DingBatBell

The guide book for this route called it “Sever” and I wouldn’t disagree with that, although I think that the weather must have a bearing on that, had it been dry for a week or so the going would have been far smoother. Anyway, here it is;

I started off from Patterdale rather than Hartsop car park because from Hartsop it’s a climb straight away and I wanted to get my legs warmed up first. Patterdale gave me 2 1/2 or so miles on road first, which was nice. The bridleway from Hartsop to Hayeswater is ridable but can get a rocky in places but once you get to Hayeswater its a push up to the top of the High Street. The summit was very misty when I was there so I didn’t venture all the way to the top.

From this point there was a good downhill stretch with a short climb to Loadpot Hill, which is a good place to stop for something to eat. In my view the run from Loadpot Hill down to The Cockpit is excellent, it was very wet on Monday, in the dry this would very very fast, it was only very fast in the wet.

From the Cockpit you take a sharp left and almost come back on yourself. This is a nice run and you can get up some speed (watch out for walkers, there seem to be all over the place). The bridleway runs out at Howtown and you get back on to road. This road climbs up and over the top of Hallin Fell, take a left onto the bridleway heading back to Patterdale. This bridleway is very rocky and I found that I had to push and carry most of way, again lots of walkers around here. The bridleway runs alongside Ulswater and is very pretty; I almost decided to take a swim but thought better of it. Anyway, I was glad to get to the end of this bridleway and back onto some actual ridable track back to the car.

In all I wouldn’t say that this route was sever, not after the first climb anyway. It has something for everyone, climbing, fast grassy downhill, technical bridleway and some nice scenery. I think it would be much better riding it after a few dry days, the rain has not really stopped for a couple of weeks so the ground was very wet and boggy in places.
Posted by Dingbat at 13:47

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I wasn’t the first one back at the finish, I could have stayed out longer and got more points but I was feeling a bit tired by then and was looking forward to getting some dry cloths on and something to eat from Wilf’s Kitchen (the regular outdoor caterer for the Polaris).

With bike on the car and me changed it was just a case of sitting back and waiting for Paul and Paul to finish.

All in all I had a good couple of days and enjoyed the downhills but a few lessons that I will try and remember:

1. Try not to do the Polaris if you’re feeling unwell e.g. with cold
2. Don’t try and keep up with people that are fitter than you
3. If you go into the event as a solo try and do that, you can make your own decisions based on your own ability and stop/start when you like

The 2 Pauls made it back in time and with a good score.

Looking forward to the event in March, just hope it’s not too far away. Over all I think I did about 43 mile over the 2 days.

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Having reached the top of Melbecks Moor I was feeling a bit better, it was flat over the top and I knew that it was down hill all the way from here.

I told Paul that he should go on and not keep waiting for me, I watched the two of them disappear over the top.

The top of the moor was very strange, looked a bit like the moon, no grass or anything like that just loads of what I think must have been spoil from the mines, great to ride on. You can just see Paul and Paul in the distance on this picture.

As I said the top was flat so I rode along until I got to the edge and the rest was down hill. I had decided that it was time for me to head back to the finish at this point, only one more check point to get on the way down.

After a short break and a quick check of the GPS, which was the first time I think I’d actually looked at the thing, I headed down.

The ride down was great, making all that pushing and carrying worth while.
After that it was back on the road to the finish.

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After a brief discussion on which route to take we set off along the road running next to the river for our first check point of the day, a 10 pointer. Following that it was up hill and along the valley for a couple of mile. At the end of the valley we had to turn right and kind of come back on ourselve but on the other side of the valley, this is where we came across quite a big disused lead mine.

It must have been hard work in that mine, just getting to work would have done me in. Anyway, back along the valley on the other side with a push up to about half way then a downhill bit to the next check point. By this time I was flagging yet again and had worse to come.

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