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.