Pennine Bridleway Exploration #12×100

New Bike, New Route

With the British weather being so busy since Christmas, my #12×100 mileage had been a bit pants through January.  So, with a steely determination and wearing almost every item of technical fabric I possess, I headed out to try a new loop on Saturday.

The Pennine Bridleway cuts all over the foothills of the Pennines near where I live, and I’ve ridden little bits of it up near Hollingworth Lake a few times.  I figured that I couldn’t really call myself a Rochdalian mountain biker until I’d explored a bit more of it, though.

I chose to do half of the route which Evans Cycles had used for an organised ride the week before, heading along the canalside before heading up to Watergrove Reservoir and taking the PBW across the hills to Summit, between Littleborough and Todmorden.

Pennine Bridleway and Rochdale Canal Loop

Out by the PBW, back by the canal.

The snow began as I left home and continued for the whole ride.  I was loving it.  I’ve found that snow itself isn’t slippy.  It’s compacted snow and hidden ice that’s slippy.  I only had a single arse/floor interface, when I failed to spot a large frozen puddle beneath my wheels until the bike suddenly flipped rubber-side-up and dumped me unceremoniously on my side.  The only saving grace was that the ice was thick enough to support my weight, so I crawled back to my feet, checked that nobody had seen anything (they hadn’t, it was pretty deserted thanks to the weather) and cracked on with my ride.

I’ve stuck a few photos here for your enjoyment, and to remind me what a great time I had.  If you like them, please say so below 🙂 If you hate them, then shut up, you’re wrong 😉

After a few miles on the PBW and arriving at Summit, I decided that getting back home along the canal towpath was the most sensible idea because, quite frankly, I’d run out of bovril.  So, tucked my head down and cracked on home.

If you want to, you can see the map at my DailyMile site.  Tell ’em Phill sent you 🙂

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4 comments on “Pennine Bridleway Exploration #12×100

  1. Robin Crampton

    Nice pictures, but I don’t like snow, or falling off. Never going to go skiing, I don’t want to go anywhere on holiday that’s colder than where I live. Glad you had a good time.

  2. Phill

    Don’t sit on the fence Robin, say what you feel. I do draw the line at actually holidaying anywhere cold though, I’m with you on that one! 🙂

  3. Carl Smith

    You should give the Mary Townley Loop a go.
    48 miles of Hell^H^H^H^HFun 🙂

    I have not done it all yet, and what I have done has been over various rides/days (go along bits of it on a lot of my rides out).

    Saw a chunk of PBW at Diggle this weekend (was on the diggle jiggle) Such a fantastic resource, that I never knew about before I got into cycling.

    The part up by Summit over the railway tunnel is pretty harsh (depending which way you go of course)… last time we did that it was really muddy and had to push up some of it.

    http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/penninebridleway/downloads.asp?pageid=37 worth a poke around 🙂

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