Venus may make its transit across the face of the Sun only
once every hundred years or so but that seemed trivial
compared with trying to align the diaries of myself, Shaunie
and Mike. Anyhow for those that missed it last Sunday was
the day and you'll have to wait at least another millennium
before it happens again. Or possibly a month depending on
Shaun's knees.
With Shaun's new brake lever fitted (thanks other Mike) and
no other excuses to hand we set off from just outside of
Keswick. The route ambled along some roads overlooking
Derwentwater as I tried desperately to keep up the
appearance of knowing the route as I had ridden it before,
albeit a couple of years ago. Aha there's the path we
decided not to go down last time, and we soon found out that
had been the correct choice to make. No-one minded though as
its all riding :-).
Good karma for the rest of the ride was ensured by freeing
one of mint sauces younger relatives who like all youngsters
had let curiosity get the better of his judgement and had
stuck his head through a fence and was unable to retract it.
Absolutely no jokes were made about Cumbrian farmers taking
advatage of sheep with their heads stuck in fences.
After a nice baptism through a river the ride started proper
with a steep, rocky (I'm not going to say technical, but it
was...) climb which we all cleaned. On foot. This flattened
out fairly quickly onto a disappointingly 'sanitised' trail
but soon we were cashing in the altitude we had gained down
a fantastic steep, rocky (I'm not going to say technical,
but it was...) descent. Plenty of loose rocks and water bars
kept it interesting and braking was difficult so speeds were
kept relatively low to maintain control. We continued on
this trail as it headed up the valley and the path narrowed
to undulating singletrack, broken up by short technical
sections some of which were cleaned and some left for
another day.
Now because we are all very fit lads we decided to add
another extra leg onto the ride, and found a nice spot to
eat lunch as we wondered "where the
of GPS Shaun used old school technology (he asked a local)
to determine that we needed to head back down the trail a
mile or so. Rejoining the route proper in Seatoller we
started the climb back up the valley. Several more
technical climbs were to come and with each one we
marvelled at Shaun's abilities to climb like a goat despite
coughing a wheezing away like a good 'un. He puts it down
to his huge tyres but we all know better. We paused at the
top of the last descent past Castle Crag to take in the
view and appreciate being in such wonderful country
(translation - took a leak and a had a smoke). This is
another rocky descent but here the rocks were held firmly
in place not loose and so speeds were much higher. Arriving
at the lake shore we followed a fast much smoother path
until we were forced to hop onto the road as the path is no
longer cycle friendly. A mile or two passed on the roads
before we headed off again up another short sharp climb
which had Mike enquiring about the availability of bar ends
and 150mm flat stems.
By the time we got back into Keswick we were all a bit
knackered but a steep road section back to the car was still
ahead. Not mentioning any names one of us managed to cadge a
lift off their understanding better half. Mike and I (Steve,
i.e. not Shaun) both grit our teeth but made it back to the
car with cheesy smiles, the result of 18 or so miles of
superb Lake District riding.
Steve.