Peaks Muni Trip 3 (UK) 18th-20th September 2009

General
1

Hi all,

I appear to be getting older and wiser, and to celebrate my last birthday that can be represented in 5 binary digits and also my becoming officially able to call myself Dr Joe, I am going to do some muni riding. A whole weekend of it to be precise - 18th-20th September.

Yet another Peaks Muni Trip, I believe the 3rd one I’ve run. Riding unicycles off road, in the Peak District of the UK.

This time, no-one actually needs to camp, as I have cunningly moved house to be right near a load of riding, and just a few miles outside the Peak District National Park.

So, bring a sleeping bag/ mat or whatever you require in order to kip on our floor, or email me to try and bag one of our 3 comfy beds. If you really want to camp, we have a bit of room in our garden, but I dunno why you’d bother.

There’ll be unicycling, drinking beer, unicycling to places to drink beer, probably unicycling back in the dark from places that serve beer. I figure foodwise, on the Friday night, we’ll get chips from the very good local chippy, and probably cook up some pasta or sausage sandwiches or something on the Saturday.

Rides & distances will be dependent on who turns up, but rest assured I’ll make sure you get a decent amount of riding in whether you are a slow coach or a speedy type. Hills round here are quite big, so it might not be a good event for complete beginners, but pretty much anyone with some muni experience should be fine. For those who have lots of energy, there are always extra rides possible, there’s potential for a night ride (so bring your lights) or a long route to the pub. One other possible thing for the Sunday, is to do a quick little test run of my super short ride/swim/run course, which is a bit of a laugh - if you fancy that, bring some swimming shorts.

In terms of what unicycle to bring, personally I ride 26 for everything round here. There will be some technical stuff, rocks etc. and particularly if it is at all wet it gets a bit slippy slidy. You’re welcome to ride a 29 if you like that kind of thing and are happy to ride it on technical trails. A 24" muni will be fine too, personally I’d rather ride 24 than 29. A trials uni would be too slow and suck on the muddy sections.

It is easy to get to by train, Belper train station has trains from Derby, which has loads of connections. Also, there are buses from Manchester, Derby & Nottingham to Belper bus station. Bus & train stations are right near my house. Get there on the Friday, or early Saturday morning, or just come along one of the days to ride. If you’re not confident about your abilities and only want one day of riding, the Sunday would be best as we are usually hungover and slow by Sunday at these things.

For any more info (and to find out my address), reply to this, pm me on here, or contact me direct:

email: news@joemarshall.org.uk
Mobile: 07905 696427

Joe

2

Neeeer… What’s up doc? So is that the end of the perpetual student lifestyle and the start of having to do something useful? :wink:

I’d love to come to that if I can make it - will have to look into holidays and stuff, but I had a great time last year (and I’m a bit annoyed about not being able to make Pete’s Cumbria weekend so this would be a good substitute). It might even have stopped raining by then as well :roll_eyes:

Rob

3

Sounds great. Unfortunately, I shall be bedazzling the Spanish with the glory of the English Morris tradition that weekend. Have a great time.

Sounds like time to start getting older in base 3.:wink:

4

No, it means doing similar stuff, but getting paid money to do it!

Joe

5

A few (quite bad, taken on mobile phone) pictures of some of the riding - basically expect mud, expect rocks & roots. It’s a mix between wide trails where you get loads of different ways to ride over the rocks, and woodland singletrack, where there is an obvious route over the roots and rocks.

Joe

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6

Are the second and third photos taken at Jacksons Lane?

STM - not really bumping this thread. Honest.

7

One of them certainly is - there is one of us two in the picture too, although very small so I’m not sure if it’s me or you.

Joe

8

Hey all,

appears like a few people are interested in this which is nice.

I’ve been thinking a bit more about rides - I have 2 possible rides around the Matlock area for the Saturday - I imagine we’ll do the first one, which is not very long (10 miles or so) and then if anyone is very keen we can do the second. Or perhaps we’ll do the first one and then the keen people can add on some extra bits, although the extra bits start off with a 300m climb which makes it a bit of a knackering thing to do of an afternoon. Hmm.

I’m thinking Sunday will probably be closer to home - I’ve got a good, rocky & wide open loop I’ve done with Spencer up the Chevin and around, and also some other stuff in the woods that is a bit more of a narrow, steep singletrack thing.

hmm.

Joe

9

Hi Joe,

I think I’ve just about recovered from the last session and would be interested but I’ve already got plans to be skiing on the Sunday.

Not sure my legs would manage skiing even I just did the Saturday ride:(

Maybe next time but have fun,
Gary

10

pop

I’m definitely interested in some Peak Districted based pub visiting. I can try to remember a unicycle too…

Phil

11

Yes, a bit of all that please :slight_smile:
Is the date absolutely definite? I’m going to try to make this but I’ll need to start working on the boss ASAP to get Friday (and possibly Monday) off. I’ll even try to remember to eat this time so I don’t bonk quite so spectacularly in the middle of the ride :roll_eyes:

Rob

12

Yep the date is definite, as I’ve told too many people to mess with it now!

Joe

13

A fabulous invite, thank you. Unfortunately the wife has a big Triathlon that weekend so I’m busy. An area I’ve wanted to visit for a while now too! Next Time. :roll_eyes:

14

Joe

Is there a youth hostel nearby or how far is it to Ripley??

15

Dunno about Youth Hostels, but it’s a bit under 5 miles from Ripley.

Joe

16

Ooh, I think I may have found an interesting gps route that I need to check out in reality - a loop with 250m of downhill in the first 1km* (and a great big road slog to get back to the start), and called ‘mtb dh track’. I think I need an early morning muni sometime soon. If it works out, maybe we’ll be able to work out a way to shuttle it or something.

Joe

*It occurs to me that this is really quite steep.

17

Eek. I went to play at a local DH club a couple of weekends ago - only managed to ride their easiest track. I tried one of the “intermediate” ones and scared myself silly. It started off quite hard but doable, then got absolutely ridiculously steep, twisty and slippery with bigger drops than I’ve got the guts to ride. Good luck!

Rob

18

Yeah, is definitely one to scope out before I take anyone else down it - like you say it might be crazy hard, or it might be a big wide easy boring waste of time (although I’m guessing it isn’t too big and wide, as it isn’t visible on google maps). I also don’t know the access until I check it out (it isn’t like an official track or anything).

Joe

19

If you need to bring along an independent adjudicator to verify the rideability of this route, I don’t mind stepping forward. I know there’s some people out there that convert the “Joe says it’s rideable” kind of statement to an “It’s going to kill me” statement. At least if I am able to get down it in one piece then everyone knows they can ride it with confidence :slight_smile:

STM

20

You make yourself sound like some sort of pit canary Spencer :slight_smile:

Rob