Hebden bridge 13th Feb Saturday 9.15 meet up pics added

That's the route we did in August when the northern (more so than me) came down, pretty much the classic Calderdale ride. the only difference is that we did a slightly longer road climb up keighley road out of hebden which is the first climb on this route so that we could do the Pecket well descent which is a good slippery technical descent ending on route at hard castle craggs. We also started at hurstwood so that we got one climb out of the way to start with and finished with a couple of miles descending. Starting in hebden does a similiar thing however at the moment the Pennine way in front of stoodley pike is unpassable due to giant land slip over xmas which doesn't seem to have a clear up planned just yet. I would suggest to replace that bit of climbing and pretty tame descent with the climb up and drop down Pecket well. If the weathers dry for a period before hand or that's a good ground frost the there's a fantasia singletrack descent that can be reached by climbing further up the road away from town and descend down limers gate to old town and then still Pecket well and drop I to hard castle craggs as per the route shown above.

On my last ride I tried a cheeky cut through that I've always wondered about and found a great trail that cuts out a boring lane climb just before from gorple lower up to widdop.

I should be able to make it, and if so will be happy to guide from towards the back, however most of it easy to navigate with only the bits after the golf club and the great zig zag descent back towards todmorden road being the tricky part.

Oh, one other factor for consideration is that Delf lane down from the long causeway always starts muddy and flows like a river in places even during summer so expect it could be horrendous after all this rain. However the long route doesn't work very well without it as there's no real alternative to end at the same place.

That's Kirky's backyard ..and if I'm not mistaken very similar to if not the same as the route he took us around last year ...watch out for dog shit down Pecket Well ...!
Oh ..and expect wet ...good ride though !

great riding round there. john's yer man.im on hols sometime round that time but think its week after.

Pecket well.........shit........ literally, hahahahaha
No just kiddin, nice techy rocky rooty trail, just my kinda thing.....except the shit   
I also remember riding down a river, that was fun

Yeah nobody came near me after that even though I washed the thick of it off in the public loos afterwards ..it was foul !

Sounds good to me then if someone's got the post code I'll stick it up on the first post 
Ian and big lee plus Roundie are all in hopefully Duncan and Dave as well

Me Ian big lee Roundie 
poss Duncan and Dave 
Gaz 
mick 
your self  

If it's closer for you I'm guessing it will be the same for the midland posse so it's only fair to start in Hebden, it will save doing 80% of the ride with wet feet as from hurstwood there would have been a river crossing in the first couple of miles.

There's a layby type car park for around 12 cars just down the main road on the right hand side heading away from hebden about 20 metres after the left turn to shaw wood road, OL14 6DA puts you very close. Shaw wood road is the climb up to put us on the Pennine way running below Stoodley Pike. The top section level with the pike itself isn't really rideable in winter as it's peaty and boggy besides there will plenty enough climbing without going up there to Check out the views.

We still need to keep an eye on the weather as if it's really wet we maybe better doing a bit of a shorter loop which still includes some of the famous sections but doesn't go towards worsthorne side as the Delf lane out if there can be a complete bog, in that case we could add in the blue pig descent.

Mike, the blue pig doesn't fit very well into the full Calderdale loop as it's kind of in between the two different sides of the valleys, as we come down in between hebden and todmorden and climb up the opposite side and then we ll come back down into the centre but to climb up toward widdop it's better to fit in pecket well rather than blue pig as it's an awful climb upto heptonstall just to come back down again, the pecketts well one isn't a picnic but it's not quite as hellish, plus I think it's a better descent.

I'm up for this. Not fussed where we meet but it'll be 2hrs45 travel for me to either start

2hrs for me think Duncan's in as well

Hello ...now then , now then ..did you sneak past reception ...it's only fair that you go back and tell us a bit about yourself ...then there is the initiation ceremony to take part in ...sheesh ..some people ...haha!
Welcome to the forum shy lad !

How do Mayf good of you to join, the forum and another ride. I won't be trying to keep up with you mind.