Mark and I had been planning a cycle ride for a while and after recently getting my mountain bike serviced and its wheels rebuilt, it was time to head for the hills. We were going to keep it easy going for the first big ride and go down to Sale Water Park (somewhere I am looking to go to photograph as soon as possible) but in the end I found we could get a train from Manchester to Glossop, so we did that instead. We then cycled up the Snake Pass (more formally known as the A57) and I am embarrassed to say it took me over an hour to cycle the 4 or 5 miles to the top, although the top was near Bleaklow which is around 2,000 feet above sea level.When we eventually got to the top the sign in the above photograph greeted us. Using Mark’s camera I decided to take a photo of my camera (the Nikon D80) hanging from the sign post to add interest. At this point we are looking in a westerly direction towards Glossop. The main thing to point out above this picture is it was taken at 11:28am and the water in the pond behind the sign was frozen solid. When we came past it an hour or two later it was still frozen and we were still in t-shirts, because cycling uphill and then cycling off road are both very warming forms of exercise.
Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
