English Summer

I missed a good part of the washout of a summer England has had (more on that later), but the last two weeks of bog based churning have been a somewhat welcome reintroduction to the realities of UK trail riding. I'm sure it'll start to piss me off soon enough, but for now I'm embracing the slither.

A Bit Full On

Both sides on Nan Bield in one day, one hell of a ride. Rick described it as 'Hands down the most challenging trail I have ridden, and some singletrack to die for'. Says it all really.

Warming Down

Josh, Garburn Pass, Late March

The day after the first round of the UK Enduro Series. Knees in the breeze lakeland XC seemed like a good way to wind down.

Look at the Trail On That

Cal, somewhere in the North Lakes

A month of riding & racing bicycles, pretty busy, but in a good way. Hopefully a bit more blogging to tell the tale but for now here is a picture of a near perfect bit of trail Cal and I had had our eyes on for a while. 95% brilliant, 5% certain death.

Just One Frame

Josh finds a tiny bit of BC

Trails are the reason I mountain bike. New ones, old ones, good ones. Every little trail is different, taking you down (or up) the mountain in its own unique way. Sometimes trails take you somewhere else entirely. Another trail, another mountain range, another continent. Somehow the 400 meter stretch of trail, hidden out on Grizedale Forest's western ridge took us a good three thousand miles. Neither of us has been to Vancouver's North Shore, yet we agreed it felt 'a little bit BC' in that small part of the woods. Perhaps it was because of the North Shore's continuing exposure in the magazines and websites of the mtb world, perhaps the lack of light through a long grey winter caused internal compasses to go awry. Either way, it was a great 400 meters of trail. So great we rode it twice.

Then The Rain Comes

We went the Lakes. It rained. Cal and I got one decent day and one showery day of riding in amongst the Dunnerdale fells, and on the silly scary slopes of Skiddaw, but when Dave W turned up and the camera came out, the weather rather turned to shit. Still, all was not lost. Whilst we didn't quite get the haul of footage we were hoping for due to the camera's dislike of the rain, few shots came out nice. The relative shelter of Grizedale was nice, but the trails seemed to loose more grip with every water droplet that hit them, and the one new trail we found kept concentration levels high. Dave's comment that it would be a great bit of trail in the summer raised a laugh, what with our visit coming 2 days after the solstice. The 2nd day had been set aside for a new tilt on Helvelyn, but with rain falling, and thunder on the forecast, it turned in to an out an back up to Grizedale Hause. Whilst it may not have been the ride, or shoot, we where hoping for, new trails were ridden, and walkers impressed. A route for when the real summer arrives.

Not Dead

So this blog has been a little quiet over the last few months. Not to say there has not been any riding done, just with exams and all that there hasn't been much time to write about it. With summer stretching away in front of me, and Cal, Dave and Ste still busy I got the summer started with a bit of classic highpostin' XC around Grizedale with Dad and Wilf. It was boss. I think I have neglected Grizedale over the years, instead heading for the techy trails higher up on the fells, but the tracks in the woods are such a perfect mix of techy and flowy it is hard not to have a good time.

Dad on slab. Not bad for an old dude. Note Saddle still sky high, this man takes highpost pride seriously.

One decent in particular I wish I had not neglected, as whilst it didn't have the same Height drop as an actual mountain, if you where prepared to pedal it rewarded you with flow by the bucket load. That one is earmarked for a bit of filming in the not to distant future.

Filming huh? Well, plans are slowly coming together and, say it quietly, a film is starting to take shape. The first round of soundtrack requests were sent of yesterday (One is back allready, bless you Message To Bears). This time I think we have more of an idea of the film we want to make, and it is more of a case of shooting to fit the plan, as opposed to just putting all the footage together in coherent order. This puts a bit of pressure on to get footage, but it seems to be going well so far.

Ste in cold, cold North Wales

We got all the winter footage required during a cold day at the Marin trail. That place is a godsend when the mountains are covered in snow and the woods mud is knee deep. Just glorious, lonely, eroded flow in the hills for 25 km.

The now 3 year old tradition of the Lakes Easter roadtrip took place under steely grey skies for the most part. 3 days amongst laybyes and high passes of the northern fells. 4 passes remains a classic as ever, bookended by two days of exploration.

Its all downhill. Slate grey Lakes.

A few good shots where had but I think we all agree a return is needed to stock up the footage, and just to get out on these trails again.

SUMMER

And then the first dry spell of the year came to the woods, right on top the the busiest part of the year for us all. Mother nature can be a dick sometimes. Anyway, many fine nights where had in the loam and dust (now sadly departed) and Ste and I got a few shots in. Hopefully the glorious weather will return and we can get a few more in before the bracken covers every trail.

As for the future, flights, hire cars, mountain lodges and everything else that goes with bicycle adventure is slowly being booked. Switzerland, Austria, more Lakes and a return to Scotland are all hopefully part of the future. I also am pretty keen to try and explore some more of the big mountain potential of Snowdonia, despite previous experience on Carnedd Llewelyn (Just too gnarly). Geograph and the OS seem to show a few 500 meter plus descents lurking in them hills. Hopefully we'll fit a race in as well. Got to hold on to the hard won Tour De Nevis crown. All in all, it should be a good one.

As ever, if you want to get involved with the Pretty Sweet project in any way, feel free to get in touch.

Making of Film 2 - Pt.1

OK, so, we have a deal. Singletrack want a second Pretty Sweet, mostly because they are nice like that. As such we are going to try and make one for them, and I reckon I'll try and blog a bit about the experience. We have a few plans afoot but for now, we'll post a few stories from 2010, and the accumulation of footage so far.

Still no.1 Lakes Gnar

So, what ended up being our first 'shots in the bag' day was a sweltering ride in July. My overiding memories of it now are of major chaffage issues and Dave W pulling of some tech riding miracles. I think we are all keen to get some 'Fell tech' shots into the film as gnarly, but slow, trails are a firm favourite and hence Dave and I headed to the top of High Street with this in mind. After a quick nap upon reaching the summit we set of towards Nan Beild with a few shots in mind.

The Big Gnar Staircases favoured by fix the fells featured, and whilst I pottered down on a hardtail, the ginger one made things look much smoother. Probably due to the suspension and huge fork he is now lugging round the hills on top of the skills he had anyway. Taking the radios made filming much easier, and the reduction in shouting at each other TO GO was nice. Bleep when your ready kids.

After a few shots on the staircases to the West of Nan Bield we headed over to the east side where things kicked up a notch. No staircases or obvious lines on this side of the pass. I was off form but Dave W picked out some gnadgery lines for the camera, and whilst a few didn't go, the majority of lines and shots came out pretty nicely. A few hikers impressed (really should get that on camera one day), we headed homewards.

And this meant riding Nan Bield. Whilst not as full on as the north side, the south of the pass is the classic, allthough a bit flat to make look good on camera, singletrack,. As good as it is, we were having issues. No idea what happened but the chafe was horrendous. Heat, sweat, summat else? Who knows. All I know is when I got home I nearly burn't my riding shorts. Bastards.

After drinking tea for five, stood up, in Wilf's cafe we tried to work out the best way of getting home. Sitting was massively painful and neither of us had alternative shorts. The options were walk it, or drive. Needless to say it was a looong drive back down the M6. Not sure whether the decision not to just drive home with no kecks on was worth the pain in the end....

An Escape To High Places

An escape to the mountains was needed. When a date that worked came along Cal, Dave W and I jumped at the chance to head north into the mountains. With flooding the day before we arrived and snow the day after we left, we finally got some karmic payback from the weather and found some damp but awesome autumnal riding.

24 hours earlier we were all in a major metropolis. Cal and Dave chase the light and escape into the hills

3 Days, 2 Rides

The Alps is a good place to ride a mountain bike, of that there is no doubt, but the UK is pretty good too, especially trails like this one:

Dave W and I headed to Stavely to scratch a trail exploring itch that had been on my mind for a while. The Highstreet - Staveley descent is a techno corker at the best of times, however the Bridleway to complete the loop is a grassy boggy slog up onto the ridge. After a massive trail had been dug in up to the ridge north of Garburn, I had a feeling this would provide a better way of summiting high street. We were mainly focusing on getting a few moving images in the bag for the second Pretty Sweet, plus I had forgotten my camera, so this is the only image from the day, but as a ride it was brutal. Garburn to the ridge was steep, and the descents of two of the three summits where short but steep, and super gnarly in places. Needless to say Dave W aced most of it. I had a bit of a struggle, especially after my sucess on the Lakes Gnar on the 'Long Steep Road of Trips' Trip. I would like to blame it on going back to a hardtail, but my super tech skills could well have gone backwards.

And this one:

All our riding at the minute is done with one eye on the Tour de Ben Nevis, so Cal and I decided to head out to the Marin trail and get used to just 'knocking it out' again. Felt pretty good, certainly better than the pain-fest in the lakes. 2 hours 15 mins for a lap at 'could do it all day' speed certainly boosted confidence. Anyway, it is good to be back in the UK. Despite how it may feel we have it pretty good here.

Scottish Road Trip Disaster

These pictures are the leftovers from the 'Long Steep Road of Trips' story that appeared in Singletrack 58. Dave W gives his side of the story below:

Hope that we could find a spell of dry weather in the Scottish highlands was well and truly quenched by a curtain of spray coming up off the motorway. We were at the border to Cumbria and knew full well that every northward mile took us deeper into a developing downpour. Decision time.

The Long Steep Road of Trips

Any regular readers of this blog (Hey look, some tumbleweed) may have noticed we mentioned a trip to the lakes, but never made anything of it. The reason for that was we sent some pictures and words of to the most excellent people at Singletrack Magazine who, in their infinite loveleyness and tolerance of poor spelling, decided to put our story in their magazine. This one:

So basically, I think you should go out and buy it. It is only £3.50 ish, it is a comletely independant mag - surely a good thing, and this month in particular is a guddun'. Steve Peat, important discussion on cheeky trails, Ben Lomand, an epic story from Siberia, me trying my hardest to write something good at the front and the most thorough fork test ever, if you are into that kind of thing, plus all the banging photos from Mainey, Milner, Barham and co. It is good stuff I tells ya. It is their title, not mine by the way.

Scottish Roadtrip Goes Badly Wrong!

So we had plans for a bit of a lap of the Scottish Highlands over Easter. Problem was we never got there. 5 awesome days in the Lake District later and I for one am not complaining. More soon.

Shoes smell so bad after 5 days on the road

This Is Pretty Much Summer Right?

So Ste and I have probably pushed the limits of how many times we can go out in the dark around our home trails, the novelty really has worn off by now. The winter was starting to drag and the urge to get out into the hills was to much. Plans were hatched, and after some terrifying motorway escapades we rolled up in the Lakes.

Dunnerdale is the kind of place that only works when bone dry or frozen solid. Seems we got pretty lucky with the weather. Ste on the opening singletrack.

Lakes

So the Lakes is pretty much a second home to Cal and I. I think we must have been there every year since birth. And it really is one of the best places to ride bicycles on big(ish) mountains. It only seemed natural to haul Ste, Dave W and the trusty miniDV up there to get some trails on film.