Work and family commitments took me south late last week, so with Lucy on a first aid course all weekend, I arranged to meet up with some mates in the Peak on the Sunday, which left me with a solo day on Saturday.
It's been ages since I went out on the lanes alone, so after I'd spent a bit of time researching and planning a route, I was quite keen to check out a bunch of new lanes... then get myself to Matlock and get the bike out...
My route started from Matlock and was a steady 93 mile loop heading down towards Ashbourne and then up and around to Bakewell.
Most of the lanes were steady away with no real tricky bits, but the majority were on a limestone base so were a bit slippy in the ice and damp conditions. The day was a bit cloudy and cold but nice and dry with good vies, so although the pictures didn't come out to well, it was a grand day out.
I met loads of folk out on the trails, walkers, cyclists and horse riders, the majority of whom I chatted with. Some interesting stories about people and what they do in their lives.
One of the nicer bits of riding alone is you have no pressures to do or be somewhere, you can stop when you fancy etc... I had a bit of a mooch around Royston Grange, an interesting little stop next to a lane...
One of the things that was a bit of a mar on the day was as I passed bu Brushfield at Monsal Head.
This is a lane with some great views and a nice rocky descent, at either entrance to the lane, there is the sign, which I seem to find really offensive... at the very least it's incorrect, but then there are 3 gates in front to the farm building which force people to stop to open them, usually people leave their engine running when they do this, so is this a case of creating a problem and then moaning about it?
The final part of this that I find annoying is the sign is asking for the locals to be treated with respect, yet they cannot even be bothered to use the right name for the users of what is a public highway/road. So if it's a road, how can the users be 'offroaders'?? Then to add insult to injury, this sign has the logos of Derbyshire County Council, the National Park and Derbyshire Constabulary, are all of the authorities so ignorant of the basic tenet of signage?
Isn't respect a two way process?
Anyway once past all this utter ignorance there is then the next phase of how to ruin someones enjoyment of the day, by Derbyshire County Council looking to downgrade the lane to a bridleway and remove vehicular access altogether.
DCC do seem to be the most aggressive and offensive protagonists of lane closures in the UK that I've seen so far. They appear to have no care about due diligence or what is legal, they do just seem to be forcing through their plans to close down as many lanes in the Peak as possible. I wonder what they will do will all the illegal off road activity that will happen when they do this?
Anyway rant over and back to enjoying my day out in the Peak.
The rest of the day passed by nicely, with a bit of lunch sat enjoying the views and then some nice riding on the edge of the moors, a stark contrast to the limestone regions I had been traversing most of the day.
To suit my puerile sense of humour I took a photo of a lane name that made me smile...
And that about rounded off the day really... then it was a drive upto to Edale to recce some sites where I have teams working in the coming months and a visit to the Cheshire Cheese pub in Hope to see a mate before getting my head down for a nights sleep before a big day on the Sunday.
Derbyshire County Council Green Lanes Website Info Pages
It's been ages since I went out on the lanes alone, so after I'd spent a bit of time researching and planning a route, I was quite keen to check out a bunch of new lanes... then get myself to Matlock and get the bike out...
My route started from Matlock and was a steady 93 mile loop heading down towards Ashbourne and then up and around to Bakewell.
Most of the lanes were steady away with no real tricky bits, but the majority were on a limestone base so were a bit slippy in the ice and damp conditions. The day was a bit cloudy and cold but nice and dry with good vies, so although the pictures didn't come out to well, it was a grand day out.
I met loads of folk out on the trails, walkers, cyclists and horse riders, the majority of whom I chatted with. Some interesting stories about people and what they do in their lives.
One of the nicer bits of riding alone is you have no pressures to do or be somewhere, you can stop when you fancy etc... I had a bit of a mooch around Royston Grange, an interesting little stop next to a lane...
One of the things that was a bit of a mar on the day was as I passed bu Brushfield at Monsal Head.
The final part of this that I find annoying is the sign is asking for the locals to be treated with respect, yet they cannot even be bothered to use the right name for the users of what is a public highway/road. So if it's a road, how can the users be 'offroaders'?? Then to add insult to injury, this sign has the logos of Derbyshire County Council, the National Park and Derbyshire Constabulary, are all of the authorities so ignorant of the basic tenet of signage?
Isn't respect a two way process?
Anyway once past all this utter ignorance there is then the next phase of how to ruin someones enjoyment of the day, by Derbyshire County Council looking to downgrade the lane to a bridleway and remove vehicular access altogether.
DCC do seem to be the most aggressive and offensive protagonists of lane closures in the UK that I've seen so far. They appear to have no care about due diligence or what is legal, they do just seem to be forcing through their plans to close down as many lanes in the Peak as possible. I wonder what they will do will all the illegal off road activity that will happen when they do this?
Anyway rant over and back to enjoying my day out in the Peak.
The rest of the day passed by nicely, with a bit of lunch sat enjoying the views and then some nice riding on the edge of the moors, a stark contrast to the limestone regions I had been traversing most of the day.
To suit my puerile sense of humour I took a photo of a lane name that made me smile...
And that about rounded off the day really... then it was a drive upto to Edale to recce some sites where I have teams working in the coming months and a visit to the Cheshire Cheese pub in Hope to see a mate before getting my head down for a nights sleep before a big day on the Sunday.
Derbyshire County Council Green Lanes Website Info Pages
