Weather window!

Neither the pitter patter of rain that I was expecting to have a lie in with nor the whooshing and rocking of the wind on the van woke me up this morning. Unbelievably, as hard as I listened, nothing!  

Perched quite high on the edge of the North York Moors, I had plenty of 4G to check the forecast. Sure enough, the huge patch of rain that was supposed to be sitting over the moors for a couple of hours this morning had evaporated - probably into thin air!

Time to get up and out!

After my regular porridge for four (including the banana), it was full kit to descend the hill - shivering isn't good for my muscles (even though I know I'll warm up) - but my system of shedding it all is fairly efficient now too so I don't really mind the bits of stopping I have to do.

First off, it was round to Swainby to get onto the moors via Scarth Nick - a pleasant little hill made particularly so by the dry roads.  After trundling along high for a while, I then cycled in a big arc, north and then east along flatlands - amazing! I haven't cycled flat for such a long time and it was enjoyable countryside and tarmac too.  

I'd amended my route slightly so the directions on my Garmin weren't right but I'd inspected it enough to memorise the new section of ride which meant I didn't have to duplicate roads.  All good so far.

I could see Roseberry Topping in the far distance and I knew before too long I'd be heading back uphill into the moors again to find my next venue, the Bilsdale Transmitter.  I plotted my ride quite quickly yesterday and didn't get that bit quite right.  The lane it told me to turn on was a farm road and looked very unlikely terrain. The transmitter was there though, towering above - I just had to find the road.  Another mile or so on and it looked like I'd found the turning.

I can't say this will ever rank in my top 100 hills. Five cattle grids - three of which had the widest of gaps between the bars.  I got off on the third one which had one bar that had slipped to even wider than it should be.  Thankfully, the next two which were on the real part of the hill were newer.  I could see one steep bend marked in red tarmac and that was my first objective.  Not so pleasant really with a light layer of sand covering the surface so there were a few wheel spins to contend with on my way round.  That just left a long straight slog. Or so I thought.

On the final three hundred metres with the transmitter looming above my head, I saw a road closed sign - no way!  It didn't look closed so I imagined I was imagining things and continued on up. Unfortunately, I also caught site of a workman wandering my way down the hill.  There was only one thing for it. Pedal faster!  If he caught me up and turned me round, I wasn't going to finish the hill.

Trying not to look like I was suddenly cranking the pedals, I tried to fix a casual smiled as I approached. Sure enough, he wasn't going to let me through - even when I asked if he'd escort me to the gates.  I was less than a hundred metres away but I was in the 300 metre drop zone for the workman in the tower and they were up working on it so it was a no.

I could only hope I was far enough up to get the tick for the hill because I wasn't coming back for this one. I'd levelled out but I wasn't sure.

This is the view on the way back down with the tiniest patch of sunlight coming over the hill and one of the irksome cattlegrids on the tiny approach road.  I had not a dissimilar height gain but over a much longer distance to get back to the van but only a few miles left.  The weather felt like it was changing with a few spots of rain so I cracked on at my usual slow pace up the hill.

Back at the van and my bike went away dry but as I turned round after making a cup of tea, there was full on rain on the windscreen and a fog descending around me. It rained most of the way home.

Turns out I had a weather window after all.  And a window of adventure!
(Oh, and a tick for the hill :) )