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@buttrockanthem
over the weekend just gone I went on my first certified bikepackingtrip (and indeed my first real camping experience outside of Fluff Fest a few years ago).
The plan was to do this route , leaving from Manchester on Saturday and be back by Sunday (for my pal Sam’s stag do). Four of us met up, including fellow radgie @LaserFrennox on his lovely Saracen. John was riding his 2nd ever bike from his childhood after not riding it in ten years or so, and Sam rode his lovely All City.
We set off out of Manchester, and immediately hit some minging hills, which the 3x7 Marin ate up for breakfast as I span away merrily up the hill. A roadie went past us on the way up, and then passed us again once we nearly reached the summit, on their way back down again haha. They didn’t do a wheelie, but I’ll pretend he didn’t hear me. From there we continued pushing into the Peaks, and it wasn’t long before we were treated with some Middle Earth ass views.
From here we had some lovely off road descents, and although my only real off road experience was a blast around Chorlton Water Park and around Clayton Vale a few weeks prior, the Marin remained stable and I became quietly confident. We entered some misc town full of rude people, and bought snacks, before setting off a pretty much vertical hill.
After a short while we got onto a lush long flat bit of the TPT. We were meant to continue on this particular stretch of the TPT, but the gate was locked as certain areas were closed to public access. This gate was guarded by some sort of Skyrim NPC, who just stood there in her farmhouse drive way staring at us while she phoned somebody as we checked our maps to figure out where to go. I waved her goodbye as we set off, but unfortunately I rolled a natural 1 in charisma and she didn’t wave back 😔 .