Tour of the Passes
June 2nd, 2007
Today, me and Dad both fancied going for a longish bike ride around the lakes on the tandem.
After a sluggish start (didn’t get up until 10:00 am), we hit the roads and made our way out to Ambleside. From here, we went over Wrynose pass, Birker Fell, down to Eskdale, up over Hard Knott pass and back over Wrynose the other way before heading home. The trip took around 5 or 6 hours and is about 65 miles long. Who knows how many metres (or kilometres!) of climb were involved along the way? I thoroughly enjoyed the ride - its quite tiring but its not so long that it becomes a drag - and particularly enjoyed some of the steeper climbs, reaching a mind-blowing 1 in 3 (1:3 or 33%) climb at the upper sections of Hard Knott. Definitely worth a go if you are in the lakes - but not for the faint of heart. Heres some shots.
Biking: a rainy day out!
November 11th, 2006
To Ambleside and back
Taking advantage of a reading week accorded to me by University, I’ve nipped back home for the weekend. Despite having quite a lot of work to do still, I couldn’t resist the temptation to nip out for a long mountain bike ride yesterday with my dad. Setting out from Kendal, we cycled in on the back roads to Stavely.
The route
From Staveley, we cycled up micklemoss, a great offroad ride and ended up at the top of Kentmere by the church after some very fast descents (due to a long required adrenaline rush from being confined to a city). After this, our legs and climbing skills were put to the test as we battled up the famous ‘Garburn pass’. I was actually quite impressed that I made it up most of the tricky sections despite not having rode a bike for a month. Gaining traction was very difficult on the loose, damp pebbles. After making it to the top, it was a swift plummet down the other side to Limefitt caravan park. We then took another bridleway that led us via Jenkins Crag into Ambleside.
The Rain
Well… we knew it was coming, but we hadn’t quite realised the extent! However, motivated by the prospects of a warm bowl of soup at Chesters Cafe (Skelwith Bridge), we motored up the hills. Feelilng revived, rather full and now wearing some handsome powerstretch leggings we were yet again ready to face the rain. After weaving around the back roads, we made it to the hawkshead ferry. Despite our gloves and shoes being pooled with water, we were still warm and had not yet despaired. As the night was drawing in, we put on our headlights and with the little energy remaining in my legs (secretly, I don’t think my dad’s were tired in the slightest - although he did push up most of Garburn), we made it back to Kendal along the crook road to be greeted with a nice warm shower.
All in all, it was a great day out. I also hope to be able to get the route up on here for anybody who is interested. Apologies to James from MBC who is probably reading this rather enviously having being cooped up at JPi all day in front of his computer 
North Face Trail
September 24th, 2006
First Blast Round
I went for my first blast round the new North Face Trail at Grizedale yesterday. Its a brilliant trail with some super sections of windy singletrack including boardwalks, berms and some nice little dropoffs and jumps. I can’t wait to go again because I’ll know where the berms are next time so I can gain some extra speed! Excellent!
Barcelona Collage
September 12th, 2006
Artistic Side
Hmm, well I am quite impressed with the collage that I stuck together in about an hour from some of my Barcelona pics. This is actually quite fun!
I would love to know what you think of it as a first attempt at photoshop art. It makes a great desktop image on my computer.