17th April 2022 ride to Burn Moss Beck Nature Reserve (Page three)

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Copyright 2004 to 2022 D. Simeon Orme

Germander Speedwell flowering at the side of Cinderbarrow Lane.

Copyright 2004 to 2022 D. Simeon Orme

Copyright 2004 to 2022 D. Simeon Orme

Common Forget-me-not flowering at side Cinderbarrow Lane.

Ride report by Simeon Orme I was late getting started on this ride, this was down to wanting finish a good book which I was reading on the Kindle and know one had phone me or e-mail or text me to say that they were coming on ride. It took me about 35 minutes to ride the distance from Halton to the Saddles Cafe at The Red Well Country Inn which I think could make good meeting point for future rides and chance for folk to have brew and chat before the ride. The thing about cycling touring ride its about what you see on ride and not how fast did ride but it can been entertaining watching those cyclist’s who enjoy speed, battling against nature to see how fast they do certain section road in which you see a lot of on the B6254 which turn back on to after the delights of the Saddles Cafe. For me the B6254 is in it that boring section of any ride which do every week, the landscape never changes but you notice things like there is a lot of cars park in the village hall in Arkholme, that the Hall in Newton always as sign out advertising office space and that there nice tree on the skyline above Whittington which I took photo of for you, then after crossing the border from Lancashire into Cumbria just outside Kirkby Lonsdale, the ride starts to change from boring bit to the interesting bit. To what ever cycling you into, there that radius around where you live of 5 to 15 miles depending on how fit you are is always going to be boring and start to notice things about the landscape which would not notice in a car, with price of fuel only going one way up for next several months, I think more of us will start think about enjoying that first hour of riding through that boring bit of ride instead of putting the bike in the back car but thing about cycling the more miles you do the fitter you get and in that first hour of the ride start to cover more distance. Anyway after crossing over the A65 and heading through Kirkby Lonsdale which is one honey pot towns which find on edges or inside any of the national parks in England where folk drive to for their Sunday walk with their families, yes its a beautiful and historic market town but can get quite busy when the tourist season is full swing but once you get edge of the town the traffic dies down and soon in the countryside again and heading through Kearstwick which is start of the climb up to Old Town and forgot what drag it is but its worth effort as Old Town is quite historic village which the housing developers left along. In Old Town, I turn off the B6254, to follow the Old Scotch Road which old drovers road and if you look at the new Ordnance Survey maps for the area it mark the boundary of the newly expanded Yorkshire Dales National Park. I was little to early in season to see anything of interest flowering at sides of Old Scotch Road but botanical in May and June it can get interesting to see what in flower and after few miles of cycling I was soon at Burn Moss Beck Nature Reserve which again was too early in the season to see anything of interest on the nature reserve where you can see plants like the Bog Asphodel in flower later in the season, there more plants flowering around the small car park of the nature reserve than in the nature reserve. After something to eat, I followed the lanes across to Hutton Gate and then down the valley to Gatebeck, then after crossing over the A65 in Crooklands, I followed Millness Lane through Millness to Farleton View Tearoom for afternoon brew and cake. After my afternoon cafe stop, it was time head back towards Halton, I am not bore you with details of the route back but did stop a few times to take few photos of what was flowering and if you want to follow this route there is Lancashire County Council car park at Cinderbarrow where you can park up for free for the day or book a room at Red Well County Inn. You can click here to download the 35.7 mile route or you can click here to see what’s new on the website