Two sunny weekends in a row – I think the holiday-ers have brought the weather back with them!
Riding first – I’ve recently moved into a new house in Menston which has the immense virtue of being 50 yards from the local station. It was this that led to my hopping on a train on saturday morning to Settle with the intention of linking some classic Dales bridleway riding all the way back to my starting point. The weather was glorious and the hills were remarkably quiet (at least until I reached Kilnsey Moor at lunchtime) and I was having a whale of a time. Sadly that was brought to an end when I pinch flatted coming down Mastiles Lane rather quickly and completely trashed my rim and tyre before I could stop. After fixing the flat and discovering that my tyre bead no longer gripped I realised that carrying on wasn’t really an option so I limped back to Skipton Station with my tail firmly between my legs.
Tim spent the weekend in Wales climbing, bivi-ing on friday night at Cloggy. After a damp start to the day he dispatched The Corner (HVS) then The Boulder (E1), Great/Bow Combination (HVS) and Silhouette (E2). On sunday he retired to Castle Inn Quarry for some dry sports routes conveniently situated in a pub car park. Saturday sounds like an epic day!
Jake went up to Wether Fell near Hawes on Saturday to finally try to squeeze in a decent flight after the weather had curtailed recent attempts to get out. He set off at around 11 am and landed near Helmsby 3 hrs later. Full flight details can be found at the pgcomps.org website.
Kevin took to the local moors running spending Saturday on Ilkley Moor and Sunday on the opposite side of the valley sunning on Barden Fell. As ever on a sunny sunday afternoon the fells were packed, great to see so many people out enjoying the countryside!
James took Friday off to spend the day at the Headingley test. He claims not to have had anything to do with England’s miserable performance but I’m not convinced. Either way it sounds like a great day was had picnicing in the sunshine and trying to find something to cheer about.