Hebden Bridge and the rest of West Yorkshire

This is a valley full of surprises. To the uninformed visitor, it seems like another grim northern valley full of Daily Mail reading Tory voters and no distinguishing features. However, not only was it the first fairtrade town in Britain, banning all chain stores form its high street, its industrial legacy comes in the form of a series of packhorse trails which make awesome descents. Our favorites would have to be:
1. The Colden zig zags (SD975283 to 977283),
2. Heptonstall (SD988292) to Midgehole (SD990297)
3. Peckett Well (SD996293) to New Bridge(SD989291)
4. The descent into Todmorden (SD958247) from high on the moor (SD915274).

The surrounding moors are mostly rocky, all weather double track. Two further exceptional bits of trail are following Catchwater Drain from Warley Moor Reservoir (SE026320 to SE013300) – not a massively technical challenge, but requiring good balance and a satisfyingly solid way of crossing a boggy looking bit of moor. The other is the Hambleton Lane from Thornton Moor Reservoir (SE047334) to Ogden Reservoir (SE069309). This starts unpromisingly, with a bit of upgraded doubletrack. However, the upgrading soon runs out and it becomes an awesome, slightly down hill bit of singletrack, with loads of route choice fun. The only other piece of advice for Hebden Bridge is Stairs Lane – best done south to north as the track is tarmacked nearly to the top on the southern side (from Grainwater Bridge (SD996325) to Leeshaw Reservoir (SE016351)) .

Stainburn is the only other worthwhile riding in West Yorkshire. It’s very short – just 3km, but very technical and weather resistant. We still haven’t dared do the black here, or indeed style the red. Its major drawback is its short length which makes it hard to spend more than a couple, of hours unless you’re really motivated to session stuff. The rumoured trails over the road seem non-existent.