The Cycle Path
Cycle Log
Day 7 - Friday 25th June 2004
Slaidburn - Sleddale
Woken by jackdaws and sunlight at 05.30. Had one of Karen's fresh eggs for breakfast before saying goodbye to our warm and genial hosts and Philip who, as a recently retired West Sussex CC personnel Officer, was enjoying an E2E ride for fun. A keening NW wind again slowed progress but as this was also mainly uphill a double whammy. Paused to watch harriers on the open moors against a vista of Ingleborough and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A brief respite from wind and slope - with hard rock comes stiff hills - but eventually topped out with a complete panorama of the Lake District mountains. They looked a long way from Bowland but a comfortable freewheel almost down all the way kept up the averages.
Rode through noisy flocks of ewes and lambs about to be wrenched apart for the market and came across a kite flying grandmother enjoying the wind with her grandchildren on an awesome commonland stage set with fringing mountains. A shooting pain in the right knee was persistently distracting and making riding difficult. Stopped to have a pint of 'Pride of Pendle' in a Mitchell's pub at Arkholme before limping in to Kirkby Lonsdale having abandoned plans to go over Hutton Roofs. Some great shops real Bury black pudding, Westmorland damson jam and proper Lancashire cheeses with the rind on. Lots of independent retailers make it a very vibrant place. Met another E2E, Liz from the Department of Transport's Dangerous Goods Division, on a busman's holiday spotting errant lorry plates. Erratic progress to Kendal with the grippy knee but so much walking up hills that it had loosened ready for the big drop to Oxenholme Station and Kendal. Went past some interesting modern wiggly fence made from knotted cast iron. On the outskirts of Kendal there is a superb example of 'over the hedge' cycling and walking provision with a new cyclepath probably developer funded but an example for others to follow. Kendal very busy with Friday night leavers but High Street good with an excellent Booth's supermarket stocking loads of local produce. Popped into the Brewery Arts Centre to find that my old school chum Alan Hinkes was speaking the following night to celebrate knocking off another 8000 meter peak. Only one more to go to get that Knighthood now Hinkey! Shame to miss him. On to Sleddale where I expected to find my overnight camping barn, but asking the people enjoying a glass of champagne on their roadside garden only elicited the offer of a glass of bubbly and advice to ask the owners. "Well I've lived here all my life and I've never heard of it" said Logan Thom. It looked grim and was confirmed by a phone call to Cowperthwaite - 6 miles and two valleys out! However, as so oft before, help was rendered by the Thom family who performed a deed of great kindness by putting me up - Lancashire beef pudding, black peas and all. Logan, having settled me in to his mother's house then showed me his - a completely self-restored, genuine Lakeland watermill that somehow also accommodated his wife Jeanie and their four children Samuel, George, Fraser and Jonal. Not many people have a sack hoist in their living room or a massive undershot waterwheel in their utilities room! Logan started it up and even with a small trickle it whizzed - we inspected the bearings, the nail pricked brick tiles from the grain drying floor (fuelled by coke and wheat husk) and numerous typed and varieties of massive Lakeland slate with big holes for wooden pegs some of massive weight and thickness. We went outside to see the mill tail and the river chocker with native European white-clawed crayfish - and an errant Millennium Green sign, sponsored by the Countryside Agency, that was to go up on the local community space. Logan and Jeanie explained with great passion how much the valley meant to them and the lineage of family life going back to the 1500s as millers, farmers, quarrymen. A joy to be amongst people with such a jamboree of stories and skills and enthusiasms. Tomorrow the Fitzcarraldo of Folders - pushing a bike over the Gatescarth Path.
