Date: Tuesday 2nd July 2013
Route: WP, Lake, Iron Mine, Yennadon, Dam, Sheepstor, Deancombe, Various Loops, Walk for a bit, Cuckoo Rock, Potato Cave, Norsworthy, Lake, HQ.
Riders: Keith, Paddy, Greg, James, Dan, Jude, Rob, Gidon
Depart: 19:45
Arrive: 2200
Distance: 11-ish miles
Weather: Wet and Warm.....mmmmm!

Return to Action

Having attempted a return to action and only made it a mile from home before returning Rockin Bikes had resolved my snags and the Return to Action finally occurred.

NEW ALLOY.....Greg has stolen Collins lefty and switched the parts onto a carbon frame. James has NEW ALLOY in the form of a 4 year old eBay special but stuck to his trusted Specialized brand but mmmmm, nice wheels for both chaps. All we know is it cost James £20 in delivery charges, not bad for a full sus!!!

Not much has changed ....debate, not much of a decision, lets go led by Greg. Lake Lane and onto Yennadon, across to Burrator old railway and down to Dam without much incident other than my body blowing several gaskets. Through Sheepstor Village and first left up the cheats route to the tor which is still steep by which time the fog was really closing in. Lets go to Cuckoo Rock was Robs cry and as no-one else was volunteering any route choices off we all went..... carrying bikes on shoulders up a very steep clitter field. Was it Cuckoo Rock or Down Tor, the fog was completely claggers by then, so location was a bit of a lottery but the ride down was very pleasant!

Rob stumbled on a potato cave which was good as quite a few of us had never seen it....and Rob now knew where he was. Through woods to back to previously visited tumbledown houses and the track back to Norsworthy by which time the inevitable lure of liquid took control and we raced back along the roads to HQ.

I can't remember any particular incidents during the evening and will have to rely on a presidential footnote for clarification.

Wet but really warm.....mmmm, I meant the whole evening, but then, so was the beer!!!

Reporter: Paddy

President's Footnote: This ride/walk goes down as "unique"! I don't mind where we go or what we do and as long as I'm outdoors and I end up in the pub, I'm happy. What was particularly interesting for me though was when I went onto the Dartmoor Archive web site and searched for "potato caves". If you do the same look at the bottom picture, not the cave we saw, but does anyone recognise one of the young boys in the picture?