Five of us assembled at Stork Lodge Tea Rooms on Sunday 13th June, on a decidedly wet day (in stark contrast to the sunny Saturday), for our advertised Fred Hill Memorial Run to Tan Hill Inn. We set off at 10:00, and promptly got split up in Wakefield, a mere couple of hundred yards after setting off. However, we were soon(ish) reunited on the A650 at Newton Hill, then stayed on the A650, all through Bradford, Keighley and heading towards Skipton, where we picked up the A65.
We stayed on the A65 until Settle, taking the B6480 and a stop in Settle town centre for food, drinks and comfort breaks. Just as we were parked up, we met John who was en-route to meet us (in Hawes). We continued out of Settle on the B6480, through Horton-in-Ribblesdale, then taking a right at the famous Ribbleshead Viaduct, onto the B6255 towards Hawes.
From Hawes, we took the hugely scenic Buttertubs Pass road to Thwaite, then onto Keld, and an interesting (two sharp hairpins) minor road up to the Tan Hill Inn.
At Tan Hill we met Steady Eddie, who had come up on his trike a couple of hours before.
There were a lot of bikes at Tan Hill doing a charity run for the Great North Air Ambulance. Also at Tan Hill were several vintage bikes, and it's quite an achievement for 95 year old bikes to get there, as none of the roads in any direction can be described as easy, especially for Edwardian era machinery.
We stopped at Tan Hill for lunch (giant Yorkshire Puddings highly recommended !!!!)
For our return trip we took the B6270 and A6108 towards Leyburn. From Leyburn, we stayed on the A6108 through Masham and onto Ripon, picking up the A61, then the A168, running alongside the A1, then the A659 to Tadcaster, then the Towton road (B1217) to Garforth and winding our way back to Wakefield on the A642.
A most splendid rideout and a pity only 7 of us got to enjoy it. However, we can put the relatively poor attendance down to two main factors: