Rooley moor road

The snow is thawing at my house and i havent been riding for a week due to a cold. So i decided to head out over Rooley moor hopefully in search of a nice ride and not deep snow.
The way to Rochdale was pretty much riding through slush and was fairly easy going, ashworth valley was still frozen and the usual river crossing was frozen solid with aot of snow lying on it.

Gaining height onto the moors was fairly easy, it was now not thawing and was below freezing, 3 inch's of fresh snow was lying on the trails and i was making fresh tyre tracks. Once onto rooley moor road it started getting interesting it was very hard, 1st gear all the way to the top it seemed like it took forever. The wind was blowing hard on the moors and it was getting cold, parts of the road its self were free from snow due to the wind, other parts were lying in snow drifts upto 3 feet. Once into cragg quarry it was sheltered and a good 6-7 inch of snow lay on the floor which made it extremly hard to ride

Once i had rode through the quarry it was a slow decent to the gate through deep snow drifts and snow free trail, every snow drift meant getting off the bike and wading through them.

The gate was unable to open due to a foot of snow around it but i was easily able to stride over it. The decent now down to edenfield proved to be the hardest stretch of all, it usually takes less than 5 minutes but i battled my way down in 20 minutes stopping and starting all the time, once back on the road i rode home quick as possible to get warm. The ride usually takes me uner 2 hours in the snow it took me 3 and a half hours.

Snow biking

The first decent amount of snow has fallen now so me and shaun headed out from work over holcombe hill via our usual route there, outwood nature trail, radcliffe bury canal and then brandlesholme road to holcombe.

                                                      radcliffe bury canal
The nature trail was fairly easy going in the snow as was the canal foot path only slowing us down a few mph, the roads were still pretty bad riding through slush and ice but we had put our new continetal spike claw tyres on which worked excellent in the ice. I new from previous years that getting up the front of holcombe hill in snow is impossible until it has been stamped down by thousands of walkers. Sure enough there was a bit of pushing to be done up it but i managed to ride most of it and i was glad to see the top.

                                                The top of holcombe hill

From the tower we took the top road across the moors to robin hoods well, this proved to be very hard with it being 1st gear all the way and pushing hard on the pedals all the time with the odd bit of walking, we made it to robin hoods well with snow clogging up all of my rear cassette.

                                                   half way across the moor

                                   clogged up rear cassette by robin hoods well

The decent down robin hoods well was ace, wheels were drifting round every slight bend and it seemed longer than usual in the snow probably cause we were going alot slower, we headed down to irwell vale and back along the old train tracks to stubbins where shaun went home and i made the 8 mile journey on the road back to mine. 25 miles in just under 3 hours it usually takes me just under 2.

scotland day 7 remote road ride

I had taken 2 bikes with me to scotland my trek ex 9 mountain bike and my trek 1.9 road bike. I had told my self i was going to force myself out on the road bike at least once as i had a ride in mind that looked ace on the map. So the 7th day of my scotland trip i deceided to head out on it. I was a bit worried when i woke up as the temp had been -5 through the night and there was a hard frost on the road, i let the sun rise to defrost the road and set off at 10.30am. I headed down and through fort william on the a82 for 14 miles to the corran ferry terminal and jumped on the ferry (which is free to cyclist's, excellent) to ardgour.

                                                        on the ferry

Once across i let the cars get off and go where ever they were going and i set off on the a861 southwards, it followed the coast down for a few miles and the views across the loch to glencoe were amazing

After a few miles the road turned away from the coast and headed inland there was a small climb from here into the mountains along the side of the river tarbert once at the top i decented down into glen tarbert. Dropping down into the glen there was a massive decrease in temperture and there was frost and ice all over the road, the river that ran at the side of me was frozen i reckon it must have been a really cold night here

I rode across the glen on quiet country lanes through the small town of strontian and along side of loch sunart dodging black ice all the way, the decents were alot slower than i should of been going but i really didnt want to come a cropper in the middle of nowhere it is really remote round here. I started heading north and went round the end tip of loch shiel up another climb and the down to loch moidart from here a big climb over the hills led back down to the coast with nice views over the sounds of arisaig after another 10 miles of following the coast i arrived at the t juction of the a830 a road with cars on.
From the ferry termianl to this t junction was around 45 mile and over those miles i only past 7 cars (yes i was counting them).

                                            Along the side of the sound of arisaig

The a830 goes straight back to fort william in 25 miles i stopped at one of the lochs to take a picture as it was deadly still.

 I rode back as hard as could for the last 20 miles and managed to do it in under a hour, i rode through a short snow shower which made my face nearly freeze up, i wanted to make the ride upto a 100 mile by adding in a extra 15 mile loop but i was so cold when i got back to fort william deceided a warm shower and a beer sounded better. Anyway 85 miles is a good length for a road ride.
Was a cracking ride that i will prob do again when i have a free day up there, would like to do it again in warmer weather so i dont have to worry about ice.

                                                Gps reading from the ride

I had 2 days left in fort william but unfortunatly the weather got colder with it going down to -10 some nights and snow moved in, so i chilled out for the last 2 days eating food and relaxing