DingBatBell

Jamie and Michael were up for it and ready to go on Sunday. Jamie came down to mine, loaded up the car and then went on to pick Michael up. “Running a bit late” said Michael that might have been due to the fact that he had only got in from the casino at 6 in the morning and we were supposed to be picking him up at 8.30. Never mind, he was ready when we got there.

Got to the car park in Alwinton around 10:15, Michael had to fix his puncher (before we had even started) so it was about 10:30ish by the time we set off.

The first few miles is all road but does have some climbs, Jamie was not a happy bunny where as Michael was like the Durcell bunny, literally sprinting off into the distance. Both me and Jamie suspected that his girlfriend had given him some beta blockers or something (her being a nurse and all that) to perk him up a bit, seemed to do the job anyway. After about 1/2 hour Jamie was flagging but kept on plodding on.

Past the farm house and through the forest, which Michael out front, I waited for Jamie to catch up then a little way up the track found Michael lying on his side, bike on top of him with his foot caught in some branches, luckily he wasn’t on his own or might have had to nor through is leg to get free.

The half way point was fast approaching and with the big push Jamie wasn’t looking forward to it at all but managed to get there about 1:30, which was a bit of a shock to him because he told his wife he would be back for 2!

Through the forest and onto the downhill bit, by this time Michael had come off a few times, his bike being made to scaffolding poles with zero suspension wasn’t as easy to control as a full suspension bike.

The downhill was as good as it always is, I just wish that there wasn’t so many gates to stop you from enjoying the full 4 miles of downhill in one go.

Back at the car and Jamie vowed to come back when he was a bit fitter. Watch this space!

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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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