Salter fell to Ingleton falls

[FatFreddy]

I’ll begin this with an apology as it’s going to be a pretty poor ride report. I know where I started and I know where I finished, but in between is a bit of a blur.
First off, many thanks to Phil, chair of the Manchester TRF. Responding to another thread I started on here asking for advice on where to go, he contacted me and offered to guide me for a day.
I met him and another fella, also called Phil, at Rising Bridge McD’s. Not far from where I live.
Me on my recently fettled (new crash bars/ new TKC80’s) F650gs twin, both of them on TransAlps.
From there we rode to Slaidburn where we joined the start of Salter fell.
The first bit of Salter fell has been recently resurfaced and I was just congratulating myself with how easy this was going to be when the new surface reverted to grapefruit sized rocks.
Easy for most I’m sure, but ( excuses excuses, bad workman blames his tools) but I was still getting used to the TKC’s and I think my tyre pressures were a bit high. Oh, and I’m not very good

[FatFreddy]

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[FatFreddy]

Hmm, having some difficulty getting some of these pics on here.... will continue this later today.

[FatFreddy]

Ps the “grapefruit sized rocks” may have been in my imagination, but that’s how they felt at the time (wimp).
More later

[FatFreddy]

The views from Salter Fell are fantastic!

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[FatFreddy]

We had a bit of an incident just after coming down off the fell when a van forced us off the road by driving at us at speed on a single track lane. No explaining why some Knox heads behave the way they do!

[FatFreddy]

From here my memory fails me as we spent the next couple of hours doing short bits of tarmac followed by a stretch of green lane, then tarmac and another lane then tarmac and through a field and so on. I remember thinking I’d memorise some of the place names but I think the concentration involved in getting past obstacles, remaining upright, picking the best rut to follow just wiped anything else out.
I have to say, I found the whole day far more challenging, but at the same time more rewarding than I’d expected.
However, that doesn’t make for a great ride report as there’s no way I could describe any of it well enough for someone else to follow..... apologies.

[FatFreddy]

At one point, possibly the easiest track of the day, a simple gravel track alongside a field with a ribbon of grass along the middle, I decided to cross the grass and as I did so, inexplicably, my front wheel washed out and dumped me on the ground.
I was taking up the rear at the time so that spared me the indignity of witnesses but it wasn’t til we stopped at the next gate that I was able to tell the others.
This seemed like a good time for a spot of sunbathing once we’d straightened my bent gear lever.

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[FatFreddy]

Then onward down some more anonymous tracks....

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[FatFreddy]

I diligently remembered to turn off my ABS every time we set off except for this one time we turned into a lane that proved to be both rocky and fairly steep. My ABS kicked in and I just couldn’t stop!
I nearly got away with it but alas this turned out to be my second involuntary dismount of the day. The first had been relatively painless but this one hurt, my foot (trapped under the bike) and my pride (I had a witness to my ineptitude this time.)
Thankfully no pictures were taken