Storm Callum Cocks It Up.

Mountain Bike Ride

The Little Woman

Monday 15th October route

This ought to have been a blog recording another heroic effort at the Lakeland Monster Miles but thanks to Storm Callum’s attempt to submerge the Lake District it isn’t. On Saturday afternoon, the organisers made the wise call to cancel Sunday’s event. We were in Keswick, the weather was atrocious, even by Keswick standards, the campsite was being evacuated and the flood defences were going up. With a cosy cottage booked for the whole week, we could afford to sit it out. Ironically, Sunday, turned out to be a fine day after some early morning unpleasantness. 

Ironically, Sunday turned out quite nice.

By Monday, the rivers were still running high but things were returning to normal, the Little Woman and me took to the highways and byways for a gentle pootle, mainly because my MCL is still very tender and any sort of sudden movement might leave me limping like a benefit fraud on signing on day. Leaving Keswick, we pedalled through the village of Portinscale, taking the road towards Catbells, Keswick’s friendly little fell and quite often, many peoples’ first walk in the lakes. Contouring Catbells’ eastern flank is a bridleway which makes a fine ride, nicely gravelled, no harsh ascents or tricky descents, fantastic views across Derwentwater and down the lake to Castle Crag and beyond, Borrowdale in all it’s verdant glory, hanging valleys of autumnal trees, golden in the sunshine, swathes of grey rock thrusting upward. This seemed like a fine way to introduce the Little Woman to the delights of off-road riding: she didn’t seem to find it quite as delightful as I did, appearing to prefer the anodyne smoothness of tarmac. Perhaps I’ve been living with a closet roadie all these years? 

We left the bridleway behind and made our way to Grange Cafe - or as it will always be known to us Terra Trailblazers - The Steamy Fart Cafe, so called because six years ago we had one of annual team assaults on the Borrowdale Bash, (details here)it was the sort of day when right-minded folk would never have left the pubs and cafes of Keswick, even though it was May. Reaching Grange Cafe, thoroughly drenched and frozen, The Pensioner ascended the cafe’s verandah ahead of us and let out a sneaky fart which emerged as a puff of foul-smelling steam, visible to all behind. One of those experiences which made all the preceding cruelty worthwhile, or perhaps we are just easily pleased.

Sitting outside in the October sunshine,  an antithesis of that day, relaxing with coffee and Borrowdale tea bread before returning (via the road) to Keswick, where we decided to extend the ride with a pedal along the old rail track to check on the progress, or lack of, with the repairs. This four mile track between Keswick and Threlkeld was made from part of the railway which once ran between Keswick and Penrith, an excellent, scenic and most importantly, flat route to reach the North Eastern fells. Floods in 2015 washed away two of the main bridges and left another in perilous condition and it is no longer possible to ride, or walk the whole length. Detours are in place but they involve some climbing. We rode about a mile and a half until a fence blocks the track, progress has been non-existent, other than a fund-raising effort but hopefully once coordinated, the path will be reinstated. The river roared past the stone abutments which once supported the bridge, even the kayakers were staying well away today. We reversed our wheel tracks back to Keswick for five hundred milliliters of the Lake’s finest vitamin and mineral re-hydration drink - Jennings Bitter.