Grizedale Grit

Grizedale Grit, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

the NW Alps posse were on tour this weekend. we were lucky enough to be able to borrow a van (VW T5 woo!) and a temporary member in the shape of Captain Oates (the step up, take one for the team king of the trip) we travelled leisurely up the motorway taking a look in Wheelbase in Staveley at the pretty but unobtainable (read expensive) bikes and shiny trinkets before heading over the Wrynose and Hardknott pass to our base for the trip. that road through the passes is amazing, steep, wet, narrow with a high penalty for failure from poor driving,a defective vehicle or rubbish fellow drivers. we stopped to have a look at the Roman fort and struggle over the boggy ground for a closer view. Ben followed, but in what would be a recurring theme, fell flat on his back covering himself in mud and water, only his pride was dented though so it was ok to have a good laugh at his expense. as he was already wet he decided he was going to ride the rest of the way down the pass and we (hopelessly) tried to keep up in the van. a bicycle is a LOT quicker than a motor vehicle over these roads. We stayed at the Woolpack Inn, very comfy, nice food, real ale and real fires, the Amazing Mickey Jupp & Mo whittam were playing that evening and i rocked out until the end throwing shapes to Mo's "johnny be good" the next day after the obligatory Lakeland brekkie we arrived at Grizedale forest. i was accosted outside the toilets by a guy asking if i was "rocketdog", turned out it was @neil853 from twitter, god knows how he knew it was me, we've never met before, but had a chat and thank goodness my record of meeting twitter followers remains a good experience! the trails wer very waterlogged, not really muddy but rivers of water and deep puddles of unknown depth mad for a very wet ride, out feet were quickly soaked which did make things incomfortable., the trail was good, quite a bit more rocky than we're used to at home but very ridable. we all had a few brake issues in the wet, i had to use a dry stone wall to stop at one point, much to Ben's horror as he was stood in front of it at the time! we had sunshine, rain, hail, mist and snow on this ride and we also had cake! lovely lemon and ginger. the day was great, we had a great time, looking forward to tomorrows better forecast though.
ride 158
11 miles
total 2976
commute 809