Been working on my motivation as well as getting worried that a time might come when I can't make my R2WFH work for me. Shirly I need to ensure I'm getting closer to that ride being 2.5H and not over 3H which might be possibly whats happening of late. Powermeter to the rescue - well I usually have the power meter on the 'roadie pretending to be gravelly bike' but I tend to just look ay the cute number go up and down whenever I decide to push harder on the pedals - I got myself connected to a training plan which integrates to the Wahoo.
Yeaterdays ride was supposed to be a 1H painful session. So, naturally I rode around the block for about 40 mins and ensured nothing would hurt. Not good enough so todays threshold session would need to be followed to the dot. Got out there and did a bit of gravel to Wessenden to get my monthly pics. Obviously on the gravel sections I couldn't hold the power that the navigator was telling me. So I concentrated on not falling off. Thankfully after an hour of the traning plan, the session was over and I could go back to just looking at the cute numbers. Nothing hurting too much. So off I continued...
Packed was a 6 pack of oat biscuits and some emergency sarnies. Getting to and across Wessenden Head is hard work where my mate Kris almost died once with sideways hail. Thankfully it was his near-death expereince that alerted the 'lets get a rambo binliner over him at the nearest shop' team. So they never noticed that i too was dying on that there summer ride all them years ago. But these days, with 4 years of hanging around with the Bearboners, I like to think of myself as a bit 'ard'. I was gonna go fetch them pics on this here winters day
Just aswell the temps were 7c on departure.
Hope you've not got too bored and the rest I shall attempt with little more words.
First section of proper gnarl and I wondered whether my Egen would get up there.
Answer was no and the riding lasted about 12 metres. So I walked up and took a pic of this beauty. The tree that fell about 5 years ago in the storms and blocked the path.
Got to about 300m from Castle Hill and the 'plan' was almost over. Whilst it decided what I was doing whilst I should've been sweating my bottom off, I notice the view overlooking Huddersfield. Surely I could find my (dads) house from here. I could, kindof: it's slightly left of centre between the viaduct/train bridge and the double white block of flats.
That pic through the viewranger-eye. Lower Crosland Moor is where we were brought up, AKA Thornton Lodge.
A rainbow was out but I'm not sure if it shows in the above pics. Then a few 100 metres further I took the pic of Black Hill once again. Only this time I knew what it was and had experienced it (and knew why its called Black Hill). In the hope that Gian might read this or anyone else, I wondered if the hill to the right of the lampost is actually Wessenden Head.
Then came the first bit of proper gnarl. Thankfully I'd brought my Hope seatpin and I'd be riding this today without too much 'will-I-smash-my-teeth-today' thoughts. I managed to ride it all, but the thoughts were firmly with me.
To the bottom and I decide today would be the day that I rode up past the 'scenic' road up towards Beaumont Park. Technically this is where we where we grew up as its round the corner from the high school we went to ('we', being the 'me and my friends and family' one). Even though its been about 10 years since I might have visited/driven past here, I was indeed right and the 'scenic' showed through straight away
Gobsmackingly beautiful - as long as you don't look down the littered banking on the other side of the bridge - and it might explain why my mate Butcher (well he is now, but in them days he was the butchers son) drove through the wall whilst joyriding out with his dads car at the tender age of 14.
Whilst I circumnavigated the streets and roads to try and find my bearings for Wessenden, it popped out. A quarry... the Quarry. The one which we must've been introduced to at our junior/high schools. It must have been as it's only a stones throw away from both.
I even took a pic of the lad nicking some rock. On his Ifor Williams trailer... Only the best for us West Yorkshire lot. I continue riding and look back at Castle Hill and almost fall off my saddle. Emley Moor Mast is only about 20 metres from Castle Hill. Wait til I tell my mum, but more importantly I need to have words my mate Musa. Told me that Emley Moor Mast sits higher than our very (Huddersfield) Castle Hill. Not from where I'm looking and he obviously needs his specs testing (or maybe learn how to read an OS map... though he's probably right and me wrong but... but...).
Anyway, apologies for the digression (is that even a word!), I continue. So now I'd seen this here Quarry, I wasn't gonna go on without getting a proper pic of it's workings. For Reg obviously, but I also needed a cow or two and a shaft. Hmmm....
Some snow at Wessy. Shirly there'll be a few shafts ariund here.
Some horses that look like cows from afar.
Here I look across and wonder whether I really should be trying to get up to Wessy... Surely it'll be windy up there (well windier than the uber-low gale force happening whilst I take this pic).
In conclusion, here it is. I took a while finding a decent vantage point to take a peek. But turns out the council knew I'd one day need to get a pic of the workings below. They have a special viewing point, so I took a pic, said my prayers, then took another...
he told me and thats when I briefly considered making it into one of my Unclimables I'm working on. If I made it up (alive) or it was less than 20% then obviously it couldn't make the list. Tubeless sorted with a tube and goodbeyes n tha ks to Brian I headed off again.
