Summertime!

I didn't have the earliest of starts this morning but thought I'd head up towards Kettlewell and see what I fancied doing from there - maybe just a circuit home, maybe up to the top, maybe over the top. So many options!

The plan I wasn't confessing to was heading up Park Rash which I didn't do last year but it was definitely in the back of my mind (getting pushed as far back as possible but keeping on making a sneaky appearance!)

I arrived at Kettlewell and felt OK, stocked up on a bit of bagel and set out  - only to find a road closed sign. Now, I'd read about this from some random fellow blipper and didn't really fancy a field detour at this stage of my ride so I went with a closed mind just to have a look. Turns out, they'd created a grand platform for me to use - a scaffold of steps into the field with an open gate at the other end! Looks like I was on my way up then because I wasn't backing out now with a road full of workmen to come back to.

It was, as always, a barely acceptable ascent but I was OK and it wasn't too warm to suffer from that as well. As I arrived at the section of road that plateaus I looked up to see a barn owl flying at midday. Given I'd already been off my bike at the bottom, I had no care about stopping here too to watch for a while and as I did, a heron took off from just over the wall with its giant wingspan heading away.  

At the top, I didn't give heading back a second thought and considered returning over Kidstones to be the grand adventure of the day. Little did I know, (well, maybe just a bit) the thought was building somewhere in the back of my mind to do the double whammy and come back over Fleet Moss. In fact, I realised that I'd checked the weather forecast and knew I'd be facing a bit of a headwind to get to Hawes which didn't really appeal at breakfast time.  

But, feeling very content in the shaded warmth on the patio of my favourite Aysgarth cafe, I concluded why not?!

I didn't have quite the same thought as I battled a much fiercer headwind than, as ever, it seems to predict. However, I passed some time on the pretty Thornton Rust backroad and took a shortcut to Gayle which is where I came across this summer scene.

Then there was only one thing left, Fleet Moss. I told myself there'd be no stopping on this one, particularly given I was unlikely to get going again. Onwards!

It was a slow onwards and upwards but I found myself higher and higher with just the last steep section to go. And then I saw it...

A juicy green frog!
Right in the middle of the hot road!

Oh, what to do?!
Ignore.
But...
IGNORE
But...
I G N O R E

I went by feeling sad for it. I continued on up. 

No more than 15 metres went by and I was off my bike dashing back down for Operation Frog Rescue!  I stopped a car, gently scooped the little fella up and whisked him into the hedgerow. Thanking the driver who was keen to know what it was, I made it back into my pedals for the last steepy which seemed to be a touch easier than maybe it would have been had I not had the satisfaction of a) finding him alive and b) getting him into the hedgerow.

Anything is possible from the top of Fleet Moss. It's downhill all the way home.

...unless you decide to pop over the Cow & Calf to get there. 
Idiot.