Date: Tuesday 27th December 2011
Route: WP, Meavy, Lovaton, Brisworthy, Legis Tor, Ditsworthy Warren House, Drizzle Combe, Roughtor Plantation, Burrator Dams, Meavy, HQ
Riders: James & Steve B
Depart: 19:45
Arrive HQ: 22:35
Distance: 13.6 miles
Weather: Dry and clear, but very wet & muddy

The ride for those who didn’t get day passes!

Twas the night after the night after Christmas, when all through Willowby Park houses
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
James had on his cycling kit and waited out there,
In hopes that some other Gentlemen soon would be there.

The Gentlemen were nestled all snug in their houses,
While visions of their earlier ride danced in their heads.
And Colin in his ‘kerchief, and Paddy in his cap,
Had just settled their brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the road there arose such a clatter,
T’was James turning up on his Specialized full susser.
And from the window they saw a great flash,
Which was James’ Exposure turned up to max.

The light on the handlebar from the only lone rider
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below’er.
When, what to my wondering eyes did appear,
Was no other cyclists, with new Christmas gear.

I sprang to my steed, to my non-existent crew gave a whistle,
And away I flew like the down of a thistle, to Meavy to meet a man with more gristle,
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere where’s all the others,
" I said they aren’t coming out, but we’ll still have a good-night!"

I’m sure you’ll agree that was a poor attempt at butchering the Christmas poem, but it serves to pad out what would otherwise be quite a short report. Following a flurry of texts and E-mails earlier I knew the only definite riders tonight would be myself and Steve Bradfield. To save him the effort of riding up to Yelverton I suggested we meet in Meavy after I had waited at Willowby Park for anyone else who turned up who hadn’t been lucky enough to get a day pass for the afternoon ride.

From Meavy we took a new very muddy route up and out of Meavy to come out on the Yelverton to Cadover Road. From there we went through the small hamlet of Brisworthy and up a bridleway back up onto the moor. After finding our way across the stream near the bottom of Legis Tor we found our way around to the back of the Tor and then took the path to the top. From here we picked our way across some very boggy terrain heading towards Ditsworthy Warren House. To stick with the theme of mud slogging we headed along the track and turned up towards Drizzle Combe to find our way back to the Scout Hut-Princetown motorway. Steve suggested that he knew a track we had not used before that headed back towards Burrator. This area doesn’t even have any labels on the OS map so all I can say is that it’s virtually a straight line between the fork in the motorway and the top corner of Roughtor Plantation. This was the most boggy track so far and you risked going over the handlebars each time you put your front wheel in a mud hole. After skirting around Roughtor Plantation we decided time was getting on and we would use the road (and Sheepstor Dam) to get back to Burrator Dam. I had suggested that we drink at the Royal Oak to save Steve the cold descent back to Meavy after the pub, so we took the track from near the dam that goes past Greg’s Leap back down to Meavy.

We rolled into Meavy looking forward to our beers, but as we got to the green we could see that the pub was in total darkness. Steve could barely contain his disappointment that we had been let down by his local pub and vowed to write a stern letter to the management.

I said I was not worried if we missed out on a beer on this occasion, but Steve is not a man to be easily put off. It was now already 10:35 but he was damned if he was going to have slogged across the moor and then not get a beer for his efforts. Five minutes later we were in the Rock Inn and we still managed to get in two pints each!

Reporter: James