Highstreet Challenge and Ullswater

Morning Dave, Earl did his normal greeting of woof woof oh it's you waggy tail welcome, we had the Berlingo loaded up in 5 mins and we hit the M6 at around 8.10am (bloody early for a Sunday). We hit the lakes in good time, parked the car, got into character and head off down the road to the start of the route, I looked up at the trail ahead of me and shuddered, this is what it's all about, no man made trail, no power shakes cafe offering banana based food stuff, red route, black route or skills section. just a massive mountain surrounded by more mountains, here we go then 2.77 miles of climbing to just over 2,000.00 feet, this may sting in the morning.

The start of the route was ride able for me, Dave could probably do the lot!!! a bit into the ride disaster seemed to kick in as Dave pulled over and started to fettle/bang his chainring, 10 mins later he came back to where I had been trying to get my breath back " No granny ring for me today" (the chain was getting stuck between the rings and not up shifting) you could almost see the joy in Dave's face, no granny ring ACE!!

During our accent there where times when I wanted to give up, I almost wished I had one of those little fold up bike things you see people on the train with, I thrust the thought from my brain and continued to climb.

It seemed to take an age, but when we reached the pinnacle of this monster of a climb and looked out over the Lake District I could not help but feel overwhelmed and dwarfed by it's majesty. We kept pedaling on, stopping for lunch, stopped to take photos and just sit and wonder at the landscape stretching out in front of us.

It was not long before the short falls and rises turned into an awe inspiring balls out descent, it seem to continue for what was an age, pumping the bike through the natural terrain with a flow that had the child in me buzzing with excitement, not unlike my childhood days after eating pink chocolate!! Massive steep sections were navigated with ease, thanks to a newly bled rear brake and the skill normally reserved for the mountain goat. When we reached the end we were both buzzing "wish I had a helmet cam", " wish I had a carbon V10" short exited tales were passed between us as we entered the technical section!!

Normally these would have been very good but the Sunday mincing walkers had appeared to ruin our fun "wheres your bell?" and why don't mountain bikers have bells? This did my head in to the point were I dismounted and informed said mincer that "this is a bridle path, horses can come down here, do they have to use a bells, NO, would you just get out of the horses way? Yes, so get out of mine" soap box stuffed back into the back pack, couple more fast sections, and back to where it all started, quick change off to the pub for a pint of golden nectar and to tell more short tale of excellence.

What an awesome day, my brain mentioned something, "get rich, buy a helicopter, down hill riding all day every day" to which I replied "you best get thinking then, cause that's your department".

Back on the M6 I could only think about the descent, sweet dreams tonight, very sweet.