Six people assembled at the Waterend Barn in St Albans for a ride to Berkhamsted. The forecast was not good and Peter turned back to head home fairly soon as we headed up the Redbourn Road, which was probably a wise move if you didn’t like wind rain and cold altogether. Carol was not feeling too good and also left us near Buncefield for home.
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| Hogg End Lane underpass in the rain! |
The remaining four “Hardies” headed through Cupid Green up to Gaddesden Row. Passing through Briden's Camp we crossed the old A4146 road now downgraded to the B440 (since a lorry ban was introduced following the opening of Junction 11a on the M1, meaning HGVs should use the M1, A5 and A505 to reach Leighton Buzzard) and headed towards Little Gaddesden with the idea of passing through Ringshall and past the Bridgewater monument at Ashridge before descending into Northchurch. However at the T junction where we would have turned right for Little Gaddesden, in view of the deteriorating weather, we decided to turn left going past Potten End and dropped down directly into Berkhamsted town centre instead. This cut the ride length by about 5 miles. A warming coffee, food, and beer at The Crown run by JD Wetherspoon were most welcome before the return trip. Phil S joined us at the pub and Tim was amazed at the value-for-money of a breakfast muffin with bacon and egg plus a coffee for £2.65. Afterwards we took the back roads through Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead, then used Bunkers Lane and the Hemel Hempstead Road to get back to St Albans. The round trip was about 28 miles in total and it was a character-building day!
Philip
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