17th Jun 2010 - Walna Scar ride

7 riders George, Paul, Neil, Jamie, John, Charlie and Grant (on his own bike for a change) met up at the Hummer Lane forest access point, Charlie and Grant had set off earlier and left their cars at Torver so that they did the climb up Hummer lane at the beginning of the ride rather at the end they also made the offer to transport the rest of back up at the end of the ride. We set off west down the fire road, we continued on until the right hand bend in the track, where we looked for a marker on the LHS to find a route through the trees. This ultimately gets us down into the valley bottom. From here we transversed along the bridleway we used at the end of the Broughton Mills ride so that we could asend Walna Scar on the route Jamie had taken on the latter ride. This route was much more interesting and technical than the fire road and we continued tohead up the valley and work our way up to the old quarry buildings before starting the Walna Scar road proper. I am not sure how many riders made it too the top without walking as Paul on I were somewhat behind on this section. Once at the top, we appreciated the views. Time for a quick snack and a wind proof top for the next descent DOWN Walna Scar Road, the rocks for the next section were large and loose, it is quite a testing descent, all down OK past Goatfoot crags and take the right turn, here there is a testing drop off, just to check nerves! Then down past the quarry, but we enjoyed the down! back to Torver via the lanes. Charlie and Grant then offered to taxi the other riders back up to the start point at the top of Hummer Lane but all the other riders declined prefering to make the climb to complete the ride. We left Grant and Charlie debating whether they should go to the pub.
Cheers George, aways a good warm down ride back to the cars! next ride is the mid-summer special and is a repeat of last years ride from Ribblehead, meet just after the Viaduct and the road junction to Horton (B6479) plenty of parking on the road side.

10th June 2010 - Ings & GOLD

This is an alternative to the listed Winster ride, and 6 made it out for a ride; Chris M, Charlie, George, Paul, Ian and Neil, and 2 others made it to the pub for a meal; all part of the training for the Sam Houghton Challenge on Saturday. Briefly the ride headed south and round past Blackmoss and then over to Kentmere side for the usual 3 rivers ride.
Then in the pub we were allowed to view the GOLD medals from the recent MTBO World Cup event in Poland where Charlie won the Worlds Master W50 title, see attached pics, obviously too modest to mention the training rides with RADs, but we know the importance of regular rides and map training! next ride is Walna Scar starting from Broughton forest entrance off Hummer Lane.

3rd June 2010 - Keswick for Latrigg

7 turned out for Keswick on a warm and sunny day; George, Ian, Chris M, Jamie, Grant, Neil and CT turned out; someone else said "unfortunately I can't make it out, due to a date with my wife"...! What next riding with a world champion, watch this space...

So we set off in the sun from Briar Rigg up the Cumbria Way bridleway, turn right half way up and head east, then up the lane into Brundholme Wood and look out for the route onto the dismantled railway, it's tricky and easily missed...(group ride must try harder!) carry on east until the main road and head into Threlkeld then head north and west and up the tarmac climb to go past the Blencathra centre and head north past Blease Fell to get to the top of the valley and cross over to the west side and head south along Lonscale fell, this is a great test of bike riding both crossing the valley and getting over the rock gardens at the edge of the crags, just don't look over the edge! Now blast along the fell side and head for Latrigg and enjoy the views over Keswick and beyond, also enjoy the low flying jet, which was definately flying below us when we were at approx 300m. Now enjoy the singletrack descent back to the cars. A great ride for a summers evening. Next ride is Ings.