2nd October 2008 - Elterwater

Well not much to report, apparently 4 riders turned up for Elterwater, Grant, Jamie, Charlie and Neil, I say apparently 'cause they have not come up with a story, I think they may have retired to the pub! Any news on events will be posted in due course.
Late news from Neil...
"The Thursday was very wet, and so didn’t encourage many to go night riding. Only Charlie, Jamie, Grant and I were the four brave riders to arrive at Elterwater. Having just about stopped raining around 5.30, things looked to be improving. As we set off, climbing up alongside the river, towards the quarry, the rain returned –but only briefly, would our luck hold.
On climbing through Sawrey’s Wood, down past Dale End and on towards Little Langdale, Charlie suggested we turn right. So a quick blast on the road then left at the cattle grid and then left at Fell Foot Bridge. I had a recurrence of a gear problem; thanks are due to Jamie for getting me going again. At the fork in the track, instead of going right for Tilberthwaite, we followed Charlie’s idea, to go left down the descent by Low Hall Garth climbing hut. A great descent in the dark, too soon we arrived at the ford.
Not across the ford, yet, so onwards then left and upwards, past Stang End and High Park, just before the A593 a left turn took us into Tongue Intake Plantation, through the wood and the fast descent down to the T junction track and fence right at the bottom of the descent, so no room for error. A left took us up through the woods, and back to High Park and then a left at Stang End brought us to Hodge Close and down the loose slate track, and then on down to the ford.
Our lights showed that the River Brathay was too deep to ford, so over the bridge. The track on the other side had some big deep puddles, on the left is a raised stone narrow platform running along by the wall, which Jamie rode along, Charlie followed by walking along. As I watched Grant bravely negotiate the water blocking the track, and as it was quite deep, the best option seemed to be to follow Jamie’s example. I’d only just started riding on the raised platform, when I had two valuable insights into night riding and following Jamie; as Jamie is somewhat taller than me, and therefore his bars are further from the ground, and also one limitation of lights mounted on handlebars is that the ends of the bars are not very visible. These facts came abruptly apparent as suddenly my bars suddenly turned, caught on a stone on the wall alongside me, causing me to carry out an emergency dismount- leaping off my bike as it tipped, I landed, impressively I thought, squarely on both feet, I even managed to hold my bike above me so it didn’t land on me. It was at this point that I the deep puddle I landed in, showed me the limit of my waterproof socks!
On to Little Langdale and then past Dale End saw us at the gate by Sawrey’s Wood, for a change we didn’t climb through the wood, but went right and down the descent, and quickly on the road and back to the cars.
Conclusion: The figure of eight route worked well, we only had a few spots of rain, and most of the route was on fairly firm tracks, which was just as well after all the rain of the previous days, and I need longer socks.
Despite Chris’s suspicions we didn’t even get to the pub-just 100% mountain biking!"
Thursday 9th's ride is from Winster, enjoy.