That evening was the Sheffield Friday Night ride - Hidden Hillsborough. Mick who's imported this idea from London took us for a run up to the Birley stone near Grenoside, and then up the other side through to Loxley for a pub visit before heading back to Kelham Island. Mick has craftily scheduled the rides to be close to the full moon, and we were treated to beautiful, slightly pre-harvest moon as we crossed over to Loxley. I'm doing the next FNR, on the 2nd of October, on the topic of snickets, gennels and tracklements - why not come along?
Friday night riders check the view at the Birley Stone
The next day saw myself & the missus head up to Harrogate to join in the Sustrans
trailblazine ride for the Roses route - the next proposed Coast to Coast ride, joining the famous c2c and the trans-pennine trail. This route starts at Morecambe and will end at Bridlington.
If I hadn't broken my toe we would have joined the ride at Settle on the Friday, but we Settled
for Harrogate instead. So we caught the Northern Rail "fast" service to Leeds - normally no problem getting bikes on this train - and ran into Tony Gore, (big-T at Riding High) who was on his way to Scotland for a ride with his Airnimal in a bag. We continued to Ilkley and had a very pleasant ride over to Harrogate, climbing up to the Moors and passing the ominous domes of Menwith Hill.
Windfarm with Menwith in the background.
We found the Sustrans gang enjoying Pizza in Harrogate, and arranged to meet
the next morning. We followed the Beryl Burton way between Harrogate and Knaresborough - a bit in need of TLC I thought - stopped for coffee by the Nidd, had an exquisite run along the river and made our way through to York, where a Green Fair was in progress and lunch was provided by the council. From what we saw the route will be very attractive to tourists, and hopefully the improvements that will be needed to bring it up to scratch will benefit local cyclists too. Having a couple of hours to spare we also sampled Route 65 to the north of York, along with the York-Selby route one of my favourites. Caught the train back to Sheffield with no problems (Despite having the wrong tickets!) and had a quick turnaround to go to Oxford for a training course. (I suppose I should mention that in the meantime, Sustrans rangers were gathering to prepare work for a new walking and cycling route through Beeley Woods)
Although the course (PRINCE2) was quite intensive, I did get a few opportunities to stroll around Oxford, and what a pleasant place it is - demonstrating that if a town is plesant to cyclle in it will be pleasant and loveable for everyone. The riverside path was buzzing with walkers, cyclists (inluding the inevitable sculling coaches) and joggers, while the road were also busy with cyclists. Oxford has implemented a default 20mph policy and this has really made the city a very pleasant place to be. I certainly wished I'd had a bike with me!
Coming up to date, on Saturday, 12th Sept, probably the best day of the year for weather, I went to a Sustrans Liaison Ranger East Mids meeting. Although Sheffield isn't really in the East Mids, my "patch" as a Liaison ranger used to cover NE derbyshire, until I hived it off to Paul Balderson who is doing a fabulous job of putting pressure on Chesterfield and Derbyshire councils to develop a rational cycling strategy for the area - there is a glaring omisssion in the NCN map, between Langley Mill and Chesterfield Station where you can pick up the TPT, although the route for cyclists heading for Sheffield could be made more attractive as well - which decidedly is in the E.Mids. Cyclists particularly in the east of Sheffield do make use of NE Derbyshire, and Nottingham & Derby aren't that far away, so my presence at these events is legitimate I feel.
Sustrans Liaison Rangers gather at Newark Castle station.Getting to Newark was straightforward enough, again using the Northern "Fast" service to Nottingham, and an East Mids trains service to Newark (this train had 5 bikes on which didn't phase the conductor, in fact he wanted to chat about what would be the best bike for him to buy)
Newark is quite well sorted for bike routes - we sampled route 64 which uses a crafty combination of on and off-road paths to get you out over the railway, under the A64 and away through the fields towards Lincoln, and in a South-easterly direction take you towards Nottingham. Following the meeting I set off along this route towards Nottingham - the first few miles are on disused railway, then you take to quiet roads, heading into the Vale Belvoir before heading east towards Nottie. It was hot and I have to say it was hard going at first, still suffering from my four-week layoff, and two pints and a bellyfull of sarnies probably didn't help - I didn't seem to be able to rehydrate
The last section runs alongside the busy A52, and I opted to hop on the train at Bingham instead. I needed to be in Derby for early evening and was running short of time, so got on the canal towpath in Nottie to head out to Beeston Lock before switching to NCN6, then on the main road into Derby - should have peeled off a bit before I did though because I got onto the A52 again which is scary! Soon got into Pride Park though and along the river path which takes you through the city centre and along the Derwent to Little Eaton, where I met the missus and we headed into town for a Steve Earle concert which was excellent.
