Sarah, Niq, Hannah, Paul, Dave, Ian, John, Jude, Ros, Paul and Grant left the
Drummer and headed over cobbles to Pydar Street and up the Idless turning.
Despite vowing to avoid the valley until next summer Dave led the group over
mud-concealed potholes to the turning for Goonhavern, where Grant left to pursue
his own objective.
Crossing the road and turning left we soon reached Allet and enjoyed the relatively
mud-free joys of the main road through Chybucca to cross the A30 and A3075.
Shortly after we turned left towards Silverwell and more mud. Passing around the
back of Chiverton Cross we followed the oft-travelled route to Skinners Bottom (or
is it Concord?) where Jude was so surprised to take a left turn that she lost her
chain and came a cropper. Fortunately the only damage was to her mirror, so we
continued on to arrive at Smokey Joe’s. Niq was kept under close observation to
avoid a reflex stop for a bacon sandwich and we crossed the A30 again and
enjoyed the views from the road past Kit Bartley, Cox Hill and then the long
descent to Twelveheads. Level ground rewarded us through Bissoe and on to
Devoran. Some took the main road via the roundabout while most of us went
cross-country on the Mineral Tramways trail.
More delicious scenery on the road along the creek to Point and we were then
rewarded with a gentle ascent to Feock by way of what some refer to as “a hill”
(attributed to Harris, apparently.) At such time we were well late for luncheon but
we shortly arrived at the Punchbowl and Ladle PH.
Following re-fuelling we were on our way again. Ian departed shortly for the road
back to Truro and far beyond, while the rest de-caloried© by taking a route which
was not entirely dissimilar to our outbound journey, being briefly: Bissoe,
Twelveheads, Chacewater, Blackwater and Two Burrows. Some had not had
enough mud and elected to return home through Silverwell while others tried, Kea
Downs, Penstraze, Greenbottom, Threemilestone and Treliske.
My machine read: distance: 60km, average speed: 17.5kph and a power output
that would put an old-school light bulb to shame – these being well within Club
ride parameters.
Ride Leader: Dave Bennett