Mountain bike ride, Saturday Nov 22. Great Langdale-Tarn Howes: 22 kilometres, 885 metres ascent.
Annie, Pete, Donal and Andrew.
A simple straightforward route that the guidebook claimed would take us no time at all.
However, the author hadn't factored in the time necessary for Miss Gostling’s Running Repairs. This is Annie's answer to the credit crunch – get your bike repaired by your cycling buddies -for free! We started from the car park by The Stables pub and by the time we got to Chapel Stile on the road, Annie was complaining of a lack of gears. We sorted the rusty gear cable and headed up over to Rydal Water and the Loughrigg Terrace, where we discovered that Annie had worn her brake blocks down to the metal. The noise of metal on metal was just too much to for our poor ears, so we cycled into Ambleside to buy some new brakes.
The bike shop assistant tried to sell Annie a new mountain bike with a built-in computer "brain". I wondered whether the Brain was capable of doing its own bike repairs! After Donal replaced all her brake blocks, we decided it was time for tea and cake. Pete somehow resisted the magnificent pies.
From Ambleside, we climbed over Loughrigg Fell to Skelwith Bridge, then over Arnside to the Iron Keld junction (near Tarn Howes) with the track down to High Cross on the A 593, and on to Hodge Close hamlet. From here we travelled north, but wimped out of going through the infamous ford on the Tilberthwaite-Little Langdale track, because the water looked very cold and someone always falls in.
As we were a bit dehydrated from our exertions, we went into the Stables bar for refreshments, only to find Alan K shouting at the footy on the pub telly. He was, by this time on pint no.7, and went to bed the moment we got him home.
Verdict: Excellent route with lots of potential for variations.
Pete's Score: One "I fell off my bike because I've run out of energy", one superb (and totally predictable) face plant, and a new style of accident for him: hopping down a baby rockface with one leg wrapped round his bike frame…a very slow crash. We really need to look out for rides that give Pete the opportunity to expand on this new form of street theatre.
Andrew