Date: Tuesday 4th June 2013
Route: Walkhampton, Railway, King's Tor, Great Mis Tor, Yellowmead, Short Cut, WI.
Riders: Keith, Sam, Gidon, Jude, Dan, Colin, Steve, Paul & James
Depart: 19:40
Arrive WI: 22:05
Distance: 16 miles
Weather: Perfect

A very strong turn-out for the annual ‘Druid’s ride’, a randomly chosen Tuesday night, so-long-as-the-weather-is-right, type of affair. Nine gents gathered at the new HQ2 (Walkhampton Inn). A splendid, cloudless sky and the prospect of climbing 538’ to the summit of Great Mis tor. Firstly though lets negotiate the road hill past the church and up onto Walkhapton common. Easier said than done when you’ve got some arsehole white-van-man, up yer’ arse, leaning on the horn. Upon realising the driver in question was in fact Paul, arriving late from Beavers, it was all smiles and “we thought it was you”.

The yellow brick road to King’s Tor, the only real event was that Dan had a blow out and will not be winning any prizes for it’s speedy repair. In fact the sun was sinking alarmingly quickly and so it was with marginally more urgency that we strayed from the track at King’s tor down to the leat. There was some amusement with the water crossing, Colin’s attempt in particular sticks in the mind for its ungainliness.

The group gathered at the foot of Great Mis where a few fruit pastilles were taken onboard and calculations made as to how long before sun down. To be honest, the ride up past Little Misor and to the top is one of the least challenging or eventful tor climbs, but when you have that view it is of little importance. Discussing photo opportunities, live firing times and other relevant issues, we soon found ourselves towards the very top. Bikes were then abandoned for the last scramble up the south face for most of us. Steve of course had a much more sensible route on the other side and was able to stride up with ease. Like a bunch of lycra-clad primitives, we scurried around the rock face, trying to find the best vantage point to view the setting sun as well as securing the best photos.

It was at this point that we realised that Dan could have had a second puncture and the timing would have been more fitting. However, the magic fruit pastille packet kept giving and we stuck with it. A few individuals were getting twitchy though, the promise of cheap(er) beer and the hum of the deep fat fryer back at Walky. There were two distinct groups, the clcyoromantics and then the cyclocynics. “have you never seen the sun go down before” and “are you waiting to propose or something” were quipped. The Romantics were silenced and left to look back over their shoulder on the long descent back to Pork Hill. There was some ambiguity with which of the two groups Steve belonged to, as he stood facing due west and pissed ambitiously to the now perfect sunset, aaahhh.

Reporter: Sam