At 8.30 I was on the road this morning, making for the clubrun rendezvous – the Bee Hive Hotel in Horwich.  I was the third to arrive, but by 9.30am – half an hour behind time, we numbered fourteen.  It was a surprise run, (a free lunch being given to anyone guessing the lunch place) but of course no one guessed correctly.  My surmise of Bleasdale fell on stony ground.  Two of us drew ahead and got separated from the main party, but at Chorley they found us and we proceeded on together.  Plunging into a bewildering series of bylanes, four of us lost ourselves, but found them by a bit of detective work – viz – tracing their tyre marks.  At Roach Mill Bridge we paused to admire the waterfall by which the mill is worked.  Soon we joined the Preston-Whalley road and running through Copster Green we passed the old Abbey at Whalley and so on to Great Mitton for lunch.

After a walk by the River Ribble we took the road again and treading our way through many bylanes came to Hodder Bridge.  The scenery looked inspiring with Pendle Hill in the background and the tree clad Longridge Fell beside us.  Into the Vale of Chipping we sped, staying awhile in the pretty old time village of that name to view both inside and outside the old church.  Then again the lanes, and after an easy run we reached Inglewhite and then Brock for tea.  Several had come out for tea, tempted by the sunshine, and afterwards we had a long walk round, all 28 of us.  The return home was perfect, via Broughton, Preston and Belmont, and all voted it a very happy day.

84 miles, 13.5 hours