The Stockport Hilly Off-Road ride is an upcoming Stockport Community Cycling Club Sunday ride. However Sarah and I will be away for the weekend it will take place (celebrating my birthday! 🙂 ). Andy S needed to recce the ride, and we had a free Bank Holiday, we decided to test the ride out.

We met at the Lapwing Centre in Brinnington.

And set off on NCN Route 62 through Reddish Vale Country Park.

  

NCN Route 62 of course forms part of the Trans Pennine Trail.

This took us through Hulmes Wood and Haughton Dale.

  

We then picked up the Godley old railway path.

Before turning off and climbing up to Mottram Old Road and Hattersley.

Next we dropped down to Broadbottom.

  

Before climbing again to Charlesworth.

And then picking up NCN Route 68 and continuing to climb.

  

Still climbing …

NCN Route forms the Pennine Cycleway which we cycled a few years ago.

The views up here are fantastic.

As we reach the top the views keep coming …

And still there’s more …

And remember, these are all on our doorstep.

It had been raining the previous day, and this provided for a few puddles to paddle through.

Eventually we dropped down into New Mills. We had hoped to stop off for lunch at Pulse, the planned cafe stop for the ride. This being a Bank Holiday, and the place was closed. Thankfully Gioia Mia was open. This place provided some fantastic food … and the cafe owner was quite a character!

After the food we set off again and picked up the Peak Forest Canal. This forms a section of NCN Route 6.

The canal took us through High Lane and towards Marple.

At Rose Hill, Marple we briefly picked up the Middlewood Way. At this point we joined NCN Route 55.

From there we navigated our way to the new Alan Newton Way.

This took us towards Chadkirk.

And then the Goyt Valley Way.

Finally we left NCN Route 55 as we turned towards Brinnington and back to the start.

  

By the end of the ride we had cycled nearly 29 miles and climbed 2000 feet. This was certainly another Andy S challenging ride. That said, as always with Andy S’s routes, the views and scenery were fabulous and well-worth the effort.