Date: Tuesday 14th October 2014
Route: WP, Earthquake, Ringmoor, Dittsworthy, Drizzlecombe, Hartor, Scout Hut, HQ.
Riders: Jude, Gidon, Dan, Simon, Keith, Colin, Sam & Martyn
Depart WP: 19:40
Arrive HQ: 21:45 & 22:15
Distance: 14 miles
Weather: Good

I'd had enough of being home on a Tuesday evening and although I was no more than 50% fit, I made my way to WP on auto pilot. The evening was, as always, interesting. Starting of with the unusual news that Steve and Rob were going running!?!? Then as the recovering Meister walked down the road we bellowed out a rendition of happy birthday. He declared himself 95% fit but was staying in for a Chinese! I can only dream of being 95% fit!

And talking of birthdays, mine was a week earlier and I had my lovely new winter boots on to prove it. Apparently I'd irresponsibly left the Wiggle boots page open on the laptop and Debbie got the hint!

So if you're not feeling great and you've barely ridden for a month where do you go? Up Earthquake of course! Going was slow and combined with the deeper than ever ruts I kept stopping and getting going again was not easy. At the top Martyn found he'd another broken spoke, so for the second week running had to abort early.

Earlier we'd heard low flying aircraft which usually means exercises on the moors. And so it proved as we came across the first shadowy figure with that unmistakable pointy thingy. Past a few tents on the way to Gutter Tor then lots of activity around Dittsworthy Warren. One soldier actually enquired how many lumens I had in a reassuringly English accent!

I'd been thinking this would be a good point for me to head back for HQ, but the next regroup didn't occur until the standing stone, so to get my breath back I broke out the late birthday wine gums! The stone was impressive, a good twelve feet tall and some were hugging it to see if they could get some energy from within! Next Colin wanted a moment, so we turned off all lights and lost ourselves in the wonder of Dartmoor!

Then back to reality and the painful grind of an uphill slog trying to keep up with Sam! At Higher Hartor there were mutterings of "don't go the way Rob took us" so we took the smoothest route to the Plym Pool track, took two lefts and thankfully we were now heading in the direction of HQ.

Before the Scout hut Sam took the hard men over to Burrator to continue off road. I'd had enough, or at least I'd used over 45% of my fitness and "get me to HQ" mode had kicked in.

Colin joined me on the road back until we got to Binkham Hill where I properly hit the wall and literally only just got over the top in my heavily worn out granny ring! The chair at HQ was the most comfortable perch I'd ever sat in and it was a lovely feeling sat there for half an hour drinking Jail waiting for the others to arrive. The refreshments did the trick and I did manage the two miles back to Horrabridge in no time!

Reporter: Keith