Tonight the girls from Womens Mountain Bike Club were meeting at Grisedale Forest at 630pm which should have given me plenty of time to escape security and head across. As usual I ended up chatting and then rushing to leave site at about 530pm! Luckily the traffic was light, I guess due to the Easter break, so I managed to get out of Barrow quickly and started to follow the satnav, destination Grisedale. You read horror stories about folk following satnavs into rivers and the like and always think how stupid, that’d never happen to me….. well I turned left off the A590 as directed down a little old lane, it started off narrow and then got narrower, then grass started to grow in the middle of the track and eventually I hit (not literally) a gate into a field! The road did look like it continued across the field (now confirmed on a paper map) but I decided at this point this wasn’t for me, I’d rather be late for the meet than get lost down a lane! I retraced my steps to the main road, continued for a couple of miles before picking up the road signposted to Grisedale and successfully reached my destination in one piece!
A quick change and I met Lindsey, Beccy, Katie and Lula outside the bike shop and we were off. We set off directly towards the Fox, a sculpture and descent. The climb was tough, we rode for awhile but were quickly beaten and pushed our bikes up the rocky track. The fox sculpture is at the junction of 4 tracks but we continued straight on, the downhill which would take us on down to the road to Hawkshead. I’d ridden this section (cautiously) before and once again a couple of weeks off the trails meant I was quite nervous. I was pleased to make it down in one piece and even more pleased to see I knocked a whole minute off my time when we were over for my birthday last August!
At the road we turned left and rode casually down to Hawkshead, enjoying getting to know one another on a glorious warm sunny evening. In Hawkshead we picked up a bridleway I didnt know existed right in the centre of the village which took us up past some houses and then into the northern edge of the woods. This was 99% rideable, steady away up, getting warmer and warmer until we reached familiar fire road. At the fire road we turned leftish / straight on and quickly picked up our first section of North Face Trail at gate 24. I’d forgotten how much fun this trail is!
We loved the free slowing single track riding meeting up to catch our breath on the next section of fire road. It was here Beccy realised her rear tyre looked pretty flat. On inspection we found a huge gash about 3 inches long in her very worn tyre wall. Time for some repairs making best use of the content of the 5 rucksacks we had between us! Unfortunately my rucksack was depleted as I’d not replaced the bits and pieces I’d taken out for Herriot Way at the weekend mostly crucially my duck tape. I did rustle up some cable ties though. So the hole was patched with proper patches, fixed with a log piece of plaster tape, tied on with a lace and cable ties and then re-inflated!
Job done and all starting to cool off we set off again, Beccy goes slightly more cautious (but still way in front of me!). After a good couple of km I heard an absolute almighty bang, sounding like someone had been shot, I rounded the bend in anticipation preying the wipe out had been gentle. Luckily it had been and Beccy was still smiling, unfortunately her bike was not and certainly wasnt rideable.
Here the long walk back started for Beccy, Lindsey saw the rest of us round the next couple of bends then returned to accompany her. The three of us continued on the final section of North shore and onto the final section across field, through two annoying gates in the middle, then the final field to the visitors centre. Here there were two tiny little Shetland ponies, looking cute but waiting to be dangerous so we rode past very very cautiously! Through the final gate we were back just as the light started to drop. I quickly loaded the bike back into the car and set off back to my home of the week, Lakeside Hotel. This was a fairly uneventful journey, just the odd deer to avoid on the way! Not sure how impressed the beautifully dressed folk are in the Lakeside conservatory when I stomp through in my muddy shorts and five tens!
The link to our route is here.
Teesside Wanderings 