Jacob with Friends and Creating Highlights

Sunday was all about celebrating our pal Darren (and his beards) 30th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than a bike ride ay! Also a perfect opportunity for me to ‘komoot‘ it, so I can share it with everyone else.

I’m all over any Peaks ride, and I’m even more so into creating Highlights on Komoot after the ride. Shouting about a good ride is something I do best, so here are my ‘Highlights’ from my Jacobs Ladder ride. Once you have a look, follow my link at the bottom and do the ride yourself!

1.Edale to Hollin’s Cross – First climb of the ride and its pretty challenging. I do like a good warm up, but this is next level (especially when you’ve been dancing to Bowie with you mum the night before until 2am, just sayin’). There are Super views down the valley and up the hill which made it less painful. The trail begins in singletrack before then opening up into a nice wide but very rocky and tech bridleway. Awesome climb for those who like a challenge, I’m deffo gonna clear it in one, one day!

2. Hollin’s Cross- Here is where you stop, catch your breath and recover from the climb, then admire the view down across Castleton and over to Hope. I was recovering HARD so didn’t manage a photo of the view, sorry about that.

3. Mam Tor Escape- First descent of the ride is fast and flowy down the side of Mam Tor. Techy in sections with some loose rock. Don’t stare at the view too much and watch out for them walkers!

4. Rushup Edge Climb- A slog when wet but the only way is up (baby). Great when dry which in our case ‘luckily’ it was (in fact Ive never seen it so dry). Mixed terrain again, some maintenance been done to the shared use path at the beginning, but this soon changes as the trail forks and then flattens out into a rutted out section at the top across Rushup Edge. More great views down the valley and then make sure you stop for a photo.

5. Roych Clough Descent- Mega downhill to the best lunch spot in the Peaks. Super loose rock, techy and steep in places with some step downs. Very fast and very fun! Mixture of slabs and bedrock, watch out for walkers on the corners!

6. My Favourite lunch spot- ‘Every inch I climb up the old oak tree makes me realise how much nature means to me’. In 2005 wooden benches carved with poems celebrating the Peak District were installed across the National Park, and here lies one of them. As well as admiring the poetry, this spot is also very beautiful to stop and have a minute!

7.Hayfield Descent-This descent is ever so fun. Rocky, loose and wild, however, watch out for the drainage holes.

8. Kinder Traverse- This trail ranges from tiny potato size (evil) rocks to climb up, to big boulders that you need to slog your way over. Steep and lung busting in places, the views do make up for this though. On this ride which was my third attempt I didn’t get off and push (although I really wanted to) which was a mini win for me! All of this eventually leads to the famous Jacobs Ladder Descent, which is pretty wild!

9.Jacobs Cairn-Big pile of rocks, better known as a Cairn and this one is Jacobs. Great spot to stop and admire the views and grab a photo or two. Jacobs ladder descent would be best described as a long and challenging descent, requiring high technical ability (or alternatively you can push down sections).Very rocky, all the rock, loose, embedded, and bedrock, EVER so fun.

10. Down to the footbridge- Bottom end of Jacob’s Ladder Descent. Another spicy, rocky and fun blast down the hillside to the footbridge. Last descent of the day, and ever so fun.