Frank Lane
Another one of my grid references fetched yesterday in which was my longest ride in ages. Sciatica type pain flared this morning but a bit of stretching and it's gone.
Tony had reported this in his Strava (taken from Tonys Strava images) and at about the same time I was also seeing something strange at the opposite side of Yorkshire. It started snowing lightly, but was still nice and warm. Didn't last too long though and an hour or so later I was wiggling the old toes to keep em warm.
Significance of this ride is that, ever since we left Huddersfield, I've always been a bit sad at the fact of losing the neighbouring Peaks and lots of local mtb. Wessenden Head was only 8 miles away but now it's more like 18! But yesterday, after looking at the OS map once more for some hidden tracks I may have missed, I think I managed to make a bit of a corker (Alhamdulillah).
As can be seen, I managed to grab more non-pave than one could shake a stick at. Good training for the upcoming Bearbones type mental rides! Took ages though and I was out for about 9 hours.
For context, regards the verse in my title above. This is the verse preceding it as Allah asks the reader to reflect on the rain water (previous verses) and then the fire that we kindle. As I say, just for context to make the current verse on yesterdays ride a bit clearer. Pronounced, 'a anthum - an - sha'thum - shaja - raw - thahaa - am - naH - nul - munshiun*' in arabic.
Before the ride, yesterday, both the daughter and the mum had comandeered me into not going out early. I was on, 'drop her to school duties'. So instead I came down bright and early and browsed the maps again and refined my route. The cat seemed to approve and I'd seen that Frank Lane was enroute, so it might aswell be another 'grid reference fetcher'.
Wasn't sure how to dress as weather was/is all over the place. So wore a few warm layers but decided to take the tennis-ball backpack. What a smart choice that was, as I was stripping down a jacket and winter gloves/hat in the first hour.
Had to dab here but generally managed to clear Back Lane all the way to the top (which is another 0.6 miles farther up) which hasn't happened for many many months, maybe years!
The view ahead.
Recently I've been losing my mojo of riding far. So had brought myself some milk, ti cup, coffee grinds and a big gas canister. It has a wider base does the JetBoil 250g can so I'm trying to get used to carry it instead and take the weight/volume penalty. At least I wouldn't be constantly trying to balance the stove/pot.
Significance of that pic is that I'd planned to only have my cuppa brewed on a bench. I've bivied near this bence before at some point I think and had funny looks whilst making my pasta in the early morn... Therefore this bench wasn't 'the one' and instead looked across with the binoculars at Black Hill (thanks Gian) which was a slog a year or 2 ago (and I now know why it's called Black Hill).
Cleared plenty of singletrack/doubletrack already and came to this. Beyond which is some lovely rocky riding to be had. Sadly my route wasn't made to go across it today, so I remained disciplined. The alternate route turned out to be lots of road, but at least it was heading in the right direction...
The epic view of the day. Stopped and took a pic as the chap to the right of the photo came and had a chat. Thought I was in trouble at first but he'd noticed my helmet light and told me how Schumacher had dided due to his head light and the resulting impact/forces when he'd crashed. Chap wa a motorbike himself and it was an interesting discussion. Told him that I had planned on getting some Sugru to get the light sitting closer to my head, which he felt was a bad choice. "At least you have a better chance of the torch snapping away" with the current adaptor, he suggested.
Was happy to see this and in the light of day and time on my hands, I investigated as to why I'd thought it was the Pennine Bridle Way when I'd first stumbled upon it (Alhamdulillah). Looking carefully I must have looked at the 'bridleway' wooden post and the 'Pennine' from 'Trans Pennine Trail', then combined em. Dyslexia brain... Who cares about the TPT (too much road) but at least this was a nice rocky uphill track.
It must've been refurbished for the roadies as the rocks seemed to have been re-laid. Even further up when the loose rocks came I managed to ride it all without too much grunting. I was either getting stronger or someone had done a full refurb! Not complaining, just saying!
Stunning views, but I couldn't stop to enjoy em. Prayer time was finishing soon and I'd put a dollop of honey in my water bladder. Thereby changing the water into cordial, which I already knew. But I was desperate to make ablution and had missed the Co-Op a few miles before when it had started to snow. So a quick call to my mate, the scholar and it was confirmed. I couldn't use that water to make ablution!
TBC
*
https://youtu.be/kG7J7XstEfY (the full chapter can be heard here if anyone wishes).
How very unfortunate... I had been thinking to try and tackle these grid points and/or your route myself. But judging from how hard it was for you, I'm gonna give it a miss for the mo 
