With heavy rain forecast for this afternoon, I just did a short ride today, out on lanes direct from the hostel to do a bit of the High Peak Trail.
It was all a bit overcast on the puddly back lanes and gravel tracks, but nicely quiet, and green in a grey sort of way.
The full High Peak Trail stretches nearly 18 miles from Cromford to Buxton. I’ve done the whole thing a few times, most recently in summer 2021.
It’s a bit chillier and bleaker now. I only did about five miles of it today, joining it somewhere between the 1,500th and 1,600th puddle.
The High Peak Trail joins the Tissington Trail at Parsley Hay, and I took the first couple of miles of the Tiss to get me back to the hostel at Hartington Hall before the rain came. I managed to fit in a short walk before everything went liquid.
The rest of the day was not spent in idle web browsing, oh no: my chum from Slovakia, Dewi, was still around, so we invested the time wisely in the British Legion club down the hill, failing to score any free sandwiches put out for the dominoes players, but still enjoying the sub-£4 pints.