22nd June 2017 - Mid-summer ride from Tebay - Breasthigh road route

Well it was mid-summer and sunny to start and there were 10 yes 10 folk turned up, Jamie M, Jo, George, Grant, Phil, Neil, Joel, Jamie B, Paul and CT, a few names you may not have seem for a while;) you know Paul's annual visit just to keep his membership alive! Phil was on his full sus', JP had his Wednesday and Jo had a very shiny bike, nice.
I attach the map to show the route, in summary: some lanes to start, then a big climb, valley ride, another big climb, big descent and back.

Tebay on the RHS

Here are some pictures to tell the story; After the last picture along the valley, 8 of us headed for the climb at the restored farmhouse for an up and over, another climb did you say, yes quite a stiff one, but it gets you a descent ;)
Jo and Jamie headed back via the valley track as Jo had a little off at a gate, nothing major but landed on a rock (I know what that feels like), hope the bruising settles down. 

View of sunshine on lane climb

Peleton, see how many you can count...

Paul still smiling so far...

Great views but seemed about half way up, not all rideable 

See just pushing up, fat bike at the back, it's made of steel you know!

Phil, on the Rocks;)

Must get a shoe picture, how many...

The motley crew

A nice flower meadow :)

now with hairy bikers!

Heading back now

A few midges were out and it was getting grey in the sky, so head back, slowly past the farmers walking his sheep along the field, over the bridge and back to the cars 9pm ish, about 11 miles, grand to see so many folk out!
Next ride TBC

15th June 2017 - Ings for local loop

4 met up for a summer shower ride, included about 23 gates, 14 odd miles, some tarmac entertaining for us listening to the Wednesday tyre rubber;) Charlie, George, Joel and CT, but would we all make a start… someone, Charlie, had left her shoes, what to do, see who had small-ish feet, time pedals AND a spare pair in their car, what odds would you get. ...blooming ‘heck Joel delivered, or 2 out of 3 as a tad too large but OK to ride in, result!

So Charlie fancied the section that finishes at the cars, down Blackmoss, so we worked out a loop to end there and headed to Staveley then up Staveley head and Green quarter, steady away, but not for Charlie 2nd piece of bad luck, new brake pads just thicker than the old ones so binding on, oh well good for resistance training (that's easy for us to say;) Then half way up the first Hill and no gears, guess what a piece of gravel had become lodged in front mech, Charles bike again, so that's the third bit of misfortune, all done? So onward for the steady climb up the toboggan run, some rain showers but not too bad, down to Kentmere and discuss the tower refurbishment. Now climb up and head past all the sheep with lambs bleeting away, go through the top river and along to head back via high borrans and the road back via Black Moss. More sheep and final off road through the woods, nearly safely back but no CT slipped a front wheel on a rock and went down landed on a rock but nothing broken, ouch! Back to pub for a drink and chat.

Next ride Tebay. Leaving the motorway (from south?) take the 3rd exit on roundabout and then the 1st left and park near the playpark

The shoe story! Ask Charlie

Virtually matching....

Ring my bell! Ask JP

Ghost story

8th June 2017 - Gilpin Bridge

George and the two Jamie's made it out on a damp evening, fairly normal start up the climb and round the houses to the school, then onto the common for a detour back to the track and round again for the technical challenge, i.e. it is very slow and steep but doable with confidence and skill ;) then down to the road, left and right and a new BW down to the road and back. (more details may follow)...
Georges version:

3 riders Jamie B, Jamie M and George met up at Gilpin bridge for a tour of  Witherslack.  We set off past the pub to the cycle track and then instead of taking the track up through the wood  we went past the farm and then up the limestone slab afterwhich we took a left back into the woods down some tricky singletrack to rejoin the main track. From here we carried on to the mill pond turning right to join the bridleway leading to the Hall.  Instead of taking the right fork along the muddy track we headed along the shorter route to the road.  Turning left at the Hall and then left again towards the descent through the woods. Before the gate we turned right to go over the fell.  The two Jamie's took the higher track and George  tried the lower one. The tracks merged into the descent into the woods to  join the track back up to the hall avoiding the muddy section.  ( a future ride we could do this in reverse).

Retracing our track back to the wooded descent down to the road. Here we took the higher track to the difficult descent with Jamie B being the only to complete the descent.  At the bottom of the track we turned left onto the road and the right on to the bridleway leading to the Derby Arms. From here we carried on along the old road taking the bridleway up to the road leading back to millpond tsking the left back up the hill towards the wooded descent. At the top of the hill we took a short steep track on the left (pushing only) This lead to the top of the slab giving an excellent finish.   12 miles 1400ft ascent.

Next ride Ings

1st June 2017 - Satterthwaite

After all the early discussion Satterthwaite won over Clapham or Gisburn despite the forecast for a damp evening. Charlie, JP, Jamie M, Jamie B, George, and Grant turned up for what was predicted to be a wet evening and yet it was only a little overcast. We set off up Breasty, and then the first downhill of the evening through Great Wood, across the road, through the stream and on towards Esthwaite tarn, then up on the road to Near Sawrey. At Near Sawrey it was left up the track and past Moss Eccles and Wise Een tarn and on to Guide Posts. From here it was the second descent of the evening to Hawkshead before the climb into Grizedale, taking the left turn into the North Face and onto Moor Top. For someone (JP) it was the second opportunity to stop and put some more air in the tyres as it seemed the valve was losing air somehow! At this point, there was some discussion on the route, the original intention was to continue on the NF trail and up to Parkermoor, but this may have been a little ambitious so we headed on the NF until diverting uphill rather than taking the NF towards the visitors centre. At some point we missed the left turn so continued on past the turning to Lawson Park before finally looping round on the fire road until we found the final climb around High Birk before the final 1.5 mile descent back to Satterthwaite. A few spots of rain but not as much as predicted. 15 miles in total and 2650ft of accent with 2623ft of descent.

Next week: its Grant's turn to plan the route, come on Grant! one day... So Gilpin Bridge, park in lay-by

At Wise Een Tarn (not as good as a Tuckey original but he was away! See last week)