17th December 2009 - Satterthwaite

6 turned up at Satterthwaite on this cold evening but which route? we headed north through the village and right up Breasty Haw, this is a rewarding climb, i.e. tough but it leads onto a great section of single track and a testing descent down to the road. Now turn left and head for the climb with the aim of finding the stone fox, only we took the wrong turn and Neil and CT were left behind to navigate alone, now in the darkness you may think it possible to stop and look for the other riders lights and noise, but NO it was dark and quiet, so we re-traced our steps and found the off-road route to the fox, only no sign of the others. A lucky mobile phone call brought the others back, they had stayed on the fire road which eventually comes out at the fox (as long as you do not tee off on the side roads!) now we headed to Moor top, then down the north face, (NF) BUT it was icy and the timber sections were v'slippy, as CT came flying off and Grant had to do an emergency stop! So we decided to head along the fire road to the centre and then climb up the NF, this was not too bad as the timber sections have been removed, at the top it was cold, so off we headed looking for the best route back to the cars, now Grant & CT were at the back trying to warm up and the others took the first fire-road while we looked at the NF route but noticed no tyre tracks? again a mobile was brought into action to re-group.....bloody group rides...! Now it was v'cold with frozen gears so we looked for the shortest route back and headed down towards the centre and then took the fire roads back to the descent down Moor Lane, Charlie's lights were going out, but she manfully battled on! some where down Moor lane while CT was trying to offer some headlight in the direction of the trail to aid Charlie's Super-light, someone (no names BGB) made an overtaking manoeuvre through a gap which was a little too narrow (he's wider than he thinks he is!!) and clipped Charlies pedal, causing a big OFF, battered and bruised she carried on and we all made in to the bottom in one piece. V'cold so a quick change and into the pub, where they were just finishing some carols with live music, we had mulled wine to warm up and chilli crisps. The bikes had frozen up, or at least the mud splattered from the lower routes had frozen higher up, it was cold. Next planned ride is 7th Jan' 2010 Ings. HAPPY NEW YEAR