Jim and I had been keeping an eye on today's weather forecast all week and it looked like Thursday afternoon was going to be wet, wet, wet! By Wednesday afternoon it didn't look any better so we decided that we would cycle up to the Gladstone Library at Hawarden for coffee and then cycle home by whichever route would get us back before the rain came. Dave H was in two minds as to whether to venture out or not but eventually decided to join us.
I don't usually describe our journey to the starting cafe – it's not part of the ride – but the reason for writing the following will soon become clear. The three of us set off towards Chester eventually reaching the River Dee at The Groves. From here we followed the river, round the Roodee racecourse and along to Ferry Lane bridge. We crossed the bridge turning right to go past the Airbus factory then left up Rake Lane. At the top we turned right for the climb up to Hawarden.
There were more members at the library than we had expected (we hadn't expected any) but all had an eye on the afternoon's weather. As a result no-one was going to lead a moderate ride and therefore our ride out became the moderate ride. Hence the route description thus far. David M had driven to Holt and ridden up from there so joined us for part of the ride as we left Hawarden. We turned down the Wrexham road then up to the edge of Bilberry Wood before crossing the A55 via the footbridge. Lower Mountain Road took us south before dropping down to Lavister. Here we decided to turn left – a wise decision as it turned out – to return via Eccleston and in order to avoid Handbridge I navigated a route through the houses to cross the river by the Queens Park bridge.
Now it was simply a matter of retracing our route back to the start. No lunch out this week but just over 31 miles ridden. The rain started just as I cycled onto my drive.
TC
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