What a to-do! Start time for this ride was billed as 08:00, Sunday 16th November 2008. This was Dave R's ride and he was taking us to one of his favourite playgrounds in the Lake District to tackle Loughrigg Fell and some other stuff. Up until about 07:50 it looked like a comfortable fit for the GollyVan and Steve B's Beemer. Then the numbers seemed to double every few minutes until we had fourteen bods waiting to be shoehorned into the transport. The 14 were Ainis, Gordon, Jon, Jason, Stian, Chris D, Iain, Tim, Steve W, Dave, Mick, Alex, Steve B and a Gollum . Before I go on I must thank Iain, Stian, Chris D, Tim and Mick for offering their transport and Ainis, Steve B and Steve W for using theirs.
Due to the complexity of minimising the cars required, we managed to squeeze six bikes into the truck and another five on the back rack, two on Steve W's Peugeot and one inside Steve B's BMW. Unfortunately that took one point five ages, so we didn't get away from the Cave until close to nine! Jason kindly drove the van again (although as usual he was a major influence on our late departure as that rubbish Whyte E5 had to have it's pads rebuilt first) and we got over there with only two slight whoopsies. First was on the M6, about 20 miles south of Penrith when the Gollum, pre-occupied with calls and texts whizzing into the Club mobe, was looking down at the floor in the back of the van and didn't look up until Jason had shot past our turn-off for Keswick! That meant a cruise down to the next suitable get-off and a diversion south through Kendal then back up to Ambleside. Oh, heck. The second was when, on the final motorway stretch, one of the magnetic MidAirCrisis signs flew off the offside centre door of the van and flew up into the air, landing on the Beemer's bonnet and "disintegrating", in Steve and Micks' words! Bummer.
Once into Ambleside we followed Dave's advice and parked in a private car park on the western edge of the town, the other ones all being reported as very busy by Tim (in Steve W's car) and Arthur (there to meet us during his week's holiday). Tim and Steve had, by the way, gone the proper way to Ambleside, from the north, as they didn't see us zoom past the turn-off! For some reason it took another forever to prepare the bikes and bodies for the start of the ride and it was almost midday when we finally took off. Several of the lost minutes were consumed by our Ride Guide, Dave, gathering opinion on his very posey, bright and bling but extremely chic Friesian cowhide saddle which adorned his new white Whyte E5!
We hit the town centre and waited for the unprepared few to shop for supplies (wonder who?) then at last we were off riding. But that only lasted a minute before we had to dismount, like good old NMBC boys, to walk our mounts through the public park before emerging on the other side ready to hit the southern shoreline of Rydal Water. Golly managed to get high (up a hill, silly) on Cote How and snap the lads rounding the lakeside. We were then straight onto the reasonably wide bridleways around the edge of Loughrigg Fell. It's just a shame that "reasonably wide" means "walkers only", as we continued to have difficulties getting past (very carefully, very slowly) several sets of meandering muppets who think they own the bridleways. I'm normally placid but I'd really enjoy riding hard at these toerags (male and female) whilst wielding a mace or machette, hoping to nail a few. At the other extreme, of course, some of them actually acknowledge your "Hiya" and speak to you politely. Crikey, some even move aside to let you pass, so you'd have to know exactly which ones to target to ease your conscience.
The ride continued as we covered the ground at a reasonable rate, even the climb up Loughrigg terrace of almost 400 feet of height gain. There were no massive climbs here, Dave keeping us at low-level for our introductory excursion around this beautiful area, but we'll probably hit a few bigger humps next time - he has plenty lined up. Until I get the GPS route recovered I can't remember (surprise) exactly where this excursion took us, but it included a fine selection of typically superb Lake District landscapes. Although the rough bits were, of necessity, interspersed with tarmac joins, it was a lovely ride. And there were enough technically interesting sections to keep you at roughly Defcon Two, with Mick in particular only too ready to demonstrate how to tip himself over the bars. Twice! (sorry, old bean!). Alex was one of the brave few who decided to take on what Dave had described as a "fairly big ford" just west of Chapel Stile. It looked more like the Yellow River to me, far too wide to cross and as Alex discovered, ample deep enough to swim in! Alex the Aquanaut?
GPS Route - at last! Here it is in pdf format so you can zoom and browse it. Apart from two slight deviations at Elterwater and Hodge Close this is The Langdales Ride as published by MBR.
Our lunch break came at about 13:30 at a particularly gnarly rock chute, which had the keener ones repeating the 100 metre run over and over again, trying to hurt themselves coming down and then attempting to climb the thing. When it was time to leave, it was Stian who showed most technical hill-climbing prowess on his superlight Focus hardtail , and he becomes Stian the Squirrel for his efforts - impressive. Not far behind was Gordon on the way heavier full suspension Santa Cruz Heckler, resplendent in it's Mongoose orange livery. He gets to be Galloping Gordon for his stirling uphill work! The rest of us got off and walked way before these two vanished out of site.
It was from this point that we were on the return leg of the ride, again covering bridleway sections with the odd smattering of singletrack thrown in, all natural and all good to ride on. Very close to the road just outside Skelwith Bridge we had to descend a steep meadow track. Several routes down were taken by little bunches of riders. Left at the back were Steveie B, Ainis and the Gollum. They set off from the top with Steve going to the right of the hilltop and Golly to the left followed by Ainis and Tim. The latter three had just rounded the peak when who should be sat at the trailside but Alex, who we'd lost sight of. Puncture!
They stopped to assist (well, to mock) while Alex changed his inner tube. With the new one installed a few of us took shifts on three different pumps and finally it contained some wind. On it went only for Tim to discover a fresh puncture in that one! So we repeated the whole process. Mick and Steve B made the long trek back up the hill to see what the problem was, and also to inform us that Stian had stacked it at the foot of the trail on a rock step-down and had also punctured! That was also fixed by the time we caught up.
Down into Skelwith bridge, Dave pointed us up the nearest climb, another narrow gravel lane which turned into singletrack and possibly the longest haul up all day. However, there was a nice descent back into Ambleside to finish off with, very satisfying. I don't know where it was achieved or by whom, but the Blog seems to indicate someone clocked 62KPH on this ride!
That fine old NMBC Club tradition AWSOC was maintained by the Gollum (accident within sight of the cars) when he ran into the back wheel of Ainis on GollysGoolyBridge (Miller's Bridge) over Rydal Beck after the group stacked up like an accordion breathing in. The saddle of the Trek made short, sharp contact with his foreground equipment and brought tears to his eyes instantly, as well as a sudden limp and doubled-up posture. Fortunately there was only the Park to walk through now after about 20 miles of very pleasurable pedalling. Cheers for that, Dave.
some piccies
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