The 3 Amigos Ride Again

As the title to my blog says "The 3 Amigos Ride Again". I cannot tell you the last time I had a ride out with both John and Lee. Put it this way it has been way too long, as this mornings local trail adventure was sooooo much fun. According to Strava we covered 14.1 miles the majority of this being off road, on either farmers trails, parts of the Chapman Wells nature reserve or in the local wooded area surrounding Chapman's and Quakies. As I still do not feel 100%, being able to get a little off the beaten track and yet stay close enough to home, so that I can bail at any point is spot on.

The 3 Amigos

Even Lee who enjoys doing epic rides enjoyed this mornings bimble. I led the way and showed Lee some new trails and areas which he had not seen. It's amazing to think here we are riding somewhere so close to home yet we are always able to find or make some new route to keep us interested.

Of course it is not just the riding, it's the great banter, fun and laughs we have on each outing. Every time we go out as a threesome there is something that happens and we can either have a moan or a whine about it or as in most cases just pull the piss and laugh about it. 

This morning it didn't take long to have a bit of a whine, although it was with good reason. As we were heading along towards Craghead we were riding two abreast (checkout your highway code it is allowed). Anyhoo this cock in a Mazda 6 who couldn't wait until the road was clear to do a safe over take, proceeded to drive past within inches of us. Not only that he then beeps his horn as he passeed right alongside. You know one of those typical muppets "I pay road tax and insurance and bikes shouldn't be allowed on MY road". " F**k and Wit" come to mind.


Never mind a canny ride up to Wagtail Lane and along by the Turbines. Before getting on to the trail at the newly advertised Stream Farm Equestrian place. Or Steam farm as Lee called it after reading the sign wrong. At this point I asked John to pop his Strava on as I was interested in how far this little loop I was intending on taking the lads was. I kind of use the same short loop in order to get fit.And you can continue to just do loop after loop if you choose. It has a canny of road, up hill section, which is good for getting the old lungs working.

The route can also be quite muddy as it was today. Gave us the opportunity to act like kids and play in some puddles and mud. On completion of the loop it turned out to be 1.8 miles. I have named it "The Bath Tub Loop" To be honest I am a bit gutted as the farmer has now removed the bath tub out of the field, so I'm possibly going to have to call it something else.

Love the way John puffs out his cheeks, the other shot is even better

Lee Mr Cool as you like

Glenn I like puddles Me

Creating waves

After completing our loop it was a case of venturing off up another trail and heading along to Maiden Law, turning right at the crossroads and back down towards the Morrison Busty. This is where I showed Lee another little trail I had discovered awhich actually takes you back on to Chapman Wells. Some of this area is fenced off and quite often there can be Exmoor Ponies in the field. The area is very marshy. Way back around 2001 when there was an out break of Foot and Mouth, 150,000 sheep were buried on the Chapman Wells site and there was public outcry. You can read the small article Here.

Mmmmm

Power Cakes

 

Where

John

John

Lee

Glenn

Upon walking and riding in the area I had once asked my dad what all the pipes were, which were coming from the ground in various locations. He thought they may have been to release the build up of gas from the carcasses. As we stopped in one place next to this kind of machine type thingy with a pipe coming out of it, yes to play in more puddles, it made this weird noise that I can only describe as something like Darth Vader. This kind of freaked John out who was right next to it, so of course Lee and I started with the whole "John I am your father" and other stupid things from the Star Wars movies. I mentioned I bet when Luke had his arm chopped off by Darth that he didn't have to go to the NHS for a crappy prosthetic one.

Yeeee Hawwwww!

And Breath John

Puddle jumping done, we rode on, meandering through woodland and particularly muddy areas leading to a large field. I wanted to show John and Lee where I thought may be a good place to practice flying my drone (yet to get out with it). I did have another go in my bedroom and this time it attacked my dream catcher on my bedroom wall. Was well pissed off as I have had my dream catcher for years. There were bits of feathers all over my room. I am sure the controls are set up in the wrong directions as when I push the sticks to the left the drone flys right. I really must get outdoors with it.

Lee "Hey man it's just like Sherwood Forest LoL

Following on from the field we did a loop back towards Quakies and through a little section of wood I had never ridden in. It was quite interesting and a bit technical, so that was fun. The wood led out to the Drift and the tail end of South Moor Park, so we rode through the Park. We then took a route that would lead us all the way back up the Black Path, a path which used to be right beside the coal slag heaps, hence the name. Sure I have wrote about this in a previous blog, this path always brings back memories of my mam. In that one day I escaped the confines of our yard when I was 3 and set off up the black path to see my nana an grandad whole lived in New Kyo. Anyhoo I got a proper bollocking and my mam scared the hell out of me, by saying "Dick Dark" would get me as he lived in the pit heaps. Funny what you remember. The ride up the black path is quite a hard one. I always have a little smile to myself at the top and think of my dear old mam.

And that is about the ride over. Just a case of dropping into Stanley, my god the front street is depressing. A quick "bye bye" to John when we reach his house and then shortly after to Lee. I had to wash my bike as it was caked in mud. Ern said he would sort out my BTK Crossover as it's covered. Surprised he didn't just turn the hose on me to be fair, it has been known lol.