Monday 22 August 2016

Lancashire Lanes

Well it's been another crazy month for work and add to that the 400 has been in having a full strip down and replacement of almost every bearing and seal on it and that was riding out the window!

However, Lucy & I managed to get an afternoon out in Lancashire this weekend, specifically to go ride Salter Fell, which is one of the longer lanes but also one of the few left in Lancashire it appears!! We got there, unloaded the bikes and set off, this area is lovely and a real hidden gem, lots of hidden valleys and open moorland, wildlife and scenery...

We were greeted with the usual British council favourite method of drawing your attention to something...

Nice positive signage!!

The northern end of the lane
The lane started really easily, stretching away into the hills before us, as we went through the gate, we saw a lone rider approaching so thought to wait at the gate and close it after he'd gone, as normal though he stopped for a chat, on his CCM GP450, he was out on a solo ride day from somewhere in southern Lancashire and had taken B roads and some lanes to get to Salter before heading home, a very happy chappie with an obvious pride about his bike...

Lucy and I set off after our chat and had a bit of a blast along the good surface, before starting to drop into the little rough bits along the trail. The heather was a lovely colour at this time of year, the shooting sport use of the land very obvious with all the huts etc spread around.



As we came to the final parts of the lane and the descent back to the valleys, we came across a stone with some carvings on it, these need a little more investigation, so I'll see what I can dig up, plenty of history there reading these words!






We also came across a sign saying this was on the Whisky Trail, now that does need investigation!!

The trails gets a bit rougher under the wheel on this descent and we saw out first walkers for the day, a couple enjoying the mixed weather and great views and another couple heading back to their car, a smile and a cheery wave as we passed by...



Once down off Salter, we decided to try to make a loop of it, with a few of the trails local to Ingleton before heading back to the van... some were lovely and clearly not to well used, others have gone back to nature or have been lost to the NERC act unfortunately.


Our ride ended with a trip to the great little friendly chippy in Ingleton, where we bumped into Stuart Monk, the TRF RoW officer for the area, so a lively chat was had about laning before finishing up and heading back to the van...


Another lovely afternoon in a new area for us, plenty more to go at it seems!!