The Three MidAirCrises returned to Grizedale Forest, Cumbria to do the route published in What Mountain Bike, June 2006 edition on Sunday 2nd July. The idea was to extend the very nice little ride we did a couple of weeks ago that ended too quickly, and only covered about 12 miles. This route was a 24 miler, so we got there at a reasonable time after turning back a couple of miles to Jason's house for his riding shoes only to discover they were in the boot anyway!

We started the ride about 11.00am, later than expected but it took Jay a good half hour to get changed then prepare the Scott MC50's shock, lube its chain and inflate its front tyre after John and Terry were ready to go. The temperature was hovering around 30 degrees with a clearing blue sky and no wind at all. Very bad conditions for strenuous exercise as we were to discover later. Ullswater was a massive, pitch black mirror as we passed it, with not a ripple in sight, fantastic.

From the Visitor Centre it's a steady climb through dual then a bit of very pleasant upward, looping singletrack which was thankfully under tree cover. The first couple of miles was over the start of the North Face Trail, then on reaching Lake Coniston, you dive off it south to follow the east side of the lake to its southern tip at Nibthwaite Grange. From the point where the fireroad splits at 32267/93505 we made full use of Terry's GPS in conjunction with the route map from What MTB, but their map was almost useless without signposts at the turnoff points. Looking at my GPS readout now, we turned left too early here, and missed a chunk of singletrack, but ended up at the same spot at Low Parkamoor. It was on this diversion that Jason came unstuck (well, STUCK, really) when he chose to ride through an innocent looking
puddle  that turned out to be a foot deep with the most revolting pong coming
from its half a wheel's worth of stinking, sucking, welly-grabbing mud. And
he proved it was one foot deep - the left foot - spot the different coloured socks! The gas coming off this claggy goo rhymes with the last three letters of armpit and probably smells as bad.

 

 

By now, around 12.00pm, the sun was at max volume and directly overhead. The moorland sections offered no escape from it, no shade at all, and the heat really started to take its toll from midday onwards. The redeeming feature of this part of the ride was the stunning view it offered over Coniston 600 feet below and the Old Man of Coniston and Walna Scar towering over the lake on the other side.

I would highly recommend the last part of the bridleway section down to High Nibthwaite (Jayvid 2MB .mpg on smooth bit) for anyone with a decent full susser who likes a fast, dangerous descent. Or someone on a hardtail with wrists of steel, maybe. The boulders, which are really unavoidable, range in size from 6 inches to 2 feet across. As it turned out it was probably the best part of this ride, but we didn't expect it to be. Jason had problems getting down it safely on the 4 inch travel MC50, and as strong as he is, complained about wrist fatigue at the bottom. John and Terry managed to race down it on the Coilers although they
had to pick their lines carefully. Here's a pic of what happens if you run out of water up here -

From here, after confirming our position thanks to a kind lady resident, we
risked life and limb down the little B road to Nibthwaite Grange, where we
started a tarmac climb that probably sowed the seeds of the Gollum's later demise. We rode and pushed in random bursts over 450 feet of climb in three quarters of a mile, and it hurt, bad. We stopped for lunch under one of the few trees offering shade from the blazing midday sun. Out onto the moors for a mile or two then it was off to the descent, where we found another extremely rough and rocky drop for John and Terry to surge down ahead of a struggling Jason. This took us down to Ickenthwaite where we joined tarmac again to Force Mills looking for another bridleway. We found it, but again the instructions in the ride guide were anything but accurate.

 

It was here that we bumped into a young couple again whose paths we'd crossed a few times, but we seemed to be taking slightly different routes to get to the same place. That was indeed the case, and they were also trying to do the
WMTB route but struggling. They had one massive advantage over us, however - an OS map! Actually, they had two advantages- the other was their ability to pedal up the hills. A fit young lad and his very fit girlfriend. Read that
whichever way you like.

From here it was all uphill again, all 700 feet of it, as far as Grizedale Tarn. That was when Terry called a halt. At least to his ride. (Gollyvid 4MB .mpg) We'd covered 17 miles, both he and John had run out of water (Camelbak and frame bottle in Terry's case) and the Gollum's little limbs would carry him no further. After a short rest at a promising looking bridleway junction, the GPS pointed down this trail directly at the car park. Poor Jason was outvoted and we dived down the final descent of the day. Yet again, it was rocky in the extreme, but only about a kilometre or less. And lo and behold, it popped us out right opposite the Visitor Centre. Blessed Relief!

Here's Terry's GPS profile

And What Mountain Bike's

There's just no way the skinny man could have attempted those last two climbs. Sadly, that meant we missed out on most of the juicy stuff we took in on our last visit, but we won't make the same mistake again.

17 miles (GPS) 16.9 (Computer)
4 hrs 52 mins (2 hrs 36 mins moving)
3.5mph average (yes! - Golly's walking speed)
36.2mph max (dunno where, but it wasn't on one of the climbs)

 Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk