A made up ride for two - 18th October 2020

I thought it might be nice to ride with some company which I hadn’t done for a bit so I tried to join a ride that Phil told me about that Mike was organising. So I turned up at Crook O’Lune at 9am willing to go off and do my own thing if there were already six. But there was no one. After a while, Phil turned up, surprised that there was no sign of Mike or Jim. So it goes. So we set off up through Halton Park, not entirely sure where we were going. But Phil wanted to show me some gates in Lupton that his son had made. So that’s where we went. Along the Kirkby road, down Sunny Side (the road was a bit greasy so I didn’t let go - but it was still a whizz) and then right up Keer Holme Lane. It’s a lovely unspoilt valley with views across green fields and hills with very few cars. Up on the road to Whittington we hung a left through Hutton Roof and then on down to Lupton. The gates were very pretty and rather unusual - neither of us could have afforded the gates let alone the house and its surroundings… On a low wall just beyond All Saints Church, on the delightfully named Goodmickle Lane, we had a sandwich and enjoyed the view across Lupton Beck valley. Back on the bikes with the sandwich eating version of cafe legs, we turned east and then south east to enter Kirkby via Kearstwick. Pootling through Kirkby and across Devils Bridge we took the steep and rather slippery Chapel House Lane up to the Roman Road to Barbon called Long Level. A bit of A65 and then north-east through Leck and Ireby where we took a pause for Phil to change a tube. An ideal place to do it; a wide green verge, a bench and a babbling brook. And no rain!

We came home through Ireby Green, Burton in Lonsdale, Wennington and Wray. Not a long ride but great countryside. It would have been fun to ride in a slightly larger group - but we didn’t see any other CTC riders. Which is rather unusual for a Sunday ride out from Lancaster.

Tim Dant