25th March 2010 - Hawkshead for Grizedale

8 riders met up in the car park, John, George, Ian, Neil, Chris M, (splint off finger!) Jamie, CT and Charlie (just in time); this meant 5x LED, 3x Halogen, 2x hardtails! We set off west out of the village for the climb past Walker ground to get onto the North Face trail, slightly damp but ridable, once at the top you are onto the NF and so follow the red arrows. All OK towards the visitors centre, here we took a little tour around to see the new cafe, shop refurbishment, all very tidy. Now upwards and enjoy the climb, as we climbed in started to rain a little more, still keep going cake at the top (thanks to L&L). Just keep following the red arrows! No real action, Ians lights need some TLC, otherwise besides watching out for deer and frogs, it was a nice ride. Back to Hawkshead for a beer in the Sun, which had new floor and a make over, when you asked the barman what flavour crisps they had he asked you back what do you like and produced a wicker basket with a load of different flavours, except no ready salted...can't please everyone! Next ride is the first of summer, Gilpin Bridge Inn at 6.15 with meal afterwards.

18th March 2010 - Elterwater

5 turned up Jamie, Neil, Charlie, Gran & CT, it was raining so what to wear and which way to go..? Up the little road and towards the quarry, watch out for the frogs..! or are they toads, the warm wet weather seems to have woken then up, or are they looking for love...we just had to be on guard as they just sat in the middle of the trail!! Now the testing climb through the trees was virtually impossible in the rain, interesting around the tops and the rocks, as it had been dry it seemed greasy on the rocks or was our tyre pressure tooooo high? At the top of Sawrey wood Neil and Charlie let air out of their tyres, tricky as they both have tyre sealant inside! Onwards past Dale end and at the road turn right, more frogs, not over to Tilberthwaite, but along the bottom route Low Hall Garth, still a tricky test over wet rocks, Grant miss-timed one water crossing and fell in! Down to the ford, turn right and go left past the playground, up the 'breaking china' alley onto Hodge close, up the hill with a bit of gladiator style jousting for position on the trail (CT & Neil). At the top gate we paused for a re-group, change clothes etc, talk turned to leather boots and spurs, not quite sure where the conservation was going! so onward to take the left leg on the tarmac to get to the top of NT Tongue Intake plantation, enjoy the descent, right at the wall and through the stream, along the trail and out onto the road. Here we pondered what to do, Charlie wanted to check out the route along Gt. Langdale Beck to the car park. So we went in search of the turning, in fact you have to go right up to the main road (A593) then left, near to the bottom there is a turn off to the left signed as a bikepath and this runs to a foot bridge, Woodburn, (see photo), it's very impressive when lit up at night (by our bike lights, it's not flood lit!!). Now it is a very nice run along a bikepath along the river, besides still dodging frogs along the way, we don't want then ending up with 'small block 8' tread pattern on their backs!. The rain eased off during the ride and it was OK, now back at the cars, pub & chips time, yes they could still serve chips at the Britannia (£3 per basket, but a good amount) and the fire was burning. Next ride Hawkshead.

11th March 2010 - Staveley for Kentmere

6 turned out, including John with new LEDs, we set off UP past Jamie's corner, i.e. 2 rivers, then down to Kentmere where we met up with 4 others riders going in the opposite direction, earlier we had seen their lights across the valley and wondered where they were going, maybe they thought the same..? Down at Kentmere church we headed for Green Quarter, here John headed off, happy with his lights, just need more time with bike & legs. We climbed over Green Quarter and down to Staveley head, right turn and enjoy HP descent, then back along the road to the cars with a steady warm down, not! No pub, next ride is Elterwater (where there is a pub and we can give Grant a send off)

5-8th March 2010 - Scotland tour

In all we had 10 riders come out to play around Ae, Kirroughtree, Dalbeattie and Mabie. The weather also stayed dry (if frosty mornings)which was fantastic, Ae was muddy and we even had to peddle downhill....! no good.

(I will post pictures as the arrive, any video links will also be added, hopefully.)

In summary we rode 5 rides, over 4 days between 4 trail centres all based around Dalbeatie. Plenty of time for playing around the rock slabs with loads of grip. No real mechanicals, except Joels chain does not like one section of Kirroughtree! (...and don't mention the Saab!)

Here are a few statistics from Neils bike log:

Ae - Distance: 15 miles Average speed: 6.5mph Riding time: 2hours 16 minutes
Kirroughtree - Distance: 21.25 miles Average speed: 6.9mph Riding time: 3 hours 3 minutes
Dalbeattie - Distance: 23.7 miles Average speed: 7.7mph Riding time: 3 hours 4 minutes
Mabie - Distance: 11.5 miles Average speed: 6.7mph Riding time: 1 hours 43 minutes

Read into them what you will.

25th February 2010 - Troutbeck circuit

On a damp and cold night George, Grant, Jamie, Neil, Paul and CT turned up. We headed out north on A592 past Limefitt and looking for a RHS bridleway past Town Head and onto Ing Lane, then right over small bridge and back along the bridleway under Long Green Head. Now climb up past Limefitt and onto Garburn for the descent to the road, now admire the work being done to repair and rebuild the track, especially at the corners where the repair work consisted of large rocks (like large cobble stones) but put in place end on, so only the end will show through once complete, this must take some time but improve the wear of vehicles and MTBs up & down the track, only time will tell. Continue down to the road, where the track has been repaired and again we'll have to see how long it lasts, turn left and travel along the road looking for the bridleway on the RHS leading across the field and over the stream to Town End. After the steady climb turn left and have a look at Wain Lane, this has been repaired and so we ventured down to check it out, all good and so we continued to the road turned right and headed up Mirk Lane, another good testing climb, always worth a go!! Back on the tarmac ride on and head left up the testing climb to Robin lane, Grants lights kept cutting out due to a short cable and so he couldn't finish any climb, gutted! time for flapjack, then Blast down the lane keeping an eye out for dogs and back down the bridleway past the church to finish. A nice ride to warm up for Scotland tour. No pub, next Thursday night ride is Staveley on 11th March.