18 miles Medium

Five of us this week, Des, Paul, Ash, Dave & Screw set off from Embsay, picking up the bridalway towards Flasby, The bridalway takes you through Flasby Estate past the shooting lodges a very picteresque area within the woods, as the bridalway turned to open fields it was a contest to see who could get the muddiest, a contest won by Screw who was wet through. Another technical area as we returned to the woods which consisted of peat bogs and rocks was negotiated by Screw with no brakes, we decided to fix his brakes when we got to the bottom because although he was entertaining us it wasn't really safe. At Flasby we followed the road down through Hetton & onto Rylstone where we picked up the bridalway over Barden Moor, a very stiff steep climb on rocky shale. Dave said "he was sure he'd burst a lung" After the climb the trail as been produced using sandy grit across the top of the moor. (very energy sapping, it found Ash out who was very tired after his bottle of Kopparberg on Friday night, YES A FULL BOTTLE!!) Eventually we reached the downhill YAHOO! Paul was off followed by Dave & Screw, very fast track which is rocky in places, Des was hanging back keeping an eye on the tired Ash. We again reached the road where we had two options either the clean direct route down the road back to Embsay or the muddy bridalway with more bogs, we chose the latter living up to our name. At the bottom of the hill & back on the road to Embsay, Ash treated us to a few more wheelies just to show us he did have a bit left. After a quick clean-up we went to the Cavandish Pub where we had some good grub & a good pint.

Sorry no pics this week