Whinlatter Altura Trail North and South Loops.
Mountain Bike Ride.
Featuring: The Bread Lad. The Ginger One.
In complete contrast to the past two days, today’s riding was in the “safe” confines of the Whinlatter trail centre. Trail centres have their detractors who castigate them for being bland and sanitised, enabling inexperienced riders to put themselves in situations beyond their ability but sometimes they are a bit of a guilty pleasure, no route finding, no unexpected hazards, graded climbing and (hopefully, if the place is well designed) plenty of that indefinable thing called flow. It seemed like a pleasant way to finish our three day break.
The Ginger One travelled across to join us and we bored him with tales of yesterday’s awesome Whiteless Pike ride. We set off and did the North loop, which was nice, there were no casualties and we headed straight for the South loop, again uneventful apart from a single puncture near the top. Of course it had to be me and my unfeasibly tight rims which gave the midges a chance to go to town on us as we fought the tyre back onto the rim. The weather remains hot and hazy, with ever-present dampness in the air, the trails quite damp, slate and root sections a little slippy and even the occasional puddle to remind us we are still in Britain.
Satiated by our quick fix of problem-free enjoyment, we retired to the cafe for lunch, as did every cyclist who had left Whitehaven or Workington this morning. Throngs of hungry Coast To Coasters formed an orderly queue, having past experience of this cafe at busy times, we decided to patronise Braithwaite instead. The cafe on the Scotgate campsite was open and empty, a perfect combination, and soon we were sat in the sunshine, getting on the outside of some food.
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