Whinlatter 29-12-11.wmv

Aftermath - old guys should know better.

Doug has just sent me this, his bruises 48 hours later.

Doug - I hope that's the aftermath of excess beer over the years and not swelling. Or is it just a bad camera angle?

Borrowdale HSAB

Today the sun came out and so did the mountain bikes. I think my outlook on life is at a different angle to everyone else. Or my helmet camera is cockeyed! The footage is a little tilted.

I joined Andy, Doug, Phil and Adrian on a backwards ride around some of the Borrowdale bash today. Setting of from Adrian's house in Keswick. A cold day with the remnants of the recent snow here and there and some icy patches to content with.

Two crashes - Phil decided that the trail ahead looked a bit dodgy so he took a closer look, head first. he'll mend but I think he might need some brake lever repairs.

Doug also decided the trail needed closer inspection, his bike came away unscathed not sure about his pride as the 20 ft dive was right in front of spectators.

Both crashes were behind me so unfortunately were not captured on film.



From left to right. Andy, Adrian, Me, Phil, Doug



Skiddaw

Can anyone ride up Castle Crag?

Borrowdale HSAB 18-12-11.wmv

Scafell Pike

 Saturday 17-12-11. I love the lakes in the winter, especially when we get snow. Max and I went for a walk. ended up on top of Scafell pike. We were first there as there were no other foots prints in the deep snow. Max is perfect for the snow, being small and light with big (for his size) fluffy feet that act as snow shoes. His only downfall is when the drifts get two deep he then has to follow my footprints.

My mountain dog

Deserted summit cairn, you don't see that very often

Wasdale head

Crag Fell

Decided to dodge the rain today and went for a walk up Blake Fell with the dogs. On the south side of Ennerdale overlooking Anglers crag, at about 1700 ft its a fairly straight foward walk up but gets you fairly high fairly fast.

Starting in the trees you get a lot of shelter even with the lack of leaves at this time of year.

The path then arrives on the fell side where it soon crosses Ben Gill

Ben Gill

 A lonely boundary post, the fence has long gone.

'Francis Morton and Co Liverpool' went to the trouble of embossing their name on the post when it was made.

My companions for the day.

Max (black) and Jack (white)

New camera

Having finally finished my extension I've treated myself to a new remote video camera for some action footage. Not only is the camera smaller and much better quality but I can turn it on and off remotely so no more rummaging in my bag to start the camera..

So on a cold and windy Novembers' day what else can you do but head for cover in the woods. Andy, Doug, Col and I met up at Whinlatter forest. Col was suffering severely from the excesses of the night before and so cut the ride short, it was only when I got home I realised that as he was always behind I had no footage of him! Well it was self imposed, I was at the same wedding but managed to moderate the hangover.

I've found the best way to get a quality quick download is via YouTube and embed it into a stand alone post, the only downside is the google ads!

So here's the new camera footage starring Doug, Andy, I............... with Col following behind!

Enjoy.

Oh by the way I know that the date in the footage is wrong - I've now turned off the date stamp

Top of the bottom. Half way up or down the south side

A warm me up afterwards in the cafe.

Whinlatter 27-11-11 hd.wmv

Derwent cruise

I went for a sail today in my 52 year old dinghy Kittiwake to try out a few mods I've done and also to play with my GPS. I was interested how far I actually travel when sailing into the wind and also how fast I go. This is the outcome - A 10 mile cruise down the lake and back at an average of 2.8 mph and a maximum of 5.6 mph.

Derwent water is a great lake to explore I think I've counted nine islands so far as well as a handfull of rocks that become exposed when the water level is low, the biggest being Swarf Stones where the Cormorants live.



Early morning sun over the islands




Dinner time beach




Running with the wind back down the lake.




Swarf Stones, or Cormorant Island.



The Borrowdale Bash

Another fine weekend meant Andy Young and I headed out to Borrowdale for a little late Autumn mud.

The Borrowdale Bash is a classic Mountain Bike route that takes you down the east side of Borrowdale to Watendlath then over to Rosthwaite and to Seatoller at the base of Honister Pass. It then returns back down the West side of the valley via Castle Crag and the flanks of Catbells. This route gives excellant views of Borrowdale and Derwent Water, its a good hard 17 mile route when done fully, Castle Crag being a very rocky downhill that takes no prisoners, you and your bike have to be in good form or something will break. Its normal to have several punctures descending Castle Crag

Today we just did the East side and Castle Crag taking the direct route back to Keswick from Grange before the light failed. And no mechanicals at all.
 



The climb from Rakefoot 

 


Skiddaw in the distance



The climb out of Watendlath





 Here's a little taster:

 

Some better quality links:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sl4GiJNbNaw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://youtu.be/sl4GiJNbNaw

Spielburg - we're not! Episode 3 - The 'Combe'

This weekend saw the sun come out for some excellent autumn sunshine with no wind. Perfect Mountain Biking weather.



He'll stop smilling soon enough



  

Black Combe is, I'm sure, the most southerly of the Lakeland fells above 2000ft and one of the very few at that height that have a bridleway that runs over the top of it. It also juts right out towards the sea and so most ways up start pretty much at sea level. The ride over the summit is 7 ½ miles, 4 of those being fairly flat, the other 3 are either up or down. So that’s 2000 ft in 1.5 miles, a hard climb to say the least, but a great downhill if you can stomach the climb!

 

Told you!



They didn't care that the sun was out!



Sun setting behind the Isle of Man



On the way home I noticed something that must happen every year but I've always missed it, the sun setting behind the Isle of Man.

Anyway - why we really went was to get some video footage for our latest attempt at a mountain biking movie. Doug also took some footage but its still on his camera so I'll try and splice that in sometime. In the mean time here it is.

That's Kelly (Dougs wife) and Lance (their dog who's named after some little known American cyclist) at the bottom waiting for us.



<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WJnicSUGxRY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Spielburg - we're not! Episode 2

So the next step is to start cutting footage and adding some sound. And you get something like this:

Its better but its still lacking the actual feeling of being there, one of the biggest problems is that when your riding your body naturally absorbs the knocks and bumps so it looks alot smoother than it actually is.

Spielburg - we're not! Episode 1

I've had several attempts over the years of getting good movie footage whilst biking and climbing. Most attempts have never been that successfull. The video quite often does not do the speed or difficulty justic and the set up I had with a helmet camera coupled to a camcorder was a pain as I had to start recording then put the camcorder in my backpack.

Here's and example of some footage I took a while ago of a quite fast trail just up the road from me.

See what I mean, looks quite tame.

Its raining, again

Doug is working over here but originates from sunny, dry and warm - Colorado, is starting to get a little frustrated with our Cumbrian weather. After nearly two years of rain its starting to get him down. Well he's been here two years and for a Coloradium it feels like its rained the whole time. Kelly, his wife, gets her sun fixes every now and then by going home, which just leaves Doug in more of a pickle as he needs to get out to relieve the boredom when shes away but that just means more muddy rides! Here's a reminder of our 'dry' spring when we rode the cross border trail from Newcastletown (Scotland) to Kielder (England) and back. Why ride to Scotland when you can drive there and ride back to England. Oops the cars still in Scotland, lets go back and get it................... Then break it!  But thats another story

Life in the Lakes

I can't sit still, I always need a challenge, this is maybe just another one of those challenges. I've started a blog!