Trail bike
I own and ride a Marin Palisades Lite 1992 in Marseille and a 2022 Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29 in Keswick.
So much fun! Mountain bike ride up the Old Coach Road between Keswick and Matterdale. Misty and more, so great weather for the juvenile pleasure of splashing though puddles. The Old Coach Road is always a challenge, both the relentless climb (to 437 m.) and the rocky road surface up from St John’s in the Vale. But unusually busy this July Sunday as the two-day Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon (SLMM) was being held on the Helvellyn Range with the start/finish in St Johns in the Vale. It was great to see the thousand-or-so competitors on and around the Old Coach Road rather than it being desolate and deserted.
More photos: MTB ride: The Old Coach Road - Lake District National Park
Ride out from Keswick on my Rockhopper hardtail mountain bike. It started out dry, first Brundholme Wood. I headed on up the Glenderaterra Valley to explore the disused mine workings. But I got caught by a rain/hail shower and then another sharp shower. April showers in May! Paths slippery but grand views of the landscape and clouds.
More photos: April showers in May! Lake District National Park
Brisk ride on my Rockhopper up to Castlerigg Stones to warm my legs up. Then on past the old Royal Observer Corps Post with its watch tower and underground nuclear bunker, like the one I used to own in Norfolk. Back alongside the River Greta and the K2T Path.
More photos: Castlerigg and ROC Keswick/Threlkeld - Lake District National Park
Scarness
Applethwaite - Scarness - Bassenthwaite
Riding my Rockhopper hardtail mountain bike round the northern edge of Bassenthwaite Lake, still with a bit of snow on Skiddaw (931 m.) looming above. Again the dramatic clouds. Staying low to avoid the chilly wind but finding another hazard: marsh and mud where the lake regularly floods the tracks on this farmland. So using the low gears I associate with hill climbs for the torque as the fat Ground Control tyres squelch in the mud. Plenty of birdsong. Riding back the direct route spun off much of the mud. Took a while to clean up the bike, and me. But good fun. And I stayed sunny side up.
More photos: Rockhopper in the marsh - Lake District National Park
Watendlath Bridge
Ashness Bridge
Riding routes I avoid in the tourist season. It’s a leg-warmer to pedal up to the ever-popular Watendlath Bridge, passing over the lower Ashness Bridge. Plenty of flow in the beck making Lodore Falls roar, and a treat to visit almost alone. Even the road round the far side of Derwent Water under Catbells was quiet.
More photos: Ashness Bridge - Watendlath - Lodore Falls: Lake District National Park
