So I decided to head back up north for the weekend, for a bit of biking. climbing and a bbq (mainly biking though). Since it is quite a long and dull drive to the hilly homeland I decided to stop off on the way at Lee Mill Quarry since it seems to be getting quite a lot of good press recently. As i’m sure you’re aware the trails at Lee Quarry are short (4km) so it’s not exactly a xc marathon venue, perfect for me really. After the sat nav took me to the wrong (and private) quarry I found the correct place and rode on up the hill to the converted quarry.
The trails up here are very exposed to the weather and even though the sun was shining for most of my time here the wind kept things cool and made certain parts of the trail tricky and slow. First up was to ride the red trail, which as it is quite short didn’t take too long (though it’s possible I missed bits as the signs weren’t great). Next I sessioned the small red and black skills loops they had, which consisted of big banked berms and jumps and a nice little trail back to the top so you could rinse and repeat all day if you wished. Next to these was a nice jump line also but with the wind gusting it didn’t feel too great getting too much air. Also on offer was a sweet little pump track, thankfully out of the wind, which despite it’s tiny size took some getting used to and really drained the energy. I quickly tried out the small challenging black route which was more of a technical rock hopping affair but did offer an extra challenge for those so inclined. Overall it’s a pretty neat little spot and will be even better once fully linked up to the newer trail Crap Quarry nearby.
Saturday morning and the sun was shining (but boy was it chilly) and we had a pretty good turn out even though it was a pretty early start for most. Everyone headed off to Whinlatter for the first part of our day and it was nice to be back on country roads with the beautiful northern hills as a backdrop to the journey. The rest of the riders met us in the car park and after a short bike check we set off and did a complete lap of the north side of the trail. It felt good to back on my old local trail and I felt in no great rush to speed round it so it was nice to stop at various points in the trail to catch a breath, wait for anyone behind, and admire the lovely views. The only two crashes of the morning was myself hitting a pesky wee root on one of the downs (no damage done thankfully) and Grave deciding to ride into the cameraman that was cheekily taking photos on the last down section.
Next up was the south side, a quick ride to the top and then as fast as we could back down again. Grave decided yet again to crash in front of me on the jumpy section and giving himself another scar to add to his impressive scar total. I may live down south in the land of very small hills (they do have some honest) but I still held my own on this section and hadn’t lost any speed since my last visit. We lost two riders after this as they just couldn’t hack the pace so we popped on up to the cafe to grab a bite to eat and clean up any injuries thus far sustained.
Once the carrot cake, beer and sandwiches were consumed another rider took himself home, leaving only Grave, Proudy and myself to tackle a hill I had been meaning to ride down in sometime. Grisedale Pike. Grisedale Pike lies just to the west of Whinlatter forest and looks down upon the top point of the south side of the trail, and i’ve been meaning to ride down from the top of it for some time now. So off we went again to the top of the south side trail before hitting the veering off track and up toward the summit of Grisedale Pike.
The first part of the climb was nice, the sun was still out, there was a nice breeze to help keep cool and the trail was even rideable in places, but before long it got very steep and rocky, and bikes had to be carried or forcefully pushed up some pretty rough terrain. It took about 1.5 hours from the car park to reach the summit but once at the top we were greeted to a panoramic view of the lakes. Hills all around us and quite a few trails leading down in all directions (if only we had more time, and maybe a helicopter), beautiful. After a few nice photos of the view and a brief chat with some walkers also out for the day we found our trail down and set off, for what we hoped would be worth the long climb.
Our way down was to be a singletrack trail leading down a ridgeline that would hopefully bring us back down into the woods on the south side of Whinlatter forest. There was no real track down to the route we could see so it was just a free blast down whatever route you wished until we joined up with the track. Once on the track we followed the ridgeline trail, crossing one or two fence lines (meeting a few more nice walkers) before it finally started to really drop back down. The trail was loose and steep, a narrow scar cut into the hillside amidst the bracken around us, and while not overly technical the loose rocks made it easy to slide out and fall head over into the bracken either side of the trail.
After a while we reached the tree line and suddenly it went black, after the bright sunshine of the open hill the sudden dark wooded trail was very dark and a quick stop to adjust the eyes to the absence of light was needed. A quick steep bit of single track led us onto an old logging path that cut straight down through the woods, and popped us back out onto a fireroad very close the car park. Adventure over.