Mary Towneley Loop

StupidMonkeyKev:

Its well worth doing if epic slogs are your thing, but its better to use parts of it and then make little loops off it taking in the Pennines. One of the "little loops" can be Lee Quarry, or some of Calderdales finest.

A sense of achievement when its done, good to do a bit of it and loop in some more natural stuff rather than slog round the loop.

MrsFish:

I rode it anticlockwise, but met lots of people riding it clockwise who said that was the better way to go. I did find myself having to push up some of the steepest ups - once you're off the bike it's hard to get going again on these bits. I reckoned I could have ridden these up as descents without too much trouble. Conversely, I don't think I rode down many bits I couldn't have ridden up, so perhaps on balance clockwise is the more rideable route?

The countryside is indisputably gorgeous, and despite living in the area I was amazed by how many out of the way houses there are, which made my solo trip more interesting as I pondered who on earth would live in a house like this (let's go through the keyhole...). The trails are mixed and interesting, although today it was really dry with hardly any mud, which did make for quite a hard ride on the bum as even the rock free sections were parched hard. This is probably quite unusual for this part of the world though! It feels like quite an achievement to have done it in a day, or would make a pleasant weekend break for experienced riders. Inexperienced riders will probably get round, as there's not much that is really technical, but they'll end up doing a lot of pushing and probably not enjoy it as much as someone who can ride it.