Clapham again

Another iffy looking forecast so I took Burk round Tony's clapham loop. It was nice and sunny on the way up, I actually broke out the suncream. I pulled my mmmbop out of the car and realised I'd been messing with the cranks recently but hadn't tightened them up properly, eek no 8mm allen key, Burk who has the same cranks didn't either. Bugger. I knocked on Tonys pad but no answer (i was going to say hi anyway, would be rude not to when riding his trails:-) ), fortunatley across the road some guys were fitting solar panels and they had one. Life saver. Out uphill under the bridges didn't seem so bad this time, along to woodend, at meldings barn we ran into trouble, seriously overgrown trail, full of nettles, brambles and other various flora. Nightmare, kept going for most of it getting stung every 30 seconds or so but got so bad we were wobbling along there was a good chance one of us would come a cropper and end up falling into nettles. We chucked the bikes over a wall and rode through the field, legs were still stinging saturday afternoon! We looped round to feizor and climbed over to Wharfe. I warned Burk about the slab after the ford but it looked nowt special and as it was dry we both rode it no drama. Slog upto Long Scar and along the top, sulber nick was just as difficult as last time but the drop back to Wharfe was well worth it, fun and games all the way back to thwaite lane, fast grassy twisty start, some rocky bits thrown in and all that wall lined narrow track winding it's way down the hill. On the way back to clapham it started raining but not too bad and cleared again. The bakery at higher benton supplied post ride replenishment, ham mini quiche and pork pie was all they had left but mmm, wow they have some tasty pigs round there! Another decent day despite the forecast, mind you we got stuck in a proper torrential downpour in blackrod, flooded roads, zero visibility and hale. Felt sorry for the 2 roadies we passed, unlucky.