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
[censored] are we?". After some discussion and humming and ahhing about the merits
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.