The Lakeland Loop: Day One - Bowness on Windermere to Patterdale

If you ever get the chance to do the Lakeland Loop grab it with both hands and say yes; don't what ever you do think about it first. There are a million reason why you should decline but once you've said yes there's no going back and you'll do it whatever it takes. After all anyone can turn the pedals just one more time, anyone can put one foot in front of the other and anyone can do the Lakeland Loop if they say yes.

Mark had done the Loop before with some like minded mates over four days but I was clear from the start that if we were doing it, it was by the book or in this case the Mountain Bike Route Pack and that was a more sensible 6 day ride. We left home in North Yorkshire early one Saturday morning and by the time we arrived in Bowness it was obvious that it was going to be a very, very hot day. Bone meltingly hot. The kind of hot that makes it insane to be thinking of carrying your bike 1400' to the summit of High Street and on, and on, and on ...

But given how much organisation it had taken to ensure our kids would be safe and sound for the duration of the trip there was no option but to proceed with plan A. There was no plan B. So there we were on our bikes and wending our way towards High Street and the start of that infamous (to me) mountainous ridge that runs between Haweswater and Ullswater. We were like two little kids let out to play when as we came shooting down a steep rocky section rather too enthusiastically Mark got his first puncture of the day ....

As we were travelling light and didn't have a never ending supply of inners we really needed to try and take it a bit steadier. Luckily the sight of the mamouth climb slowly being revealed ahead of us was enough to make us see sense, for a while at least. As the climb steepened the conversation slowed and a gap started to open up between us. There's just no point going any pace but your own pace over a route like this still it was reassuring  when every time I looked up, there he was a splash of red ahead. It felt like I was toiling in an oven, everything smelled hot, hot dirt like toasted ground singeing through my airways. On and on the narrowed trail climbed, the next step always higher than the last; on the steepest sections I would count my steps allowing myself a few moments of motionless breathing before continuing to drag body and bike skywards.

The views from the top were worth every moment of the long ascent with first Brotherswater and then Ullswater far below on one side and Haweswater on the other. It felt wild, remote and mad to be on our bikes in such a place, the distant Lakeland water accentuating our heavenly height.

 
Once the main climb was done the ridge rose and fell, an endless journey of mountain biking pleasure Rampsgill Head, High Raise, Raven Howe, Red Crag, Wether Hill all came and went. And then finally Loadpot Hill and we were in free fall like two stone gathering speed on this massive mountain descent. We checked for a moment at The Cockpit Stone Circle, turned back on ourselves and surged forward once again over dusty, rocky singletrack. With the height loss came a people gain, it was a fabulous Saturday afternoon and the walkers were out in numbers as we swung past Barton Park Woods in a haze of dust covered sweat. We'd appeared out of nowhere and civilization felt strange even after a few hours on the those more singular fells. Again we were brought to our senses by a flat, this time a pinch puncture which was in reality a lucky escape given the force with which bike hit rock!

Howtown Hotel and the lure of pints of cold, sweet coke couldn't be missed although we looked a little out of place compared with the other cool, clean clientele. It was easy to think we had nearly finished but in reality there was some very technical singletrack yet to do. The route skirted the edge of Ullswater from Sandwick to Patterdale and as the afternoon wore on towards 5 o'clock the temperature never let up for a moment. Day one of the Lakeland Loop and I was already adding to my wish list - I definitely want to ride this section of the route again on fresh legs.

Patterdale YHA was a welcome sight, the end of the first day's biking. It was years, make that decades, since either of us had stayed in a Youth Hostel but that school-like, institutional feel was so familiar. Memories of backpacking round Europe in my twenties burst into my consciousness from nowhere and added to the sense of being on an adventure. We were meeting another Mark (brother in law) for an evening meal that night so it was a quick shower and change into the only alternative set of clothes we'd brought before heading off for some extra large portions of dinner. We ate sat outside the Ratcher's Tavern where the sound of a babbling brook and yet more of that endless sunshine made our re-entry into the civilized world a little less strange.