First canal ride of the year. Half an hour to pack the bleeding car for a ten mile(ish) ride…. still beats riding there and back as well which is what Roachy would have me doing if he could….
Setting off from my place Pete and Shiela followed us down in their car negotiating the Leeds Ring Road with my usual automotive finesse. At Rodley we unpacked with little fuss and we were off.
The Rodley Roamer is a flat, big ring pedal of a ride. Pete and Roachy wizzed along at a fair old pace up with Sheila and I trailing in the distance. Into the woods for the only climb of the night and I was going big guns, as the climb turned the corner it got very boggy and hard work but I made it. I would have felt immensly proud if it wasn’t for the overwhelming fight to keep my meal in my stomach and not deposit it on the trail.
After my walking in circles to keep my food down we were off again. On the top path which isn’t rideable at the best of times Shiela end up tangled in a tree and Roachy over the bars.
Now when we first set off from the car I managed to snap the cable ties holding on my front mud guard. “You’ll not need your mudguards tonight, it’ll be dry out there†were Roachy’s words of wisdom. Well he was wrong. Really really wrong. It was bleeding boggy to say the least. As in 6†deep sections of gloop most of the way back down to the canal, with the final part of the path like Dagobah itself.
On the other side of the gate, we all agreed that if Roachy ever said it was not going to be muddy to us again he’d recieve a collective slap. From there on it was towpath all the way and to the pub on the for a swift one before home.
Fat Lad
