Sunday 8th January 2017 Beaumont College to Leighton Moss

Seven riders set off from Beaumont College heading back to Lancaster because a damaged bridge meant that the usual Green Lane route to the Halton Road was closed. The lump in the middle of Whalley Road began to warm everyone up but the pull up the Kirby Lonsdale road included stops to divest; a few of us were dressed for colder weather! The day was dank with mist and heavy cloud but very mild for the time of year. As we rode upwards we seemed to be in low cloud which oozed droplets meaning that the normally delightful descent down Sunny Bank was on a road slick with damp that required cautious cornering.

Numbers swelled at Greenlands – a particular pleasure was to see Ray Moss tucking into a scone – and as we set off for Cinderbarrow and Holme there were twelve riders (though Ray couldn’t be persuaded to join us; he had shopping to do). The group kept well together as we crossed the valley on the Pye’s Bridge Road over the A6 and up through Hale into the familiar roads around Arnside and Silverdale. Ken wasn’t hungry enough for his second scone so a detour through Silverdale towards Jenny Brown’s point was added. Leighton Moss was a pleasant lunch stop – they always get through a queue very quickly and have the right sort of light meals – though we lost a few who preferred to eat at home (it was good to see Miles on this leg of the ride).

The weather was still fairish and the ride so far had been shorter than usual, (even for a short day), so the final leg back to Lancaster was improvised for a smaller group of seven who agreed to go up Warton Crag and back to Borwick and through Over Kellet. A split at Nether Kellet (we’d lost one or two on the way…) between the Lancaster and Morecambe riders meant that four were left to return through Halton and cross over onto the cycle path back into the city. I recorded only 43 miles all told out and back from Aldcliffe but we’d had a pleasantly sociable ride in reasonable conditions.