Simply stunning

After the snow we've had over the past few weeks, and the subsequent thaws, Monday night proved to be the best for dumping lovely stuff all over - I woke up to the loveliest winter wonderland I've seen in years. The downside? I was due to be in Ashton for an appointment and then in to work where I was training staff before getting some management training for myself.

Getting dressed I shoved on my walking boots again - they've been worn for weeks on end now - and wrapped up warm, plodded downstairs, opened the door to find lovely deep powdery snow. Stepping out of my door I sunk to my knees in it and knew it'd be a great day regardless of what happens. As there's a severe lack of grit in my borough (Tameside) only the really important main roads were gritted - I live on one such road and there was not an ounce of salt, grit or any other substance on the roads except for the snow. Cars were stupidly trying to drive through it, lorries were just abouts coping with the depth but not with the braking capabilities required. I knew no buses would be running as First always suspend services early, an Arriva driver who was walking home told me his fleet had been suspended, so I knew it was only a matter of time before Stagecoach did the same. I checked the travel info on my phone and it was saying expect severe delays and disruption - blatantly obvious given the conditions. By the time I walked across the road to the bus stop, this had changed to all bus services calling in any fleet that had managed to get out of the depot.

Mere moments later a colleague rang to say don't bother coming into work as the boss was snowed in (she lives halfway up a steep hill in Oldham) and other staff couldn't get in. One down, one to go. Phoned regarding my appointment and, again, was told to not bother.

Play day for me then!

After getting changed I set off on a mission. Armed with my camera and prepared for deep, deep snow I retraced my footsteps from New years Eve knowing that it'd be hard going due to the snow frequently covering my knees (I'm over 6ft tall, with long legs, so it gives you an idea of how deep it was).

I made my down to Berry Brow (a valley with one very steep side and one slightly less steep side) and found car, after abandoned car on the road side. Further down the hill and men in flouro jackets with tractors and vans were towing cars, vans and even people up the hill in the direction I came from. A couple of buses were stuck in the valley bottom awaiting their own tow trucks with a line of haphazardly dumped vehicles smeared all over the hillside ahead of them.

I plodded on relishing the effort I was putting in to get where I wanted to be, knowing it to be an amazing workout. Arriving at the fishing pond where I'd been on NYE, I was grinning from ear to ear to see it totally snow covered and every tree looking like it should be on a Christmas card. Simply stunning!

The little green sign in the photo is usually standing proud about 2 maybe 3ft above the water line, as you can see it's almost covered.

Wading through the magical scenery, drinking in the breathtaking views I arrived at the field by Medlock Vale farm. The proud trees in the centre of the field looked awesome and the lane to the side was just so inviting. Walking down it I crossed the river and saw that my island had disappeared under the snow and the river was frozen over in many places - it's not a particularly slow flowing river either, so proof that it was very cold and we'd have an extreme amount of snow.

The valleys were amazing to walk through, with me working ever harder to get through the snow, steps were invisible so it's lucky I know the area and where they are. Upon reaching the Oldham Way at the top of the valley I was finally seeing other people - although only a few of them. They'd made their way to the golf course to sledge the hills and slide on the frozen river, with some stupidly deciding to sledge down the sheer drop to my side.

I made my way to Daisy Nook to find the cafe only just opening up after the owner had taken forever to get there - he'd been told a road was closed when it wasn't. I carried on past the cafe and scrambled up past the old lock flights to reach Sammy's Basin which I knew would be frozen over and then further over to Crime Lake (which doesn't always freeze over). Past the Basin and I heard ducks having a bit of a strop. Not really surprising considering their habitat had totally frozen over leaving only a patch of water 12ft across for them all to swim in and feed. All too soon I saw some huge webbed footprints in the snow on the ice-covered water, followed them and found a very handsome huge swan having the biggest paddy I've ever seen a creature have and dishing out dirty looks to everyone he saw. He was really slamming his feet down hard and giving the odd honk. Poor thing.

Over at Crime Lake the scene was just something we rarely get here with deep snow smothering everything, leaving trees looking like they've cotton wool draped all over them and the snow on the water easily reaching 3 or 4 foot deep.

The only colour in this white and brown world was that of Crime Farm on the far bank perched on the hillside, surveying it's surroundings.

Heading back from the lake I noticed the swan had changed direction, followed his footprints and found him bullying a mallard to get out of the 'bird bath' so he could get in. The mallard didn't give much resistance - can't blame him really - and he plodded off to his harem of females.

My journey home was done by road as by now the trails I'd come along were swarming with kids and big kids alike all wanting to take advantage of the freak snow and play.

Arriving home to the seriously deep stuff I decided I wasn't yet tired enough, so set about building a snowman (instead of a penguin like I did before Christmas). After building him, I made him an igloo/snow dome type thing.

Before I knew it I'd clocked up a stonking 8 hrs of playing in the snow. I hadn't really thought I'd been out in the snow that long. Looking at my camera it's a different story though as I have over 200 photos to mull over. All depicting the best snowy day I've had in years!

Stats:

Miles - approximately 20

New Years Eve

A little late, but here it is ->

Seeing as I had absolutely no intentions of going out and getting ratted in the evening (or any part of the day really) I went for a nice crisp walk on New Years Eve day.

I set off from mine wading through a slushy gloopy mess to get from my door to the road before sploshing my way down to the lovely Bay Horse and the beginnings of the climb up to where the true walk would start.

Once at the start of the off road route I slid my way along the access road (Vale Lane) to the entrance for the fish pond, looking gorgeous in the hazy sunshine and frosty ice on parts of it, before heading properly off road to the muddy pathways where I did my coppicing in November, along those and through a field to bring me out by Medlock Vale Farm and it's gloriously muddy tracks churned up by the frequent manoeuvres of the funky tractor.

These tracks led to a bridge over the Medlock Valley with steep slopes down to the river side, which I slid my way down, and made my way to one of the little islands in the river (the water is only ankle deep to get here).

After a scramble back up the slope my route took me across the undulations in the area, crossing the river again on a rather precarious little bridge (no rails, just the ice for company and the babbling river below) before hauling ass up a steep hillside to get to the Oldham Way at the top of one side of the valley with Brookdale Golf Course on the opposite side, sheer drops to the left of me and a barbed wire fence for the farm close to my right.

Splodging my way along here I was often met with very deep and thick mud patches, too big to jump across and no way around. The only answer was to walk through it. Admittedly it was quite good fun, so I didn't really mind. Over and across a few stiles, then it got even muddier as I had to squelch my way across a field then another stile, then along the Jericho Trail to Stannybrook where I tried not to slide down the hill towards Medlock Hall Farm and scrambled my way back up another hillside along the trail to the start of Riversvale Drive, turned off to head to Sammy's Basin then off again to splodge through the wildflower meadow (it is allowed), past more areas where I hacked down trees, down the hill, through the river to clean my boots a little (it didn't really work for the boots, but it did on the gaiters) and hauled ass up the other side of the valley to the cafe.

After chowing down on a bacon butty and steaming tea I hauled ass home to a very welcome hot bath and to flop on the sofa with a big grin on my face!

Stats -

Miles: approx 8

Lots of fun had.

Pootles

I thought I'd have a few back to back rides, where I'm riding daily for a few days, so that I can see exactly how my riding is going: am I getting fitter or not yet, am I worse than last year or fitter etc. So here's how Sunday and Monday went -

Sunday
Seeing as the weather wasn't too great during the day I went for a ride in the evening after devouring a roast beef tea at my moms. So, at 8pm I clambered into my gear, made sure Everest was all set and set off out towards the hills. Through the roadworks and to the contraflow pausing at the crossroads for the lights to change. At the amber light I pushed off (still in the contraflow) and crossed the junction speeding up as I had a car right up my ass. When hisssssssss. Of all the places to get a flat, and an instant flat at that, it had to happen in a contraflow and right outside a pub. Mmm, not the best of places to be hanging around outside while in full cycle gear.

I managed to get into a lay by and onto the pavement to a fence to sort out the tyre. As it was an instant flat it proved a little harder than normal to locate it, but when I did it was a double puncture - almost as if I'd ridden over a giant staple - but there was nothing stuck in the tyre/tube, so after I patched it up I continued on my way.

I rode pretty much straight into Ashton and back via Guide Bridge for a pretty much straightforward route. Other than having to stop to sort out the tyre it was a good ride bar the fierce headwind I got on the way back.

Sunday stats -
Still rather warm
Average speed: 15.3mph
Miles: 6.28

Monday
I was all for heading into the hills today, but as the hills were looking very gloomy and I wasn't really in the mood to get rained on in any way, I chose to head out to Gorsey Lane for a little bit of climbing.

I set off out through Littlemoss and alongside Daisy Nook to Cranbourne Rd and over to Hurst where I got onto King's Rd and it's climb up past the war memorial and stopped to admire the view at the top alongside the edge of Ashton Golf Course looking over to Hartshead Pike looming out of the gloom.
Once I'd descended to Mossley Rd and Luzley I enjoyed the superb fast descent back into Ashton, where I trained my neck to get back into the aero position it's been unable to hold since my accident (think it's simply lack of being in that position).

Soon I was climbing back out of Ashton towards Oldham and turning off the road into Daisy Nook proper for a muddy off road jaunt for a bacon butty. I very nearly came off on one of the drops down the side of the lock flight, but somehow held on as the path seemed to slide down the gradient with me! After devouring the sarnie i set off across the steep Stannybrook Rd onto the Jericho Trail crossing the M60, then trying to get up a muddy hill with the rear wheel spinning out every now and then. After the 'n'th time, I gave up and walked up the hill before mounting again for the last section before the car park by the fish farm.

A nice fast-paced ride back to another lot of roadworks and road closures brought me alongside Droylsden FC and all too soon to the roundabout where Paul painfully perfected his superman impression over a bonnet many, many years ago. Thankfully I tweak my rides this way so I leave the roundabout by the nearest exit to that which I'm entering from and soon I hurtled alongside Droylsden High before joining the one-way system and arrived home.

Monday stats -
Warm though cloudy
Average speed: 12.7mph
Miles: 13.97

In respect of riding days back-to-back, I seemed to manage quite well. Monday's average seems about right for the climbs regardless of whether I'd ridden 12hrs earlier or not. The real test for me will be riding the day after a track session (sadly I've not been back on the track since January time).

So maybe my fitness is improving. Maybe I'm just a tad more mentally stronger. Maybe.

*Pictures will follow for Monday's ride soon*

Monday meander

My weekend passed by without even getting on the bike and after last nights events I wasn't sure I'd be able to today, but I gritted my teeth, ignored the pain, forced my gloves on and got out. It had to be a short ride as if I got a flat I wouldn't have been able to fix it given the state of my thumb and the fact I couldn't (and still can't) really use it properly, if at all.

The ride followed one of my common, just out for a quick un routes - into Ashton, through Bardsley to Daisy Nook and back home via the Jericho Trail and Littlemoss.

Every jolt sent waves of pain through my thumb and steering ended up being a one-handed affair near the end, but miles are miles and one little ride adds to the mileage I'm building up no matter how short it is.

Stats -
Lovely and warm though very cloudy and a little drizzly
Maximum speed: 23.9mph
Average speed: 12.8mph
Miles: 12.50
Climbed: 118ft

Easy pootle

Seeing as the sun was shining when I woke up early, I threw on the cycle gear and practically bounced out of my place for an easy ride. I opted for an easy ride on a route I know extremely well, with just a few tweaks to keep it fresh. The main tweak being a little bit more off road stuff along a portion of the Jericho Trail.

Stats - view route
Maximum speed: 31mph
Average speed: 13.9mph
Miles: 11.92
Climbed: 256ft
Time taken: 50 minutes

Friday Fun

I had planned on cycling on Friday, but decided to go for a wee wander instead. But I'm glad I did.

I set off towards Berry brow and past the Millstream Animal Shelter heading up towards Woodhouses via the narrow, twisty lanes that climb up Medlock Road and past centuries old cottages with very sweet names: Rose Cottage, Pear Cottage, Christmas Cottage, Clayton View.

Once at the top of the hill and into Woodhouses proper I came across a little building that looked like it was a little church or sunday school (although I'm not convinced of this seeing as there is a church at the other end of the road and the village doesn't seem big enough to warrant 2 churches).

A stint in Daisy Nook followed this on road section. Lots of Mama Ducks were around with their broods, including a Coot leading out a brood of Moorhens!

Sadly the old Pinch Farm has been left to fall apart and is now a dangerous derelict building. Only the old iron bridge over the canal is still in good shape. Take a look here to see the farm in all its glory.

Further along the canal is the ford and wooden bridge by Sammy's Basin and the old locks descending down to the Dark Tunnel and the Yellow Bridge area. I turned off just by the side of Sammy's Basin to enter the woods and follow the valley down to the stone slab bridge over the Medlock and then climb back up the valley side to bring me out by the Yellow Bridge (where it used to be anyway).

Once I'd had a brew at the visitor centre I crossed over Stannybrook Rd and set off along the Jericho Trail to pass Cinderland Hall Farm and follow the route of the now defunct Hollinwood Canal. The main portion of the canal that is 'open' water is that in Daisy Nook; once on the Jericho Trail there is some water but it's very full with reeds so there's no water fowl about, but there is still plenty of wildlife.

Sadly as I was walking along here, my memory card became full so I ran out of space for pictures.

This portion of the canal brought me out in Littlemoss by the Railway Pub and gave a pleasant walk through Greenside to the fiveways roundabout and through Sunnybank Park and later Seymour Rd Park to my moms.

Stats - view route

Sunny, clear, hot, gentle breeze

Miles: 7.5

Climbed: 180ft