So I went for Plan B: the Lakeland 200. The forecast was much more favourable, and it was a significantly shorter drive ! I'd attempted the route 18 months previously, so I knew what I was letting myself in for - our pace was quite slow then, and we ran out of time. This time, I was on my own, so no excuses !
I set off at 5:28am from Staveley, and cruised the first few hours on the bridleways and tracks over to Coniston. My pace was fast, and I was entertaining crazy thoughts about being able to do the whole ride in one go.
Walna Scar Road was the first proper challenge, and also the only real encounter with the bank holiday crowds.
"Is this the way to the Old Man ?"
"Sorry mate - dunno", when I wanted to say: "How about investing in a map ?".
After Walna Scar Road, I cruised down into Dunnerdale. From my last attempt on the LL200, I remember this being a boggy mess, but it was dry and fast today.
Eskdale was a nice respite from the hills.
The climb out from Eskdale was frustrating - it wasn't steep, so taunted you to try riding it, and then chucked a load of boulders in your path - bringing you to a rapid halt, so I ended up pushing a large chunk of this section. It was probably around here that I finally realised that my crazy plan of emulating Alan Goldsmith or Ian Barrington and doing this in one go was *really* not going to happen.
Wasdale was the next big milestone, with the infamous Black Sail Pass immediately afterwards, so I stopped at the pub for a huge plate of lasagne.
And so onto Black Sail - a 450m unrideable climb, followed by a 300m mostly unrideable descent, followed immediately by Scarth Gap, equally unrideable, just not as much climbing. Definite type 2 fun
Next on the agenda was Honister Pass. Tarmac, so at least it was rideable - and 'only' ~250m ascent, but still painfully steep at the summit, and an unwelcome icing on the cake after the previous couple of hours.
Now no more serious hills between me and Keswick, and the smile is back !
Roughly 8:30pm into Keswick. After stocking up with food in the supermarket, phoning the wife and chatting to a local (he works with Chris Hope) - I was going to see how much further I could get, but it was getting on for 9:30 pm now, and the legs had other ideas - and started to rebel as I climbed out of town, so I decided to call it a night.
I found a convenient bivi spot right next to the track, in a shallow body-shaped little hollow, and I had a great nights sleep
I was up and riding again at 6am on day 2, and the riding immediately felt harder going. Not really surprising, but I was 2/3rds of the way round now, so bailing out was never really an option.
The blast back down off Lonscale Fell woke me up properly, and brought me to the base of the Coach Road .
The legs were still struggling - and the hills over to Pooley Bridge felt harder than they should. I was trying not to think too hard about what was ahead of me now, but I knew that it would be tough...
Given that your eventual aim is the summit of High Street, you would have thought that the most sensible route would be the bridleway all the way from Pooley Bridge to the summit. Slow going, but a steady climb all the way.
But no - first you climb up to 300m, and then you lose most of that height by popping down to visit Martindale. Cracking descent though !
Then you climb over Beda Fell - I was pushing on most of the ascents by now.
Finally you're delivered to the base of the climb from hell - a 650 metre hike-a-bike up to the top of High Street.
The steep grassy white-knuckle descent off High Street was despatched pretty rapidly, and then onto Garburn Pass. At least this was mostly rideable up - even in my depleted state, although the downhill was a rock garden, requiring full concentration. I ran out of water going up Garburn, but in my head, this was the last climb of the day, so I didn't bother filling up.
Turns out that there is still a hill after Garburn, that I hadn't accounted for. Not a big one, but I was suffering now, and it took me a while to find a suitable stream to fill up from. Finally back onto the tarmac, then the last stretch of bridleway into Staveley - bringing me back at 16:35, with a completion time of 35 hours and 7 minutes. Far from the fastest time, but I'm pretty happy with it
The day after I was completely wiped out - and I also had trouble keeping food down. I'm pretty sure that it was down to insufficient fluid intake over the whole of the 2 days. Lesson learnt hopefully.
Oh yeah - and I bumped into IanPV at Wilfs carpark, who had had similar thoughts as me regarding the Cairngorms loop, and was also doing the LL200 - he'd started in Coniston though, so still had a few hours riding to go.
Nice to meet you Ian !
