Well, I guess I've started some kind of training again, even though I'm still in this cast. Doing 20 minute sessions on the trainer (Tacx iMagic for those interested). Feels good to be getting sweaty again, and the leg feels strong enough to do some kind of workout now. Before it was difficult to keep my foot on the pedal, but now it isn't so something must've changed.... So I've made myself some training rides with up to 5% slopes in. Two days in, no problems. So far so good...
The last visit to the consultant was on September 19 where I learned the results of my CT scan from 5 September. The result is that he thinks it's still worth persevering without another corrective operation. He's given me a portable bone healing ultrasound system to use on it 20 minutes every day. Apparently that's clinically proven to promote bone healing, sounds good! The fact that my wounds have now healed up is definitely a good sign that the infection has been beaten. He said it may return so I have to be on the lookout and ready to resume antibiotics if needs be.
But all in all a good visit, I feel like I'm being looked after with my special machine and everything, and even though it's still quite painful sometimes, it does feel a lot stronger than from a few months ago.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Thursday, 15 September 2011
So what happened?
Did I fall out of love with cycling? Become a lazy couch potato? Realise I'd never win a race and quit?
No, I got hit by a car. On June 21 2010. I was in hospital for 8 weeks with a badly mangled left leg (below the knee), possibly a fractured pelvis and a few broken bones in my hand. I lost 30% of the tissue below my left knee and my left tibia and fibula were in 4 pieces. Nice! It took 2 weeks for the plastic and orthopaedic consultants to decide that it was worth reconstructing, so I had a series of operations to put my leg back together, taking a muscle from my back and skin from my right thigh. I left hospital in external fixation which I had on until December 2010. Since then I've been in a removable plaster cast. 13 months on since I was discharged, my leg is still in the cast and I'm still on crutches. In the last 2 weeks my wounds have finally closed up, touch wood. So now at least I don't need to do my dressings every other day! My hand is fine, I just can't move my index finger joint. My leg feels like it's getting stronger but the consultant is still thinking I may need another operation to fix it properly. That will mean another year before I can recover. But it may not come to that, fingers crossed.
I am soooo looking forward to cycling again, and to keep on posting stuff here when I do races and adventures etc.. I have a big list now of things I will do when I'm able to!
No, I got hit by a car. On June 21 2010. I was in hospital for 8 weeks with a badly mangled left leg (below the knee), possibly a fractured pelvis and a few broken bones in my hand. I lost 30% of the tissue below my left knee and my left tibia and fibula were in 4 pieces. Nice! It took 2 weeks for the plastic and orthopaedic consultants to decide that it was worth reconstructing, so I had a series of operations to put my leg back together, taking a muscle from my back and skin from my right thigh. I left hospital in external fixation which I had on until December 2010. Since then I've been in a removable plaster cast. 13 months on since I was discharged, my leg is still in the cast and I'm still on crutches. In the last 2 weeks my wounds have finally closed up, touch wood. So now at least I don't need to do my dressings every other day! My hand is fine, I just can't move my index finger joint. My leg feels like it's getting stronger but the consultant is still thinking I may need another operation to fix it properly. That will mean another year before I can recover. But it may not come to that, fingers crossed.
I am soooo looking forward to cycling again, and to keep on posting stuff here when I do races and adventures etc.. I have a big list now of things I will do when I'm able to!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Tuesday - Kielder - Carlisle
My final day of this expedition, with a lot of miles to cover. Packed up straight after breakfast, and got underway about 0930. The first section of the route was well known to me by now, along the south shore of the Lakeside Way, until just before the Tower Knowe visitor centre. Here began the bit I was most concerned about for today - the crossing of a vast tract of forest to join a road a few miles from Hadrian's Wall. Yesterday I took Memory Map and plotted all the junction points of forest roads marked on the map that I needed to reach and labelled them with the junction number and direction I needed to turn in. Then I saved those points out as a GPX file and imported it into BaseCamp, from where I could make a route out of those points and upload it to the GPS. This way, I would always know how far away the next junction was, and in what direction. I figured that with map, GPS and waypoints, even if I got stuck in the forest I wouldn't be lost. It worked out well. There was one moment where I was a bit hesitant, because this is of course a working forest, and it had crossed my mind that I might run into logging operations or something. I did come across a sign at one point that said 'No Unauthorised Access - Chemical Spraying' which doesn't sound good, but I could see the men in the felled area in white suits and they were a long way from the track, so I just continued regardless. It was only about a 300m stretch anyway. Having the junctions in my GPS made me feel a lot safer, because you really are miles from anywhere in the middle of that forest. At one point I followed a bridleway sign into really thick forest and cut off a corner of the fireroad. If you were walking through here it would be very boring I think. Inside the forest it was really quiet and dark. Quite spooky.
Into the abyss, bridleway in Kielder Forest
After the first long stretch was over, I emerged onto a little tarmac lane between farms, with cows on the hillside and … a Royal Mail van coming up the hill! Our postal system is pretty impressive. Let's hope the new coalition government doesn't ruin it, although I fear they will by selling off part of it. Anyway, a drop downhill and a right turn later, and I'm on NCN route 68. That's right, 68, the one that runs right past my house in New Mills. It's a long route! This section goes westward to Grindon Green (ruin) where, after a mile or so, it bears south on an old road / track. This track puts you out on a tarmac road a few miles north of Hadrian's Wall. I took a bit of an extra loop so that I could go past the really impressive part of the wall I remember from the Pennine Way - that above Once Brewed. Stopped there and took some pictures, sent a tweet (now back in signal land!) and thought a bit over the PW adventure again. The sign near the wall here makes me laugh - it reads 'In the interests of archaeology please do not walk on the wall' or words to that effect. I mean, the thing's been standing for 2000 years, had most of it taken to build the local farm houses, 'castles' and stone walls, people used to walk on it. I really don't see the problem. Don't take bits of it home, right enough - but don't walk on it? Silly. It's also rather interesting to consider that Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO world heritage site but it is in fact a manmade fortification cutting across beautiful countryside. Today, such a monstrosity would never be contemplated - but because it's old, it's worth preserving even! Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have such a thing from the point of view of our history and the history of the Roman Empire, but don't you think it's strange?
That thing with the grass on, that's Hadrian's Wall
Ramblings aside, I continued on along the Roman Road which is now the B6318. This really is a straight road! Up and down it goes, undulating with the terrain, but dead straight. I turned off it onto the Hadrian Cycleway just before Greenhead, reflecting that I'd just done in less than an hour what I walked in a day on Day 4 of the PW (short day that was, Once Brewed - Greenhead, 8 miles). After Greenhead I passed through Gilsland, and on to Birdoswald, Roman Fort. Here I stopped for a rest, having done 40 and a bit miles so far, and some food. A Hadrian cheese and tomato sandwich, and a coffee. Nice. I maybe should have looked around the fort, since I'm a member of English Heritage it would've been free, but I decided to press on on the grounds that if I stopped for too long it would be very hard to finish the day's miles.
Milepost on NCN 72
Which numbered 21 remaining. I wasn't entirely sure what route I was going to take into Carlisle, but after a while I found myself on NCN route 72, which goes to Carlisle, so I stopped worrying about the route and followed the obvious signs. The NCN rarely takes the shortest route, because it aims for traffic 'low' or 'free' routes, and sometimes it feels like you're going round in circles just to avoid a short stretch of busy road. But it's great! I didn't really care how long it took to get there because I knew I'd be early for my train anyway. So passing a milepost with Carlisle 12.75 miles on it was good enough to just keep following the blue signs. NCN routes often go over any visible hill as well (again, these are usually the traffic 'low' routes) just to keep things interesting. The route into Carlisle city centre was quite involved, and at one point near a school I lost it, so played with Carlisle's rush hour traffic and one-way system for a while, to find myself back at the station. With an hour to kill I went looking for a real ale pub, but struggled to find one! A google search on the iPhone later, and I was at the King's Head. Good beer, nice, quiet pub. Perfect. 2 pints to finish off a great long weekend.
Train(s) back home were uneventful - direction and time of day meant it wasn't busy at all.
Into the abyss, bridleway in Kielder Forest
After the first long stretch was over, I emerged onto a little tarmac lane between farms, with cows on the hillside and … a Royal Mail van coming up the hill! Our postal system is pretty impressive. Let's hope the new coalition government doesn't ruin it, although I fear they will by selling off part of it. Anyway, a drop downhill and a right turn later, and I'm on NCN route 68. That's right, 68, the one that runs right past my house in New Mills. It's a long route! This section goes westward to Grindon Green (ruin) where, after a mile or so, it bears south on an old road / track. This track puts you out on a tarmac road a few miles north of Hadrian's Wall. I took a bit of an extra loop so that I could go past the really impressive part of the wall I remember from the Pennine Way - that above Once Brewed. Stopped there and took some pictures, sent a tweet (now back in signal land!) and thought a bit over the PW adventure again. The sign near the wall here makes me laugh - it reads 'In the interests of archaeology please do not walk on the wall' or words to that effect. I mean, the thing's been standing for 2000 years, had most of it taken to build the local farm houses, 'castles' and stone walls, people used to walk on it. I really don't see the problem. Don't take bits of it home, right enough - but don't walk on it? Silly. It's also rather interesting to consider that Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO world heritage site but it is in fact a manmade fortification cutting across beautiful countryside. Today, such a monstrosity would never be contemplated - but because it's old, it's worth preserving even! Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have such a thing from the point of view of our history and the history of the Roman Empire, but don't you think it's strange?
That thing with the grass on, that's Hadrian's Wall
Ramblings aside, I continued on along the Roman Road which is now the B6318. This really is a straight road! Up and down it goes, undulating with the terrain, but dead straight. I turned off it onto the Hadrian Cycleway just before Greenhead, reflecting that I'd just done in less than an hour what I walked in a day on Day 4 of the PW (short day that was, Once Brewed - Greenhead, 8 miles). After Greenhead I passed through Gilsland, and on to Birdoswald, Roman Fort. Here I stopped for a rest, having done 40 and a bit miles so far, and some food. A Hadrian cheese and tomato sandwich, and a coffee. Nice. I maybe should have looked around the fort, since I'm a member of English Heritage it would've been free, but I decided to press on on the grounds that if I stopped for too long it would be very hard to finish the day's miles.
Milepost on NCN 72
Which numbered 21 remaining. I wasn't entirely sure what route I was going to take into Carlisle, but after a while I found myself on NCN route 72, which goes to Carlisle, so I stopped worrying about the route and followed the obvious signs. The NCN rarely takes the shortest route, because it aims for traffic 'low' or 'free' routes, and sometimes it feels like you're going round in circles just to avoid a short stretch of busy road. But it's great! I didn't really care how long it took to get there because I knew I'd be early for my train anyway. So passing a milepost with Carlisle 12.75 miles on it was good enough to just keep following the blue signs. NCN routes often go over any visible hill as well (again, these are usually the traffic 'low' routes) just to keep things interesting. The route into Carlisle city centre was quite involved, and at one point near a school I lost it, so played with Carlisle's rush hour traffic and one-way system for a while, to find myself back at the station. With an hour to kill I went looking for a real ale pub, but struggled to find one! A google search on the iPhone later, and I was at the King's Head. Good beer, nice, quiet pub. Perfect. 2 pints to finish off a great long weekend.
Train(s) back home were uneventful - direction and time of day meant it wasn't busy at all.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Monday - Kielder / Newcastleton
Today I decided to take it easy in the morning, to give my arse time to recover from yesterday! So I had my breakfast and then went for a walk to the Castle again. I went in the Minotaur Maze, a piece of art close to the Castle. It wasn't too difficult to get to the middle and getting out was easy because I could remember the turns I had taken. A bigger maze would've been better I suppose, but it wasn't bad.
Minotaur Maze at Kielder Castle
I had a coffee and a glass of water at The Duke's Pantry, got my little computer out and looked at routes. I decided to do the Lonesome Pine / Bloody Bush trail again, but this time extend it to go to Newcastleton 7Stanes red trail. So, a loop of about 40 miles. At the back of my mind of course is the Kielder 100, and whether I'll be able to do it or not. This weekend is supposed to be about finding that out!
Back at the YHA I got my things sorted out, ate some crisps, and got ready. Smeared some savlon at the tops of my legs to protect the skin a bit. Then I went and fiddled a bit with my bike, oil, resetting the wheels and so on. Everything good.
The trails round here really are good for XC. I'm sure downhillers don't find them exciting enough, but for my bike and me, they're perfect. The route up to Lonesome Pine is now familiar to me, and this time it occurred to me that there might be mobile coverage at the top. There was! Only stopped for a few minutes there though as it was quite cold. Nowhere near as hot as yesterday, but that's good because it was a bit too hot yesterday. Hey, I'm not complaining, but today the weather was more exercise conducive.
View back towards the reservoir from Lonesome Pine
Carried on to Bloody Bush and turned right to go to Newcastleton on the Cross Border Trail. Well signposted, but what a descent on the fireroad after the pass! Went on for ages. And Bloody Bush road really does look like an old road. It is easy to imagine horses and carts using that track, even now. If a film ever wanted to find a location atop moors with an old road, they could do worse.
Bloody Bush Toll Road
At Newcastleton I looped around on the red trail. Confirmation that Deadwater is harder than a red, this was more what I expect from that colour. Great for XC with a few hairy bits thrown in but nothing scary, and no getting off bits. Turns out that the Exposure 24 race was on Saturday, and a lot of the signage was still out. That was a 24-hour solo race, so the trail marking was quite detailed, for the dark hours. There was one bit though where it would've been fairly easy to go off an edge if your concentration lapsed at the wrong point. But all in all it is easy to see why they chose Newcastleton for this race (first running of it) - there's not a great deal to go wrong in the dark. It's not a difficult loop. Perhaps I should do that next year - 24 hours on the bike sounds a bit painful, but that's what it's all about ;)
Anyway,, at the back of the loop is the Border Stane (an engraved stone). Here I had to decide what to do. My original plan had been to go all around the red route and then up back the way I had come to Bloody Bush. However, the alternative was to come back here (to the stone) and then turn right and follow the Cross Border Trail like on Saturday back to the turning for Lonesome Pine again. Given that amazing descent would now be a climb, I decided for the latter option. Not that I'm scared of a long climb you understand, just makes it a nicer loop ;)
Newcastleton Border Stane
To get back up to Lonesome Pine, now the fourth time I've done that - it occurred to me that there really is no substitute for knowledge. Every time I've done it it's got easier, mostly I suppose because of knowing what's coming.
At Lonesome Pine, sent a tweet again, exploiting the only bit of signal coverage I've had this weekend, then plummeted off the mountain on the trails past Skyscape and down to Kielder. Those trails on the descent are fantastic, flowing, not scary, fun!
Back at the YHA I cleaned myself up and went out to the pub. Closed! Worried that I'd come unstuck and already hungry, I went back and asked Richard if he was doing dinners tonight. Turns out he was making a vegetarian three bean salad for the lady who's also staying, said there was enough for me too! Lucky, I said I'd eat anything. Ten minutes later, eating a lovely salad - I wouldn't normally choose vegetarian options but maybe I should, the times I ever have I've always found them to be very tasty, often tastier than meat dishes. Anyway.
Bought a few beers from the office and now watching England v Mexico, the last friendly before the World Cup starts on June 11. Full time score, 3-1. Not exactly as convincing as the scoreline suggests...
Today I have almost reached the 1000 mile mark on my 'new' mountain bike. I have now done 998 miles on it, since I got it last October. Tomorrow, therefore, I will pass 1000 miles, somewhere along the Lakeside Way. Today I have also surpassed my monthly record for altitude climbed on bike. So far this month I have climbed 21000m. To put it in context, the previous record month was last month at 20600m, and the previous before that was July 2009 at 15600m. I have also biked more mountain bike miles this month than any other 'since records began', which was August 2007. One may confidently assume this is the same as in my life so far. I am only about 50 miles short of my monthly record for distance as well, which means I will definitely surpass that one too, maybe even tomorrow, with almost a week to spare. God I'm good. The program mytourbook, which I use to record all my rides, is really awesome in the statistics respect, and you know how much I love statistics ;)
Minotaur Maze at Kielder Castle
I had a coffee and a glass of water at The Duke's Pantry, got my little computer out and looked at routes. I decided to do the Lonesome Pine / Bloody Bush trail again, but this time extend it to go to Newcastleton 7Stanes red trail. So, a loop of about 40 miles. At the back of my mind of course is the Kielder 100, and whether I'll be able to do it or not. This weekend is supposed to be about finding that out!
Back at the YHA I got my things sorted out, ate some crisps, and got ready. Smeared some savlon at the tops of my legs to protect the skin a bit. Then I went and fiddled a bit with my bike, oil, resetting the wheels and so on. Everything good.
The trails round here really are good for XC. I'm sure downhillers don't find them exciting enough, but for my bike and me, they're perfect. The route up to Lonesome Pine is now familiar to me, and this time it occurred to me that there might be mobile coverage at the top. There was! Only stopped for a few minutes there though as it was quite cold. Nowhere near as hot as yesterday, but that's good because it was a bit too hot yesterday. Hey, I'm not complaining, but today the weather was more exercise conducive.
View back towards the reservoir from Lonesome Pine
Carried on to Bloody Bush and turned right to go to Newcastleton on the Cross Border Trail. Well signposted, but what a descent on the fireroad after the pass! Went on for ages. And Bloody Bush road really does look like an old road. It is easy to imagine horses and carts using that track, even now. If a film ever wanted to find a location atop moors with an old road, they could do worse.
Bloody Bush Toll Road
At Newcastleton I looped around on the red trail. Confirmation that Deadwater is harder than a red, this was more what I expect from that colour. Great for XC with a few hairy bits thrown in but nothing scary, and no getting off bits. Turns out that the Exposure 24 race was on Saturday, and a lot of the signage was still out. That was a 24-hour solo race, so the trail marking was quite detailed, for the dark hours. There was one bit though where it would've been fairly easy to go off an edge if your concentration lapsed at the wrong point. But all in all it is easy to see why they chose Newcastleton for this race (first running of it) - there's not a great deal to go wrong in the dark. It's not a difficult loop. Perhaps I should do that next year - 24 hours on the bike sounds a bit painful, but that's what it's all about ;)
Anyway,, at the back of the loop is the Border Stane (an engraved stone). Here I had to decide what to do. My original plan had been to go all around the red route and then up back the way I had come to Bloody Bush. However, the alternative was to come back here (to the stone) and then turn right and follow the Cross Border Trail like on Saturday back to the turning for Lonesome Pine again. Given that amazing descent would now be a climb, I decided for the latter option. Not that I'm scared of a long climb you understand, just makes it a nicer loop ;)
Newcastleton Border Stane
To get back up to Lonesome Pine, now the fourth time I've done that - it occurred to me that there really is no substitute for knowledge. Every time I've done it it's got easier, mostly I suppose because of knowing what's coming.
At Lonesome Pine, sent a tweet again, exploiting the only bit of signal coverage I've had this weekend, then plummeted off the mountain on the trails past Skyscape and down to Kielder. Those trails on the descent are fantastic, flowing, not scary, fun!
Back at the YHA I cleaned myself up and went out to the pub. Closed! Worried that I'd come unstuck and already hungry, I went back and asked Richard if he was doing dinners tonight. Turns out he was making a vegetarian three bean salad for the lady who's also staying, said there was enough for me too! Lucky, I said I'd eat anything. Ten minutes later, eating a lovely salad - I wouldn't normally choose vegetarian options but maybe I should, the times I ever have I've always found them to be very tasty, often tastier than meat dishes. Anyway.
Bought a few beers from the office and now watching England v Mexico, the last friendly before the World Cup starts on June 11. Full time score, 3-1. Not exactly as convincing as the scoreline suggests...
Today I have almost reached the 1000 mile mark on my 'new' mountain bike. I have now done 998 miles on it, since I got it last October. Tomorrow, therefore, I will pass 1000 miles, somewhere along the Lakeside Way. Today I have also surpassed my monthly record for altitude climbed on bike. So far this month I have climbed 21000m. To put it in context, the previous record month was last month at 20600m, and the previous before that was July 2009 at 15600m. I have also biked more mountain bike miles this month than any other 'since records began', which was August 2007. One may confidently assume this is the same as in my life so far. I am only about 50 miles short of my monthly record for distance as well, which means I will definitely surpass that one too, maybe even tomorrow, with almost a week to spare. God I'm good. The program mytourbook, which I use to record all my rides, is really awesome in the statistics respect, and you know how much I love statistics ;)
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Sunday - Lonesome Pine / Bloody Bush, Lakeside Way
Set off after breakfast, to explore the other man-made trails here, the Lonesome Pine and Bloody Bush trails. It's possible to link them up making a good 20 mile loop. Start off on the Lakeside Way - an easy trail that goes all the way around the Reservoir (more later). After a few miles, where the trail goes under the road, the red LP route branches off into Lewisburn Valley. This is a nice trail, much more Andrew friendly than the Deadwater Fell one - just flowing singletrack through trees. Lovely. After some time there is the obligatory fire road, but somehow the fire road in Kielder Forest doesn't feel as bad as that in, say, Whinlatter. Maybe it's the gradients - you know I'm gonna check that later when I recap the weekend, sad case that I am!
The section on the map where the Bloody Bush Start / Finish is marked isn't built yet! That kind of surprised me a bit, but definitely it's supposed to start on a certain corner, and indeed, there are red flags on trees where they clearly plan to build the singletrack, but it ain't there yet. Anyway doesn't really matter, having too much fun to moan about that. And it was sunny - hot - sun cream weather again - two days in a row, wow!
Switchbacks up to northshore at Lonesome Pine
The last bit up to Lonesome Pine, obviously so-called because it's a big pine on it's own on the hillside, is first a steep rocky set of switchbacks, and then, north shore. Lots of it. There is a junction at the top where Bloody Bush goes left and Lonesome Pine goes right. On the board there it even mentions the Kielder 100 from last year which was the first 100 mile singe lap mountain bike race run in this country. The winner took 8 hours something. I won't! Anyhow, the north shore is 2m wide! Apparently, this is because if it's a windy day, it can be so bad that you need 2m to be blown into. But there's a lot of boardwalk up there - more than I've seen anywhere else, so far.
Crossing a felled area towards Bloody Bush
Turning left, the trail goes down off the hillside, and into woods. Again, lovely flowing singletrack, although the Bloody Bush trail does feel a bit more rugged already. Climbing again through the forest, totally disorientated, emerging onto a felled area again. Then a long descent with some avoidable jumps thrown in. There's a chimney visible across the moor, but I can't look at it properly because it would mean taking my eyes off the trail, which wouldn't end well. Getting closer to the 'chimney', I realise that it's the Bloody Bush pillar. On arrival, this is the England-Scotland border, and the pillar is engraved with the costs of passing the toll and the distances to various places. Fascinating!
Bloody Bush toll
I put a toe in Scotland, then carry on with the trail, down a brilliant singletrack / fireroad descent. Eventually I arrive at a point I was at yesterday, where this time I turn left and go back up to the corner where the Bloody Bush trail is supposed to start, and back up to Lonesome Pine. This time turn right, and drop down fast on north shore, rocky trail and flowing stuff through trees.
Passed by Skyscape, some kind of viewing experience for the dark night skies here in this remote area of the UK. Then some awesome singletrack descending on rocky trail down a valley, and into the lower forest. Crossing a few footpaths now as we near civilization, and the Lonesome Pine trail dumps you out at The Bike Place, bike shop.
Altogether, fantastic XC trails.
Getting hungry now, decided to ride to Leaplish to The Boat Inn for lunch. That was good - an outside table overlooking Kielder Water, watching boats, pint of beer, pint of coke, burger and wedges with chilli mayo.
What to do now? Well, I had thought to go back to Kielder and follow the 2009 Kielder 100 route, but in the end I went round the whole reservoir on the Lakeside Way. On the way, crossed over the dam - wide! - and then about 10 miles back along the north shore of the reservoir to home.
On the Lakeside Way, south shore.
Getting back to base a realised that my bottom was quite sore! Some chafed skin near the top of my right leg. Not good. Stuck some savlon on it and hope for the best I guess - still 2 days cycling to go! I suppose part of this weekend was about seeing how my body copes with four days of sustained cycling effort on this bike. I'm finding out :) Anyway, it doesn't feel too bad, should be ok, but better safe than sorry.
Dinner tonight was in the Angler's Arms, a lovely roast lamb plate - big! - with mashed potato, cabbage, carrots, turnip, peas and a Yorkshire pudding. Fab.
The section on the map where the Bloody Bush Start / Finish is marked isn't built yet! That kind of surprised me a bit, but definitely it's supposed to start on a certain corner, and indeed, there are red flags on trees where they clearly plan to build the singletrack, but it ain't there yet. Anyway doesn't really matter, having too much fun to moan about that. And it was sunny - hot - sun cream weather again - two days in a row, wow!
Switchbacks up to northshore at Lonesome Pine
The last bit up to Lonesome Pine, obviously so-called because it's a big pine on it's own on the hillside, is first a steep rocky set of switchbacks, and then, north shore. Lots of it. There is a junction at the top where Bloody Bush goes left and Lonesome Pine goes right. On the board there it even mentions the Kielder 100 from last year which was the first 100 mile singe lap mountain bike race run in this country. The winner took 8 hours something. I won't! Anyhow, the north shore is 2m wide! Apparently, this is because if it's a windy day, it can be so bad that you need 2m to be blown into. But there's a lot of boardwalk up there - more than I've seen anywhere else, so far.
Crossing a felled area towards Bloody Bush
Turning left, the trail goes down off the hillside, and into woods. Again, lovely flowing singletrack, although the Bloody Bush trail does feel a bit more rugged already. Climbing again through the forest, totally disorientated, emerging onto a felled area again. Then a long descent with some avoidable jumps thrown in. There's a chimney visible across the moor, but I can't look at it properly because it would mean taking my eyes off the trail, which wouldn't end well. Getting closer to the 'chimney', I realise that it's the Bloody Bush pillar. On arrival, this is the England-Scotland border, and the pillar is engraved with the costs of passing the toll and the distances to various places. Fascinating!
Bloody Bush toll
I put a toe in Scotland, then carry on with the trail, down a brilliant singletrack / fireroad descent. Eventually I arrive at a point I was at yesterday, where this time I turn left and go back up to the corner where the Bloody Bush trail is supposed to start, and back up to Lonesome Pine. This time turn right, and drop down fast on north shore, rocky trail and flowing stuff through trees.
Passed by Skyscape, some kind of viewing experience for the dark night skies here in this remote area of the UK. Then some awesome singletrack descending on rocky trail down a valley, and into the lower forest. Crossing a few footpaths now as we near civilization, and the Lonesome Pine trail dumps you out at The Bike Place, bike shop.
Altogether, fantastic XC trails.
Getting hungry now, decided to ride to Leaplish to The Boat Inn for lunch. That was good - an outside table overlooking Kielder Water, watching boats, pint of beer, pint of coke, burger and wedges with chilli mayo.
What to do now? Well, I had thought to go back to Kielder and follow the 2009 Kielder 100 route, but in the end I went round the whole reservoir on the Lakeside Way. On the way, crossed over the dam - wide! - and then about 10 miles back along the north shore of the reservoir to home.
On the Lakeside Way, south shore.
Getting back to base a realised that my bottom was quite sore! Some chafed skin near the top of my right leg. Not good. Stuck some savlon on it and hope for the best I guess - still 2 days cycling to go! I suppose part of this weekend was about seeing how my body copes with four days of sustained cycling effort on this bike. I'm finding out :) Anyway, it doesn't feel too bad, should be ok, but better safe than sorry.
Dinner tonight was in the Angler's Arms, a lovely roast lamb plate - big! - with mashed potato, cabbage, carrots, turnip, peas and a Yorkshire pudding. Fab.
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Saturday - Carlisle - Kielder, Deadwater Trails
Up early, 0630. Washed bike. Packed bag. Train at 0901 from New Mills Central. Met Ciska at Piccadilly for a coffee, and bought some travel sized toiletries from Boots, good for my small rucksack. Train out of Manchester at 1016. The usual nonsense trying to get on the front carriage. A large group with a wheelchair got on, then got off again when the station guard realised they couldn't change platforms at Oxford Road. Hmmm. Anyway, meant I could get on easily with my bike.
Standing and messing about moving the bike until Lancaster! Then the train was almost empty, across the Lakes. Some funny girls came to use the toilet - three of them - and played pranks with the door, first repeatedly opening the door while their friend was inside, before she had time to lock it, then, funnier, repeatedly closing the door while another friend was trying to open it! Well, you had to be there. It was the most eventful part of the journey - apart from the scenery which was beautiful, especially in the glorious sunshine.
Got off at Carlisle, of course, and set myself up outside the station in the shadow of the Citadel. Got on NCN route 7 northbound, passing by Carlisle Castle. It's English Heritage - had forgotten that. There must be an outside chance that I will visit it on Tuesday, if I have time and if there is somewhere good to lock my bike up.
A few miles outside the city I rang Alison to wish Aimee a happy birthday - apparently they both (ie. Andrew too) love the Gruffalo colouring pencils I bought, but they're Aimee's of course. Hope that doesn't cause too many problems!
After some miles, I ended up on NCN route 10, the Reiver's Way. My carefully planned route to stay on country roads with little traffic worked brilliantly. I only saw one car in 25 miles, or thereabouts (only a slight exaggeration, I assure you). The downside of this route was that it didn't pass anything like a pub or cafe, which by the end I could have definitely done with. Anyway, after passing Bewcastle, the miles passed by until I arrived at Kershope Bridge and the Scottish Border.
Kershope Bridge, Scottish Border
Here I joined the Cross Border Trail, basically forest road which follows the border and Kershope Burn (or I suppose, follows Kershope Burn as does the border). Starting on the English side, but soon crossing over into Scotland, a long, steady, gradual climb ensued, but in glorious hot sun. Thirsty, I was running out of water. No chance to refuel, I just had to keep on going ;)
At the waymarked point, I left the fireroad and crossed back into England. Some singletrack through a felled area, then back on fireroad. Ultimately it joined up with the trail markers from the Kielder routes, but I kept following the Cross Border signposts, which dumped me out finally on the road, which I followed for the final few miles into Kielder Castle.
Found the YHA no problem (there's not much in Kielder!) and got my key. I'm the only one in the dorm tonight, perfect! Decided to have dinner in the hostel tonight - soup, tuna pasta salad, and fruit salad. Very tasty :)
Excited about the prospect of MTB trails, I went out straight after dinner to do Deadwater Trails, the man-made route up Deadwater Fell. I reckoned I had enough daylight left to do the 10 mile loop, and so it proved. The climb up onto the fell is quite long and drawn out, but with the failing light of the wonderful day, the views back down the valley to Kielder were impressive.
View from the top of Deadwater Fell, looking north
Now then - Deadwater Trails is a red route. But, parts of it are very difficult. I don't like scary downhill stuff, and I think this trail is black in places. A wuss, I am, but hey - I've done a lot of these kinds of trails, and I reckon this is, in places, technically harder than all of the other red routes I've done. It's just not my thing I guess. Even though I know they must be rideable because they're man-made, I can't do it. Fear, and my hardtail XC optimised bike conspire against me! So I won't be going back and doing the black section of this trail, not on this bike ;)
Got back to the hostel, found no one around to give me the bike shed key, so, as I'm on my own, took my bike upstairs to bed.
Standing and messing about moving the bike until Lancaster! Then the train was almost empty, across the Lakes. Some funny girls came to use the toilet - three of them - and played pranks with the door, first repeatedly opening the door while their friend was inside, before she had time to lock it, then, funnier, repeatedly closing the door while another friend was trying to open it! Well, you had to be there. It was the most eventful part of the journey - apart from the scenery which was beautiful, especially in the glorious sunshine.
Got off at Carlisle, of course, and set myself up outside the station in the shadow of the Citadel. Got on NCN route 7 northbound, passing by Carlisle Castle. It's English Heritage - had forgotten that. There must be an outside chance that I will visit it on Tuesday, if I have time and if there is somewhere good to lock my bike up.
A few miles outside the city I rang Alison to wish Aimee a happy birthday - apparently they both (ie. Andrew too) love the Gruffalo colouring pencils I bought, but they're Aimee's of course. Hope that doesn't cause too many problems!
After some miles, I ended up on NCN route 10, the Reiver's Way. My carefully planned route to stay on country roads with little traffic worked brilliantly. I only saw one car in 25 miles, or thereabouts (only a slight exaggeration, I assure you). The downside of this route was that it didn't pass anything like a pub or cafe, which by the end I could have definitely done with. Anyway, after passing Bewcastle, the miles passed by until I arrived at Kershope Bridge and the Scottish Border.
Kershope Bridge, Scottish Border
Here I joined the Cross Border Trail, basically forest road which follows the border and Kershope Burn (or I suppose, follows Kershope Burn as does the border). Starting on the English side, but soon crossing over into Scotland, a long, steady, gradual climb ensued, but in glorious hot sun. Thirsty, I was running out of water. No chance to refuel, I just had to keep on going ;)
At the waymarked point, I left the fireroad and crossed back into England. Some singletrack through a felled area, then back on fireroad. Ultimately it joined up with the trail markers from the Kielder routes, but I kept following the Cross Border signposts, which dumped me out finally on the road, which I followed for the final few miles into Kielder Castle.
Found the YHA no problem (there's not much in Kielder!) and got my key. I'm the only one in the dorm tonight, perfect! Decided to have dinner in the hostel tonight - soup, tuna pasta salad, and fruit salad. Very tasty :)
Excited about the prospect of MTB trails, I went out straight after dinner to do Deadwater Trails, the man-made route up Deadwater Fell. I reckoned I had enough daylight left to do the 10 mile loop, and so it proved. The climb up onto the fell is quite long and drawn out, but with the failing light of the wonderful day, the views back down the valley to Kielder were impressive.
View from the top of Deadwater Fell, looking north
Now then - Deadwater Trails is a red route. But, parts of it are very difficult. I don't like scary downhill stuff, and I think this trail is black in places. A wuss, I am, but hey - I've done a lot of these kinds of trails, and I reckon this is, in places, technically harder than all of the other red routes I've done. It's just not my thing I guess. Even though I know they must be rideable because they're man-made, I can't do it. Fear, and my hardtail XC optimised bike conspire against me! So I won't be going back and doing the black section of this trail, not on this bike ;)
Got back to the hostel, found no one around to give me the bike shed key, so, as I'm on my own, took my bike upstairs to bed.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
The Marin Roughride
Still undecided about whether to do this race this year.... here is last year's route. Note that some of the trails are only open to bikes on the day by arrangement with the landowners.
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