17th July 2008 - Elterwater

A slight drizzle was in the breeze, but 4 hardy souls turned out, Grant, Neil, Jamie & Chris. We set out up past the quarry and onto the testing route (i.e. a walk, but it would make a tricky downhill later maybe) up through Sawrey's Wood, heading past Dale End to Little Langdale, at the road we decided to go right and climb up and over to High Tilberthwaite, this is a good testing but do-able climb, with a reward of a downhill, just near the top J & C had a little race thing going on, but as soon as the route started downhill C eased off to the inevitable faster downhill 29er! Just at the farm turn left and tee off towards the play-ground area, here we went right to Hodge Close, then uphill to Oxen Fell to take the downhill in the NT Tongue Intake Plantation, still very good, but now there is an optional jump, you just need to hit it at the right speed, maybe someday! At the bottom we turned left and climbed up and out towards Stang End, down to the ford (very deep) back up the lane to Dale End to take the testing descent back to the quarry, it's quite a test! All back safely, Elterwater is great but tooooo much choice! According to Neils bike computer the riding time was 1 hr 39 mins and we travelled 10.7 miles. Next ride is from Askham up to High St.