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15th August 2007 ride along the Helvellyn Ridge (Page two)

15th August 2007 ride along the Helvellyn Ridge ( Page two)
- Page one - Ride report -
Looking back up Grisedale
Ride report by Simeon Orme
Five of us met at the Cow Bridge car park near Brothers Water in Patterdale for what I would describe has one of the ultimate rides in England for the off-road cyclist the ride along the Helvellyn Ridge, with the highest point in the ride being the summit of Helvellyn at 969 metres.

We headed off along the A592 down Patterdale and then followed the A5091 to Dockray before following the lanes up to High Row where we joined the Old Coach Road which followed around to the ford at Groovebeck. After crossing over ford we followed the bridleway up on to Matterdale Common and in places it was wet under foot due to heavy rain from the night before, we regroup on the summit of Matterdale Common before heading up to the summit of the Great Dodd at 857 metres, we stop for lunch at the Shelter Cairn on the summit, it take us about three hours to get to the summit of the Great Dodd.

After lunch headed along the ridge following the track to the summit of Watson’s Dodd at 789 metres then the climb up on Stybarrow Dodd at 843 metres before those in party on mountain bikes enjoy the ride down to Sticks Pass where we had another hard climb up the summit of the Raise at 883 metres after rest on the summit, Barrie and James decided they would head back down to Glenridding via the track down Red Screes and Glenridding  Common. Leaving myself, Peter and Charles to carry along the ridge. After another short climb to cairn above Whiteside Bank at 863 metres we face the hardest climb of the day, up on summit of Lowes Man at 925 metres and making up to summit we had another rest and to enjoy the views before heading up to the summit of  Helvellyn which Charles and Peter rode up to, after enjoying views we headed to the summit shelter for some to eat.

Then we headed along the ridge to Nethermost Pike at 891 metres, then on to High Crag at 884 metres and then past the summit of Dollwaggon Pike before facing the long climb down to Grisedale Tarn, then we had  push our bikes most of way along the track down Grisedale until we got to Crossing Plantation before we could ride down the valley to Patterdale and back to cars at Cow Bridge.

We had be out for 8 hours and done 23 mile and about best ride South Lakes Group ever done, if the Rough-Stuff Fellowship had award for the best group ride of year, the South Lakes Group would have won it with this ride and I look forward to our friends in the Lancashire Group and other RSF groups coming up with better ride than this in the coming year!

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