We parked up at Ingleton car park in the brilliant sunshine, all set for a 27 mile trip around Ingleborough, 8 of us made the trip, Darren, (sporting his new Giant trance X4) Craig, Dick, Dan, Paul, George, Mark & myself (Des) unfortunately only 7 of us started the ride, with Paul having to retire home after encountering problems with his rear hub and not even the ‘Doctor’ could work his magic and sadly he did not continue this circuit around one of the famous three peaks, linking three long off-road stretches via stunning views across Gods own garden (sorry Paul just had to add that). It was a steady start to the ride following a back lane out of Ingleton down to Clapham. From Clapham we rode up through the tunnels & up onto Trow Gill (good climb if your into climbs, Craig & Dick showed us how it was done) from here crossed Long Scar & Sulber before meeting the B6479 that brought us down to Horton in Ribblesdale, where we had 5minutesto refresh ourselves. Instead of turning left just before the Crown pub we rode past the pub & turned left onto the Ribble Way, which proved to be another testing climb up to Birkwith (Dick proving he is worthy of the yellow jumper king of the hills) before joining the original route at Old Ing. (a very worthwhile addition to the route) We followed the Pennine Way past Long Gill (another long climb) until we reached the Dales Way for a Long Descent down to the B6255 which we followed down to Ribblehead. Dick as usual couldn’t resist the temptation of the Burger van where he carbed up on a cheeseburger & another Mars bar. Another casualty here as Marks Knee had given in, so he followed the road back to Ingleton. (just as well I think we would have had his funeral on Scales Moor) We passed under the viaduct & followed the track to Winterscales where we picked up the bridal way that took us past Bruntscar & Ellerbeck onto Scales Moor. (this sorted the men from the boys didn’t it Dazza, I can think of better names for this moor and it is not Scales!!!) We then had a steep descent at Twistleton Scar Endthen a long descent back down to Ingleton, Craig as yet to do this descent without crashing or breaking something, god loves a tryer!!! Once back in Ingleton we had a much needed & deserved pint.
This is a fantastic ride to underpin our charity ride across Scotland, and this was made extra special with this extraordinary weather we are having, it is a hard ride but well worth the effort.
