like a demon down the road we called 'The Alps', with its hairpins, open drops and narrow sections by blind bends which is where (today included), you meet the bus coming the other way
I hit a new max speed, which may be unimpressive to some, but pleased me - 63kph.
Just over a couple more bumps and home - a good ride. Some pushing, but more riding than I'd expected, and a huge great smile on my face.
Here's the other pix I took from the Cross:
first posted 23 July 2006
