Wednesday 12th December 2018

Shorter Ride

John led Lynn, Myles, Brian, Ray (on his new electric bike), Rob and Patrick out through the Shelthorpe estate into the new South Lougborough development and past the new Aldi before joining the normal route south through Quorn along the old A6 to Rothley and Birstall. Ray was learning how to adjust the power settings on his bike and would suddenly disappear off the front and then drop off the back. The group took refreshment at Birstall Methodist Church Hall and then returned through Watemead Park and Cossington. In Sileby Ray turned up his power button and disappeared off the front towards Barrow while the group, their shouts failing to reach him, took a left turn to Mountsorrel. No doubt on full power Ray would have made it back in time for Prime Ministers Question Time ( a blood sport that it seems he favours). Lynn unfortunately punctured to the south of Mountsorrel and decided to visit a local friend to ensure that he could undertake a repair in civilised surroundings. The remainder of the group were back in Loughborough a little after noon.

The long ride began by tackling the long climb out of Loughborough to Copt Oak. Here turning right onto Warren Hills road then taking the first left down Greenhill Rd. Circumventing the bottom of Coalville through Hugglescote and on to Ravenstone. After Ravenstone we took the shortest route along Ashby Rd and Alton Hill to Packington. Barkers Cafe at Packington is a little on the small side. Fortunately Phil had gone on ahead to warn them and on arrival we were quickly served and crammed in. Barkers is called Barkers for a reason. It is very (very) dog friendly and has dog motifs, everywhere including some on their cakes. The return journey took us on one of my favourite routes through Farmtown, Coleorton, and then School Lane to Griffydam before joining the B5324 to Belton. We then took the Garendon Trail to Shepshed. Here I gave the option of going back through Garendon Park (warning that it would be muddy), or for those wishing to keep their bike reasonably clean the return through Hathern and the A6. Tricia and Alan sensibly decided on the latter, and as the rest of us turned to go through Garendon a cyclist going in the opposite direction warned us not to go through Garendon because of the mud, but we carried on anyway. L'boro side of the M1 the farmer was harvesting his mangel-wurzels. Three large trucks spanned the trail and we had to take to fields to get past. Phil's mudguards got crammed with mud and the wheels refused to turn until we shifted it. Yes it was muddy. I think it was about 1:15p.m. by the time we got back.Oh and by the way we now all appear on Barkers Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/barkersdogfriendlycafe. (And it seems lots of people like the photo too).