Piccies from my ride today

[Parrot of Doom]

Bloody mud. In my opinion horses do more damage to trails than motocross bikes.

Anyhow, have some piccies from my epic rockclimbing mountain biking session today

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundman/sets/7215760...



This wasn't leaning on any rocks, this was standing freely in the thick mud I had to walk the rest of that.



More mud:



Don't slip!







The stunning view from the top of the day's largest climb, makes it all worthwhile. That's Rochdale off to the right in the distance.



Remains of industry:





Ashworth Reservoir:



Homeward bound (Peel Tower above Ramsbottom in the distance)









I navigated the trail with a new bit of GPS software I bought for my phone, Viewranger (google it). Dead cheap, only £20 for detailed OS maps of everywhere around Bury, Darwen, Rochdale, Norden. Really really good, you can export the trails to Google Earth as well, and you can also set your phone to regularly send a little message to a server so other people can see where you are (with a password), a really nice feature I think.

Bloody knackered now. Time for a nice latte and Bailey's (or five)

[TheGreatSoprendo]

Great pics! Wish I'd been doing that today instead of working...

[pastrana72]

fantastic pictures mate, welldone.

put some comments on flickr for you.

[WildCards]

Yeah great pics, good write up too. Horses on mass are a pain in the arse, but i'd rather them on bridleways than the roads.

[edx]

I recognise rather alot of that!

I didn't realise you were local to me Parrot!

We've got some great riding up here, abit gloopy at the moment though, as some of your pics well illustrate.

[Parrot of Doom]

edx said:

I recognise rather alot of that!

I didn't realise you were local to me Parrot!

We've got some great riding up here, abit gloopy at the moment though, as some of your pics well illustrate.

I'm in Urmston now, but I grew up in Radcliffe. Most of my later teenage years were spent on the road bike cycling up to Ramsbottom, Darwen, that area. I cycled a few times down Ashworth Valley Road, but until the other day I'd never dared go up on the hills

I was knackered! I need to lose about 2-3 stones, I have all the muscles but am carrying too much fat

[v8 jago]

Very nice mate ! Looks like you had a good ride with a variety of terain and some stunning views.

[fixedwheelnut]

Excellent pics, the reservoir skyline and clouds over the hills are brilliant.
Is that right you took them with a mobile? what model?

[Parrot of Doom]

Nokia N73, but the panoramic shots are many shots of a landscape, stitched together with this:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch...

[mk1fan]

Nice back yard!

[Parrot of Doom]

Well you all liked the panorama with the sky picture, I've been reading up about it. And guess what I found:

http://www.heywoodadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/516973_w...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A2369531

Yep. The 'volcano' in the distance, well that'll soon be covered with wind turbines. And that hill can be seen for a good 20 miles all around. In fact I grew up in Radcliffe, and I could see it from the back of my house every day.

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Sunday 18th November 23:55

[PomBstard]

Great pics - fantastic views. Can't tell you how jealous I am of you being able to ride in mud and across moorland like that - really miss that sort of thing.