Mary Townley Loop

The mary townley loop signs

The mary townley loop is my long distance local loop, i live 10 miles from it and ride it from my house, its a cracking ride and i should do it more often. Today i set off with a chilled out way of thinking, i wasnt going to try beat any records, i just wanted to ride it and have fun taking pictures along the way. I join the route on Rooley moor road and usually do it anticlockwise so i dont need to ride any of it twice and also making it into a big loop from my home. The weather today was ace really nice skys, it had been pretty cold the night before so the ground was frozen solid, the trails were riding pretty fast. The loop itself comes in at around 47 miles but with me riding from home i put in well over 60, it basically climbs and decents from valleys all the way round making the total ascent of the route 6500 feet. There are plenty of killer technical climbs, fast rocky decents, moorlands, quite country roads and stunning scenery on it which is why i love it. I took plenty of pics so check them out.

just before joining the mtl on rooley moor road

nice singletrack decent after the climb from healey dell

watergrove res, theres a town under that lake

looking over littleborough

ice on the railings at summit

nice trails leading all the way round stoodley pike

decending down to hebden bridge

after the killer climb from hebden bridge

decent down to gorple res

widdop rocks, excellent views from here

just after long causeway heading up to the windmills

mary townley memorial stone after a slog up a grass climb

sunset over holcombe hill from back at rooley moor road

It took me 7 hours to do the ride with 40 mins or so of standing around taking pics which isnt bad seeing as i was taking it easy. I love this ride every time i do it

gps reading