Post by macky on Jan 18, 2016 19:18:10 GMT
Myself and a few mates headed over to Hayfield yesterday in search of snow... And boy did we find some 
I wont bore you with the first bit of the ride as it was 7 miles of piss boring roads and back lanes looping bits of off road together, after that it got interesting though as we took a cheeky trail up onto Kinder scout, we set off heading up this Foot/Fatbike path
which was steep but quite well marked, then crossing this gate onto another path the path turned into a snowy faint track that was getting harder and harder to follow, about a third of the way up the wind started to hit us, looking at my Garmin the temp had dropped to -2 we carried on for around another 30 minutes but the snow was getting deeper and some of the drifts were starting to batter us because of the side wind, we stopped again for another break at this culvert so i could let some air out of my rear tyre as i was losing traction, at this culvert we noticed some metal laying in the ditch so i went to have a look and it turned out to wreckage from an old WW2 plane crash, there wasn't much left now that we could see apart from some bits of wing and fuselage, then a bit further down an engine, I took a few kids then off we went as the temp had now dropped to -3.5.
As we reached the crossroads at the top we decided instead of heading up to the downfall we would sack it off and turn right down to Hayfield as the weather was getting really bad now and was snowing again, we started heading down on the trail to be met with one of the most evil descents ever, steep as hell steps that had frozen over and with snow on them, after passing that it was around half a mile of tight twisting frozen rocky singletrack with a big drop on the right into the stream, this half mile took us well over an hour to get down due to how bad it was and all the while i could see the reservoir in the distance, on reaching the reservoir all we had to do then was cross the stream and start the climb upto the shooting cabins then descend down the snake path into Hayfield back to the van and a nice cold beer!
Awesome day, not many miles just over 15 and 2100ft of altitude, but it was a proper adventure in the snow
Me at the start, hungover to hell and b'stard freezing!
Nice little climb with a dusting of snow
It's snow joke at this point lol
Top of a sweet little descent down towards Monks rd
Me again
Quarter of the way up to Kinder and the path changed from quite clear to barely visible at this point
There is a path Stu, honestly, just follow me mate
About a third of the way up Kinder now, temps had dropped to -2
Having a break halfway up when we noticed the plane crash site
Wreckage poking through the snow
Crossroads at Kinder, up for the downfall, or right for the reservoir and Hayfield
This is why we went right, the little black dots centre pic near the top of the mountain are people
Path down to the Reservoir was like this in a lot of places, sheet ice or snow, steep as hell with a sheer drop to the right into the stream
Full view of the descent from the top to the reservoir, took us over an hour of push/carry/ride to get down
Last pic, we'd just reached the reservoir then had to climb the path on the right up and out of the valley
That's all folks, thanks for looking
I wont bore you with the first bit of the ride as it was 7 miles of piss boring roads and back lanes looping bits of off road together, after that it got interesting though as we took a cheeky trail up onto Kinder scout, we set off heading up this Foot/Fatbike path
which was steep but quite well marked, then crossing this gate onto another path the path turned into a snowy faint track that was getting harder and harder to follow, about a third of the way up the wind started to hit us, looking at my Garmin the temp had dropped to -2 we carried on for around another 30 minutes but the snow was getting deeper and some of the drifts were starting to batter us because of the side wind, we stopped again for another break at this culvert so i could let some air out of my rear tyre as i was losing traction, at this culvert we noticed some metal laying in the ditch so i went to have a look and it turned out to wreckage from an old WW2 plane crash, there wasn't much left now that we could see apart from some bits of wing and fuselage, then a bit further down an engine, I took a few kids then off we went as the temp had now dropped to -3.5.As we reached the crossroads at the top we decided instead of heading up to the downfall we would sack it off and turn right down to Hayfield as the weather was getting really bad now and was snowing again, we started heading down on the trail to be met with one of the most evil descents ever, steep as hell steps that had frozen over and with snow on them, after passing that it was around half a mile of tight twisting frozen rocky singletrack with a big drop on the right into the stream, this half mile took us well over an hour to get down due to how bad it was and all the while i could see the reservoir in the distance, on reaching the reservoir all we had to do then was cross the stream and start the climb upto the shooting cabins then descend down the snake path into Hayfield back to the van and a nice cold beer!
Awesome day, not many miles just over 15 and 2100ft of altitude, but it was a proper adventure in the snow
Me at the start, hungover to hell and b'stard freezing!
Nice little climb with a dusting of snow
It's snow joke at this point lol
Top of a sweet little descent down towards Monks rd
Me again
Quarter of the way up to Kinder and the path changed from quite clear to barely visible at this point
There is a path Stu, honestly, just follow me mate
About a third of the way up Kinder now, temps had dropped to -2
Having a break halfway up when we noticed the plane crash site
Wreckage poking through the snow
Crossroads at Kinder, up for the downfall, or right for the reservoir and Hayfield
This is why we went right, the little black dots centre pic near the top of the mountain are people
Path down to the Reservoir was like this in a lot of places, sheet ice or snow, steep as hell with a sheer drop to the right into the stream
Full view of the descent from the top to the reservoir, took us over an hour of push/carry/ride to get down
Last pic, we'd just reached the reservoir then had to climb the path on the right up and out of the valley
That's all folks, thanks for looking
