27th June 2013 - Sedbergh

So Chris was away cycling up the Tourmalet, Neil was off to the Brecon Beacons and avoiding bike eating holes on his 29er, Grant apparently wanted to check out the midges in Scotland, Jamie is no doubt in his busiest season, Ian we were not sure of and George had sent his apologies. So of the regulars this left Joel who had not been out for a few weeks and Charlie who likewise had been absent for several weeks jetting all over the world for work. 

It was a damp afternoon and the clag was down on the hills. Arriving at Sedbergh, Charlie was nervous as she discovered Joel had sent an email whilst she had been driving to check out whether she was still going. So the fear was that Charlie was going to have a “billy no mates” ride, but Joel was keen and rolled into the car park exactly on time. Whilst the route said we should be tackling the Calf, there was a certain reluctance to embark on this as above 200m we would have been in thick cloud. Charlie had spoken about a low level alternative, which Joel reckoned sounded like a couple of laps of the car park and he felt he was up to this.

On arriving in the usual car park, Charlie explained that her route would be better done from a layby on the far side of Sedbergh on the Kirkby Steven road. They both drove and parked a mile or so out of the village to just before the bridge over the River Rawthey. The first bit of the ride just followed up the A683 for about 4k. At this time of night it was extremely quiet with only a couple of cars passing us. We turned off up the small side road to Bluecaster Side. This was good as we did most of the climb on the road before we getting to track that contoured over the fell. The track started off good and firm but as we branched off to continue the contour round to Uldale the track got fairly wet whenever we crossed the side streams. A short descent to cross the river via a bridge and a climb (push) up through the woods on the other side. The contouring theme continued on a track that became a road and we followed this round to Low Dovelgill. Here we descended down to cross the main road and continue up the road / track on the far side that climbed up to Murthwaite. Charlie was not able to get her two lowest gears and so at this point she stopped to try and fix it but midges soon changed any thought of doing this and the remaining hills were done in a slightly higher gear.

At Murthwaite there were several gates but then we started rolling down the hill which gradually steepened as it headed into the woods. This turned out to be an amazing single track descent, twisting and turning through the woods until it finished at the stream. There was then a track climb up to Narthwaite before dropping down and contouring round to join up with the track to Cautley Spout. The last third of the ride contours the lower slopes of The Calf. Other than loosing the track at one point this was a great little single track that generally headed down hill. There was a couple of short little climbs at the end on the road section by Holling Hill before we got back down to the main road and the cars.

Stats: 23 kmClimb: 530  (it did mainly contour)

Thanks Charlie. Next ride TBA, possibly Staveley, Barley Bridge.