26th March 2015 - Ings

George, Jamie M, Neil, Jamie B, CT met up at Ings, Grant turned up just as we were leaving and so we planned to rendezvous later on at Duggs lane. We set off south west to take the whasdike bridleway to Blackmoss lane and then cross over the A591 and take the lanes to Dubbs, a nice gentle start. Up Dubbs to Garburn, but not over the top this time, down Limefitt and onto the bottom of Garburn track, left on the road and right to Townend and then up Robin Lane. Stop at the seat to admire the stars, eat flapjack, then straight back down and into Troutbeck, then second bridleway down to the church, back up Limefitt, up the testing steps, cleaned it:) then back up to the Ings road and back to the cars. Along the way it transpired that Grant rear cassette had lost some structure and so 2 rings were loose, this eventually led to the chain jamming into the cassette and some time required to unjam it, new gear time. Nice little ride, no pub. 
Next ride Farleton, meet at Milnthorpe

19th March 2015 - Troutbeck - Jenkins Crag - Coffin route

George, Neil, Joel, Grant, Jamie and CT turned out on this clear evening; start off up the tarmac to Troutbeck village centre and then off up Robin Lane, nice and steady, stopped for a photo of the lake;

Windermere from Robin Lane

then we headed on down to Jenkins Crag, nice and dry this evening so very ridable :)
Now down into Ambleside and along the road to start the coffin route in the park, nice test along the route until White Moss then tee off around the tarn and up onto Loughrigg terrace and along to the caves;

George and Joel

At the caves had to adjust Joels brake pads as they had worn down and the spring was grinding, luckily Neil had a spare pad and so that went in, then we set off down the rock path which turned into a large boulder field...and a OTB incident, this time it was Jamie! Saved by his back pack he just squashed his flapjack Tupperware (so it's down to us next ride), nothing else broken so onward, back into Ambleside and up Jenkins Crag, a few climbs and a blast down to Troutbeck to finish, a great evenings ride, just over 14 miles and 3 hours:).
Next ride Ings

12th March 2015 - Satterthwaite into Grizedale

So what happened last week, everyone was away so we could not organise a ..ss up in a forest criss-crossed in bridleways! But this week we did, however rain may have put some folk off, but not the three musketeers, Jamie, Grant and CT who ventured out in many layers of waterproof attire to see what it was like, actually not too bad. Some other MTBers also parked up at the bottom of Moor Lane with the same idea. We stated out going up the rocky lane with a fair amount of water but steady as you go and it was OK. Once we reached the first fire road, where to next, so follow Ian's route, up hill to intersect the NF, a bit of walking required, then onto the NF to ride up to the top, steady progress as my glasses were fogging up, but mostly ridable. Onward mostly following the NF clockwise, but trying the technical section above Lawson park, OK it was wet and so interesting to see the water flowing off all the tree roots:) More NF including the rock garden, all the way round to Moor Top, here my glasses were really fogging up and it was no fun, the rain and general wet-ness felt like when swimming and the water gets up your nose! so we headed back down the road, thing was going fast downhill meant wind chill and ice-cream head-ache and loads of water puddles and spray, so glad to make it back to the cars in one wet piece, quick change out of wet gear and drive home. Thanks to JB for the flapjack, again:) Oh need to mention the rain and how there were many frogs trying to get run-over by the MTBers :0).
Next ride Troutbeck - Robin Lane