14th June 2012 - Hawkshead for Grizedale

George, Grant, Jamie, John, Joel and CT met up at the school on this mild but windy evening, forecast for rain 9pm. Jamie was testing his hardtail with a new middle ring, but an old chain and cassette...so off up the bridleway into the forest, this showed us that old cassettes don't always work, anyway Jamie had 5-6th gears and 3 chain rings so should be OK...Onto the north face, down the first section after Moor Top, then tee off left at the bridge, enjoy the singletrack even if there were some v. steep climbs back up, it's a great section of trail. Back along the NF to the visitors centre, up the fire road but ignore the NF trail and keep going to the bottom of the black run, take the left bridleway just before the end of the black and climb, right at the top and along to find the start of the black. Here we put saddles down and took a deep breath, watch out for the first rock steps and jumps, then there is a very sharp turn and v.steep descent, once over this you can roll down with care, no disasters to speak of, re-group at the bottom. Now down the gully route to the centre over the road and up to the Fox, slight pause as Georges rear mech was re-aligned, then enjoy the steady climb up to the fire road and onto the Fox. Here some slight drizzle, all OK for the descent down the eastern trail, hit the lane (newly tarmac'd, loose gravel and smelly) and turn right, climb up to the top, eat some food along the way. 
At the top we re-grouped and did the gravity race thing, Grant took the left route and so started on the clean older tarmac, John ended up on the right (watching out for coming traffic!), 1..2..3..GO! we were off, it's a slow start, Grant ahead, followed by Jamie and CT, Jamie kept the lead, although how John overtook CT I've no idea. Watch out for the bridleway on the left hand side, head over the field and enjoy the singletrack, keep eating, another Gel. This leads to a great downhill, just watch the gap through the wall. As we re-grouped at the bottom lane another group of MTBers caught us up, probably 10 riders, so we pretty much rode back to Hawkshead together, especially as one of their's had ripped a rear mech off and so was being pushed back. A great ride and it didn't rain. Next ride mid-summer from Riddlehead.