Get Them Legs Burning

We had a great meal at the Cheshire Cheese pub last night and I was happy to see they had proper cider!!! Orchard Pig and Old Rosies. Yeah! Rich went for two of the real ales and we were both happy. Food was lovely as well but by 9pm we were both too tired to change location so we went back to the hotel and watched a bit netflix.

Woke up quite refreshed this morning. Seemed like we both needed to catch up on sleep. Decided to do a longer ride today up to Hope and Edale and back to Buxton. We were in good spirits since the forecast promised us a bit of sun and no rain.

Set off after breakfast with the sun already peering through a few gaps between the clouds. Before we knew it we were in Peak Forest and turned onto an A road for a bit, then back onto a B road towards Bradwell. We were finally in proper Peak District scenery with hills looming left and right.

Valley leading to Edale

Had a short break in Hope which was very busy on this Saturday and then set off for a small undulating road up to Edale. We dreaded the steep climb at the end back to the A road and it was worse than we thought. At least worse than I thought. Rich flew up like a pro while I was struggling with burning thighs.

One of the numerous viewpoints

That's were we came up... right, it's so steep you can't even see it

At least the views down into the valley with the ridge behind it were worth every single stop I made catching my breath. I fell like a tree once when my chain was struck after shifting and I couldn't clip out fast enough. Gladly no one saw it and me getting back onto the bike swearing like a fishwife.

I was destroyed when we finally reached the top of the pass, happy for a bit of downhill riding. Getting back to Buxton didn't take long and the few climbs on the way were hard but we managed.

Were back a the hotel after 4 hours, 37mi with 2550ft elevation gain. Not too bad. Just relaxing now and will hit town later for food and drinks.

We're really enjoying this a lot. Bit of workout for a couple of hours and then just hanging and relaxing.
Will head back to Edale tomorrow for a nice ridge walk and maybe a stroll around Hope and Castleton.