Sunday 27 June 2010

Mini Tour to the Lakes and back


I got to the Lake District and back to Lancashire again in one piece. A total of 119 miles over two days. Some great countryside and very quiet lanes.


I know about it now though. Partly I think the heat was tiring, but distance, long hours in the saddle and my lack of training on that particular bike were big factors. Not that I'm exhausted, just enjoyably tired after all the exercise and looking forward to some food.

Whilst I was heading north, the South Lakes Group of the RSF crossed east and had a good day out on the Bowland fells.


My original plan took in a return via Dent, Deepdale, Kingsdale, Tatham Fells and home, but that would have been 7000 ft of climbing on day 2 after the near 3000ft on day 1, so I decided to stay west of the hills and come down by the coast for the return trip/

Whilst having a brew at the Cafe D'Lune some guy drove past with his family's mountain bikes on the roof of his 4x4 and didn't notice the gantry barrier at the entrance to the car park. It took some time to sort the mess out after he hit it and stopping a good car's length the other side. It looked like most of the damage was to the roof rack, though his expensive looking bikes took a fair wallop.



I got off early this morning to avoid the heat of the day, but might as well have enjoyed more recovery time since the football didn't go our way. There were a few dog walkers out first thing plus a balloon flight, a deer, a dead grass snake and some other wildlife that made the journey interesting.

Later there were plenty of cyclists out for their Sunday run including a guy who looked like he was doing a time trial that passed me as though I was standing still, and at that time I was actually going reasonably quickly!

The sting in the tail was crossing the Ribble Valley and climbing up the other side. Back in the saddle for a short ride to work tomorrow.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Psychalist,
Where did you see the dead Adder?
Im trying to locate the various groups of Adders around Lancashire and surroundings.

Regards
Paul
www.teamadrenaline.co.uk

Psychalist said...

Actually Paul, on reflection, I'm not even sure it was an adder and think now it might have been a grass snake. It was on the edge of the A6 just south of Levens heading to Milnthorpe. It didn't look damaged but wasn't moving. I didn't stop so didn't get a good look at it but I don't think it had the markings of an adder. It was a dark colour (almost green/black) and had little or no markings. It was about 2ft long. I should have stopped and taken a photo but it was an A-road, which I wanted to get along before it got busier.