When I saw that the Keswick Mountain Festival guys were running the FestivalPlanetFear Lakes Epic, a two-day mountain bike challenge across the Lakes, I roped my mate Davey in for the weekend, packed Rags, my psychotic mountain bike into the car and set off for Keswick armed with all the waterproofs I could find, a GPS and a fist-full of bars and gels.

The promise was a couple of big mountains, 70km days with an overnight camp in between. A nice touch is that you simply pack an overnight dump bag with your mat, sleeping bag and spare clothing and the organisers do the rest, including a tent.

I’d deliberately ignored the GPX file that turned up in my e-mail on very reasonable basis that it might scare me, so as we lined up at the start on Saturday morning, I had only very vague idea of what was about to happen. The words ‘Sticks Pass’ kept coming up, hey, when you don’t know what it is, it can’t hurt you, er, can it?

Up Skiddaw Way…

The route started off with a steady climb up towards Skiddaw, then round the side with some neat technical riding, where I was saved several times by the sheer competence of my bike rather than my technique, and down through Threlkeld.

At this point it all seemed quite pleasant and mellow, we had a nice chat with the very mellow Berghaus guys and the lasses from PlanetFear who looked ominously fit and professional in their sponsored kit and then… the black arrow pointed over stile near Thirlmere and up what looked like a near vertical cliff.

Ok, in reality it looked like a normal, steep, Lakeland footpath, but having a bike with you automatically adds around 20˚ to all upward gradients. It took over an hour of pushing, carring, cursing, occasional spinning and generally suffering lots before we reached the top and a windblown marshall.

And then, the pay-off, a sweeping, swooping descent littered with ‘interesting’ little rock steps and the odd high-penalty boulder field, ace in a loose, rocky, Lake District sort of way. Brilliant and finished off nicely with a feed station.

Nadgery…

Things got even better after that, not only had the forecast rain held off, but the route followed the amazing singletrack bridleway along the far shore of Ullswater – lots of nadgery, tricky, rocky ups and downs in a lovely setting.

Then it was another, soul-destroying hike-a-bike climb before a mix of flowing downhills and undulating tracks down to the overnight camp at Pooley Bridge where a ring of tents waited along with hot showers – six minutes might not sound long, but trust me, it’s an age under a shower.

The weather closed in, but it was a great chance to catch up with everyone else taking part, eat food, drink beer in moderation – there was another big day to come remember – look back at a hard, but entertaining day in the saddle and not, and listen to the weather steaming in.

Ooops, What’s Happened To The Tent…

Ah yes, the weather. That night we lay in our tent giggling smugly about being inside while the fly flapped in the wind and rain drummed against the fly, when suddenly a freak gust howled across the campsite like a low-flying jet and a deafening crack signalled the snapping of one of our poles.

The poor, innocent tent had been pitched side on to the prevailing winds and with three others, had promptly failed. Fortunately the trusty Minaret was in my stash bag, so we quickly pitched that and went back to sleep.

Wet And Windy…

Sunday dawned very wet and windy, to the point where the organisers had to tweak the route which was originally intended to wend its way back to Keswick on a mix of tracks and back roads before finishing round the back of Skiddaw.

It ended up being a shorter day spent mostly riding uphill into headwinds, but with a cracking final downhill to finish and a gentle roll back through the streets of Keswick and the Festival Adventure Base by the lake, which had an intereting post-hurricane vibe going on…

Big Thanks

Chatting with the organisers on Sunday morning, it was clear just how much work had gone into preparing the event. Initially the idea was to traverse Helvellyn before heading up onto High Street, but apparently the Park Authority had vetoed that route, leading to a series of revisions.

That said, I still thought the Saturday route was good fun, not least because it took you over things you might not otherwise bother riding. And the organisation was generally great, a big thanks to the Bearded Man guys who did the detailed route stuff and to the long-suffering marshalls who took it in turns to hang around on wind-swept summits.

And last but not least to Davey and Rags for putting up with me for two whole days and a big thanks to Keswick Mountain Festival and Planet for running an excellent event. I’ll be back next year and before – if the point of the Festival is to underline what a superb area the Lake District is, it succeeded in spades.

More about the Keswick Mountain Festival at www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk. And if you like your pre-planning, make a note of next year’s dates, 9-13 May, 2012.