24th January 2008 - Elterwater

7 turned out (after having a rest last week!) Joel even had a shiny new white P7. The route went something like this head out of the car park, as I was checking my gears I turned right, everyone followed, but we were going left...! so left up the first lane to the quarry, get that P7 muddy! up the tree climb and down to the gate, head for the ford, but NO turn right at the road and tee off left for the climb up the knotts and onto High Tilberthwaite, a great downhill rocky tester! Have a little fun at the playground then off for Hodge Close, there were some washed out sections so watch out. Then onto the NT descent, no a bad way to finish then back to the cars. No beers at the Britannia 'cause it was closed?? so we went back to Ings so a beer. Next ride Gilpin Bridge.

17th January 2008 - Oxen Park

It had been raining so that seemed the excuse for everyone to take a rain check, anyway George and CT turned out for a nice ride out. Heading west along the lane to take the sharp right hand turn UP the climb, past the farm and onto the bridleway, remember to keep left and head down Lord Ling, it was a bit wet, enjoy the descent into High Ickenthwaite. head left along corker lane towards Force Forge, we carried on and went left at Force Mills so that we could come down the little cut off corner bridleway and then we came back up the lane and took a another cut off corner bridleway past force beck to get to the bridleway to Thwaite Moss, quite a rocky descent. Right at the road and back via Yew Beck and the usual route. Part of this route maybe worth a go the other way round, one for the future. Next ride is Elterwater.

10th January 2008 - Hawkshead for Grisedale

5 intrepid MTBer's met up in Hawkshead on a flood-prone Thursday, as the weather was damp we entered a democratic debate on route choice, some saying Claiffe maybe drier, others opting for the North Face route, the final vote seemed to be taking some time and as Chris M had had a busy day driving around Cumbria he wanted to be off round the North Face trail and so he was, leaving the remainder to make up their minds....! So the NF trail it was, allowing CM a head start the remaining 4 headed up the first climb, joy of joys an up hill warm up, again. We met Chris at the first gate taking a breather, then we continued onto the NF route. This route from Hawkshead, although beginning on a hill means we get to enjoy the downhill single track to the visitors centre, (watch out for the building works and de-tours) where as usual it was raining, so we continued on up the fire-road, during the steady climb and whilst chatting CT clashed handlebars with CSC and fell off, this was not to be his first off of the day. We continued up the steady climb and regrouped at the top to comment of the wet boardwalks! Also Chris M's lights were blinking off and after some investigation, it seemed that the Li-ion battery system has as safety cut out which was coming into play, so Chris had no lights, he decided to continue on the fire-roads with his back up "Black Diamond" LED head torch (very useful). The other 4 carried on and enjoyed the NF trail, pretty good considering the wet weather we had had. We kept meeting up with Chris M on the fire-road until he went past us and carried on back to the car. We reached the final single track and headed down the trail, CT was leading JB for a change, until he came to a damp board-walk section under some trees, here it was like ice, but we did not notice until CT had gone down a pearler, i.e. the front wheel slipped away and CT fell off the board-walk, luckily onto some soft-ish fern. No real harm done, but we noticed that CSC and Joel had not caught us up and so we headed back up the trail, we got all the way back to the fire-road and no sign, so we decided to continue back down the trail, this time slowly over the board-walk, all OK and we met up with the 2 others on the trail, apparently CSC Li-ion had also stopped and so they took the fire road option, so we were now heading down the last descent to Hawkshead by sharing lights, while cycling back to the cars through the village we checked the time and noticed that it was ten to ten, so that's why the lights were going out! Now just time for a drink in the Sun Inn and a warm by the fire. Next ride is at Oxen Park.

3rd January 2008 - Ings

4 of us turned up for a cold and snowy/icy ride around Mickle Moss, it was a relatively short ride, just to ease us into the new year. We set off up the lane and as soon as we started to go up hill we heard a cry from Chris M, mechanical trouble? well a puncture already, so a quick change and we continued up past St. Ann's farm and through the icy puddles, not frozen enough to ride on and so we got wet feet, keep left at the first junction and head on up to the right hand gate. Head through and keep going, the wet patch (i.e. large puddles) were semi-frozen and there is no real way round, but we tried and got more wet feet, George just ploughed on, he must have had those dry sock things for Christmas! We kept going up to the first river crossing and decided to turn right and head back, something to do with the start of a snow blizzard. Down the 2 rivers and you guessed it more wet stuff, down the rocky route, past Jamie's corner and along the bottom lane, then up the old technical section (now easy) and up the tarmac climb, turn left at the top and the 3 specialized boys were being lead by Mr. hardtail, through more puddles, past the farm and the final technical blast down the narrow rocky bridleway back to the lane, all in just over an hour. So plenty of time for a beer and a discussion on LED torches, mines brighter than yours and all that; then guess who turned up for a drink, JP graced our presence, looking for stimulation, only he had to do with us lot, next time he may even bring a bike! Hawkshead for the 10th January.