Well in comparison to that epic tile bagging, so far this year I have only been out twice to get max square tiles.
This was due to finally catching up with family elsewhere after Covid and then having to be at home whilst work was being done on house.
The first was a 9.3km walk, albeit one with 800+m climbing to nab a single tile that I missed last year by a 10m metres due to confusing signage and obfuscation of rights of way paths.
I had wanted to walk that area for ages because the rocky outcrops are very striking when you drive past.
So missing tile gave me a good excuse to finally visit Ramsey Rocks and The Roaches, just above Leek.
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Only ride I've managed so far regarding my max square was a mere 25km bike ride in silly hot temps to get some moorland tiles near Ripponden that I should have got on a previous ride. One which I had to truncate the diversion from south side because I was already running out of light by time I got there.
See map of tiles missed on that ride below...
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Those two tiles were off road and along quite brutally techy trails at times, so that ate up a lot of the day.
Anytime I ride moorland areas, I assume rides to last an awful lot longer than you would think. And then they take longer again.
So this was collecting the missing tiles from previous loop. Despite only 25% of route being off road, I correctly guess the MTB was the sensible choice for that day. Whereas the CX was the better choice for above ride despite the rocky terrain in places , due to far longer road miles, which just a drag on a full sus MTB. Though the newer version of my CX that can take bigger tyres whilst weighing even less, would be the perfect choice for my very mixed on/off road rides.
Steep Lane was indeed steep. But not even close to the steepest climb on route.
The road up from Triangle past here was a lot steeper