West Pennine Moors and Edgworth (12/07/20)

This was the ride we were going to do last week, postponed by the weather, in an area not visited much by either Ian or myself.  It didn’t get off to an auspicious start when after 1.5 miles I ran over some unnoticed glass, which split the side wall of my front tyre and penetrated my Kevlar lined rear one.  This required a trip back to my house to change both tubes and both tyres, accompanied by a cup of tea.  What else could possibly happen?

In the event, nothing, else went wrong.  After a 90 minute delayed start, we headed off from Penwortham through Walton-le-Dale.  We turned at Samlesbury Brewery and followed the back roads past St Leonard the Lesser Church and Bezza Lane to reach Osbaldeston.  This is one of my secret routes eastward out of Preston, completed in this case by a 15% climb to Mellor to join Route 91, the South Lancs Cycleway.

We followed this eastward to Parsonage Reservoir and turned south, descending to the outskirts of Rishton.  Here we joined a delightful section of Route 6 along the Leeds Liverpool Canal (and crossing the M65) to reach Church.  We climbed the other side of the valley through the outskirts of Oswaldtwistle to crossing the M65 twice more to reach open country at Fence.

We continued to climb through Belthorn with wonderful views of the moors around us.  Turning right off the B6232, we crossed Edgerton Moss, stopping for our main break to feast on the views, and then dropping below Hop Lowe Pike to reach Edgerton and re-join Route 91.  Route 91 took us north then west with a short section of the A666 before crossing the next valley to Belmont Reservoir and village.

Hundreds of people had decided that the beautiful weather warranted their parking on the sides of the road between Edgworth and Belmont and also on the section of road between Belmont and Rivington.  Fortunately this did not mar our enjoyment too much as we continued through Rivington, still following Route 91 via Adlington and Coppull to leave it near Charnock Richard Services, with all the serious hills behind us.

Level roads returned us from Eccleston to Penwortham via Ulnes Walton and White Stake, having enjoyed a wonderful day out of about 64 miles for me and about 70 for Ian, with a fair amount of climbing (about 4000 feet).

Mike Bridges