April 1st – 10th 2019
A touring trip down to the NW and with some days of solo
freedom. Couldn’t take a boat with me so
had the trusty Transition Scout 1 x 11 full susser as my adventure tool.
First I managed a stop at Lee Quarry in Bacup where the
ground was brutally dry and stoney (it is afterall a worked-out quarry). Only 2 other guys around but I went out to
the XC trail first (ie, across the escarpment face to Craig quarry) where
there’s lots of swoopy-do’s and twisty stuff but not actually any real
“flow”. Nice to do once but I wouldn’t
repeat it regularly. Back at the main
faces of Lee quarry there’s many individual features and indeed a deep dive
bomb hole which was a steep push to get back out of. There appears to be dozens of lines across it
all but again no real flow or “20km XC ride”.
Later in the week got a shock as I went upto the snow line
above Ullswater. This big loop had been
on my list for a couple of seasons so nice to get it done. Started at Helton (east of Pooley Bridge) and
headed up onto Askham /Barton Fell then south across open moorland to the side
of Loadpot Hill (at least a bit of downhill here), and then onto High Raise (at
802 meters) and the continuous snowy gullies of the High Street ridge
itself. This may be an old roman road
but there was no sign of an easy mtb trail !
It became difficult keeping traction going on the inclines and pushing
up in the snow was tiring wearing SPDs.
Great to balance weather risk and my endurance in the maybe
threatening/maybe-not conditions.
It was a weekday and there were occasional hail bursts from
the clouds, but there were a
surprisingly large number of walkers about.
Some of them thought I was mad.
Anyway it wasn’t weather for stopping so headed across to Mardale Ill
Bell and the coll at Nan Bield before pushing the bike again up the snowy rocks
of Harter Fell (778meters). Imbetween clouds the views down to the south and
Kentmere were just brilliant. A final climb and then follow the old fence line
across to the top of Gatesgarth Pass. No
photos as by now both my phone & my compact camera batteries had thrown
their hand in.
The descent nowadays into Haweswater is a very stoney
continuously down zig zag which just boils your brake fluid. Not a place to have a spill but it loses
height very efficiently and with some care I stayed on the bike. Out though the tourist carpark and the start
of a plod back along tarmac; up the length of Haweswater, through Bampton
Grange and back to Helton for a well earned beer. The GPS showed this was a 39 km loop and my
knees certainly felt it.
Final bike ride of the week was a day at Whinlatter trails
over near Kewick. The sun had returned
and it was a lovely clear blue sky day.
There’s north & south halves of the red graded Altura trail plus a
swoopy easy blue (the Quercus trail).
For some reason since I last rode here, they have regraded the top third
of the south loop to a black. It wasn’t
completely bonkers but a nice step up from the rest of the red. The café at Whinlatter has a great sunny
decking area with the café – perfect.
Also got a couple of hill walks done whilst the weather held
clear.
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