Keswick Camping - Whinlatter Mountain Biking

Looking down Derwent Water from the Camp Site

The weather has been really poor so far this year and we've done very little due to all the snow and cold. Half term for the kids and our first run out with the van. We always seem to head for Keswick and this year we were very lucky with beautiful clear weather letting us get out and about.

We headed up to Keswick early on Saturday, stopping  at Kirby Lonsdale for a bacon sandwich and a nosey at the bikes in the lay by. Making good time on the M6 we soon arrived at the campsite. Lots of building work was taking place, the site was having quite an upgrade with lots of new hard standing pitches under construction.

I took the dog for a walk and enjoyed what I consider to be one of the best views in Britain, Derwent water with Catbells in the background, amazing!

The kids had been given money to spend from our mums and dad so we headed straight into town and into the toy shop. Lego bionicles were the order of the day. We ate out  at LB's pizza restaurant, we all really enjoyed it and it was good value for money.

Finlay - Lazy Boy!

Sunday morning and we decided to spend the day on our mountain bikes. On the maps it didn't look too bad a ride from the camp site to the Whinlatter visitors centre as and the off road mountain bike routes! The first part of the ride over to Braithwaite, from here the road rises steeply and Finlay threw a strop, he couldn't peddle up the pass. Andrea let him sit on her bike while she pushed the bike. I took Finlays bike and pushed both bikes up the pass.

It took a while and the traffic on the narrow road was challenging. Jack had no trouble, and peddled up the pass easily! 

Once up the pass it was a short  ride to the visitors centre. We decided to have an early lunch at the cafe, the kids were happy for the break and we had a pot of tea and a sandwich. There are a couple of routes the red route for experienced riders and a blue route for intermediate riders, this was or route. 

Ice Cream Treat!

We rattled off down the track, Finlay really enjoyed the first part of the route, he does like going down hills! The route was pretty good and we made okay time, the circular route took us about 40 minutes. Back at the visitors centre the kids spent some time in the play area. 

Me and Jack decided to go back round the route and we set off as fast add wert could, we made good time and did the whole route in about 15 minutes!

Another pot of tea and we set off back to the camp site, the kids enjoyed descending the pass, we were soon back at the camp site. In all me and Jack did about 16 miles, Findlay and Andrea did about 13 miles.

We'd had a great day and the weather was great, we all slept well after the busy day!

Sledging For Weeks!

We've had quite a long cold spell and snow on the ground for a couple of weeks. The kids were excited from the moment it started to snow. Straight home from school, changed into warm waterproof clothes and out onto the hill beside our house. When I got home from work we had some tea and I had to go out with them for another couple of hours. I thought they'd either get wet or cold and want to come in, no chance, they were quite happy to just keep going until nearly bedtime.

This went on all week. On Saturday the bike club at Richard Dunn Sports centre was called off due to ice and again the kids were outside all day, several of their friends came over and the sledging went on all day!

We've also had to put up with dozens of older kids making noise outside at all hours.

The clothes must be better than the ones we had when we were kids. The best we could manage was a couple of hours and we'd soon get bord.

After a week of this routine finally the kids started to get Fred up of everything. Maybe is because the kids don't see snow like we used to get.

By the end of January the weather started to improve and we got back to normal.

Andrea sledging with Toddy in hot persuit

Spen Valley Greenway Cycle Ride

Lots to look at and climb on!

Several years ago we took the kids on this bike ride, Finlay was a baby and was in a carrier on the back of me and Jack was on his first ever bike, a tiny little green bike. We only did a short part of the track and Jack struggled to get backup the hill, how times have changed!

The route is good when the weather is poor, the whole route is well made with tarmac. We started out at Oakenshaw Park and headed out of the Park onto the track, it's all downhill from here! It was pretty busy with other cyclists and walkers. The route passes Cleckheaton Golf Course, then over the A58 and M62. He kids wanted to stop and watch cars are a little while.

Funny Face

Jack enjoyed using several small off road side tracks, ramping and balancing broke up the fast pace as we headed further down the track. At Cleckheaton we passed Tesco and then started seeing several interesting pieces of industrial sculpture. The kids thought these were great and we stopped several times to look more closely. Some of the seats were great to look at and practice to sit on as we had a quick drink before moving on.

We went as far near Littletown and decided to start heading back, going up the hill was pretty easy, both Jack and Finlay romped up the hill and we were soon back at the car. Next time we'll go all he way to Dewsbury. We'd been on the bikes for about an hour and half, good fun!

Yorkshire Cyclocross Todmorden

Finlay Pushing!

Sometimes it's pretty tough being a parent, asking kids to do something that they struggle with, but that's life! The kids are now regularly going to Cycle club on Saturdays and we've talked about cyclocross a couple of times. The Todmordon event was the last Yorkshire round of the season, so my idea was to give the kids a taste of what it's all about, so next season we can do more rounds. Jack should really have used his Islabike with nobly tyres but we don't have the tyres, so he used his mountain bike. Finlay didn't have a choice having only one bike!

The weather was appalling it had rained for weeks and the ground was completely saturated, it was also very cold. It was very straight forward to register, the kids paid on the day and it was only £1 each. Jack was in the under 12's and Finlay I the under 10's, so they were both pretty young for their groups.

We watched the under 14's race and it looked pretty hard going with all the mud. After the race Jack and Finlay had the chance to do a couple of warm up laps. Neither were that chuffed. Finlay couldn't get his head around pushing his bike through the mud, but he soon got used to it. Many of the Dads were helping the little ones get around the course, but I kept outbid the way and left them to it.

Finlay raced first and he did okay his race was lasted 15 minutes, some of the kids are very good even at such a young age, but Finlay did his best and finished near the back but not last.  The poor little guy was wet through, covered in mug and freezing cold. He went straight back to the car to get changed.

Jack doing his best.

Jack was up next his race was for 20 minutes, he struggled. The heavy bike with large tyres and his lack of experience made it very difficult for him. He was soon knackered struggling. He redoubled his efforts and made it to the end but he was flat last. He got a huge cheer from the people running the event as he crossed the line, but he was very disappointed. 

There was a TV crew at the event taking quite a lot of footage. We'd no idea which station they came from or when there might be aired. To our surprise the footage was shown on Look North, Finlay was famous for all of 5 seconds and Jack was on screen briefly at the start of his race, so here was some positives from the day.

This whole episode takes me back to the beginning of my gymnastic career as a 12 year old. I did the Yorkshire Championships after recently joining the Calderdale Gymnastics Club. I not only came last but recorded the lowest score ever in the competition. This just made me try harder, and ultimately I became a great gymnast representing Yorkshire and England, Travelling abroad and becoming a national tumbling champion, you've got to stick at it!

Finlay on Look North!

Ryburn - Baitings Reservoir Walk

Lots of water coming over the dams

We needed to get out of the house and let he kids burn off some steam, some of our friends had the same idea. We didn't want to go too far as he weather was pretty poor, low cloud and rain.

We've walked around The Baitings reservoir several times but never been around Ryburn Reservoir. We followed one of our friends through Ripponden and were surprised when we turned down Nursery Lane and headed down to the car park by the reservoir dam. Normally there is only a small amount of water spilling over the dam but with it raining every day for 3 weeks the waterfall over both dams was impressive. 

We headed over the dam and followed the lake edge, crossing a bridge and then following the path away from the lake and out of the woods. The dogs were running around enjoying freedom, our friend Labrador  picked up a large branch and insisted on carrying it. It was quite funny watching Archie clonking into things as he trundled along with his trophy!

The change in landscape was surprising and within moments we had gone from secluded woodland onto barren moorland. After passing a farm we headed still higher and soon saw a great view of Baiting dam. From here we headed over to the second dam of the day. From here we could have walked around Baitings reservoir, but today we headed straight across the dam.

Next we followed the path down the wall side in front of the dam. The path headed down into the bottom of the valley, we then followed the water course back down to Ryburn Reservoir. There was lots of mud on this side of the lake, it was surprising that the kids stayed on their feet and didn't end up wet and muddy. As we neared the car it started raining again!

Before we headed home we walked down the steps to the foot of Ryburn dam and enjoyed the raging torrent of water. It might be a while before we see this much water coming over the dam.

Off-roading with Jack

Spot the pint of bitter!

For a while now Jack has wanted to go off-roading. Andrea has done it with Jack a couple of times, he always complains that 'Mum always tells me to slow down an be careful'.

We set off along the main road towards Halifax, at the end of swalesmoore we headed up the track in front of Rose Temple. The muddy hill was pretty hard work, we'd both were soon out of breath. Once we climbed the hill we headed along the top of swalesmoore, it was good fun heading down the strap track back to the road by the ski Centre.

From here we headed along the track just below the Sportsman pub, this section is great fun, heading downward with good clear wide sections. There's plenty of mud, but it's pretty straight forward to make good progress. You pass a couple of farms. The path turns into the wider Turner Lane, an unmade road. Here we turner left down Jerwood Hill Road, a very steep track. 

Turning left again we headed along  Horley Green Lane, this quickly becomes very narrow and steep, Jack has happy to charge down the track sending rubble flying everywhere. The track opens back put and we headed down further to Shibden Mill Inn. It didn't take that long to get here, but from here it's all up hill to get home.

Time for a drink before the long haul up Blake Hill, Jack doesn't have enough mussels to make consistent progress and has to keep stopping. I kept waiting for him, and we kept talking to take our minds off the pain! Still this is much easier than trying to head home on the muddy paths!

Good fun to spend time with Jack doing this. Only a few months ago he'd have cried off all the uphill peddling!

Kevin Bridges - Victoria Theatre Halifax

Kevin Bridges on Stage

Andrea bought tickets for this gig at Halifax Victoria theatre ages ago. A couple of friends, Andrea and me set off early and had a nice meal at Frankie and Benny's in the Broad Street Plaza in Halifax.

We headed across town, managed to get a quick drink before heading to our seats. Amazingly a couple of friends were sat just behind us.

The warm up act did a good job at breaking the ice, I didn't catch his name, I pitty because he was pretty good.

After a short break Kevin made his entrance. For the first 30 minutes I was in stitches, he went from one funny story to another. There certainly was a lot more swearing than you get on the typical stand up DVD but it didn't detract from a great evening. I like all the funny stories that I can relate to. He started off by having a polite go at Tax dodgers, fellow comedians and then told some truths about banking!!

He was very clever at gauging the audience, just keeping his insults at the right level and not being decisive.

His story about weirdos on buses and his banter about regional accents were memorable.

After a short break he returned and asked for questions from the audience. He's pretty confident, anything could have happened. Some of the stuff was funny but it can only be as good as the people asking questions and some of the material was a bit disjointed.

Kevin was on stage for about one and a half hours, the time flew and I was surprised how quickly the time passed.

After the show we went for a few drinks and headed home, after all we all had to go to work in the morning! 
We'd had a good night and we'll be looking out for more comedy nights!