Worried now considering a haircut in case of mistaken identy.

Worried now considering a haircut in case of mistaken identy.

I hope you won’t take offense Johnny if I say no one could mistake you for lissome totty…

there’ll just be hordes of middleaged gutbuckets coughing their lungs out

LOL – But I’m not middle aged* yet! Tho admittedly coughing my lungs up is a distinct possibility.

*according to wikipedia, my knees say different tho.

But I’m not middle aged* yet!

not denying ‘gutbucket’ though I notice…

Getting closer now!

I am not coming but I was just looking at the route and wonderring …..

From Newbiggin there appears to be a track running south up to Randgill Top.
Is that rideable and then could you drop down onto the outgoing path or drop down eastwards onto that other bridleway .

Interestingly according to streetmap the 1:50,000 shows the route mostly as bridleway while 1:25,000 has it as a footpath.

MadBillMcMad

The track you mention is very boggy in places,only good to ride after a hard frost, or very long dry spell.

It disappears into tussocky grass in places, and its not really a viable route imho.

Just looked at the boggies map………………..this is goinna be hard

hard can be good :o)

I’m planning on doing your Dunnerdale loop this saturday as a bit of practice.

This Calf ride, although the start looks tough, the downhill looks nice and long

Room for another one (at the back)?

Def, be good to see you again, plus I hear its 7 miles on downhill, should make those Pikes earn their money

Roughly how long in the saddle?

the fastest we’ve ever done it was 5h15m when frozen. I’d allow a minimum of 6 hours

A nice slow pace or is that pegging-it-6hours? 😮

Plus any bailout points?

A nice slow pace or is that pegging-it-6hours?

given all the recent rain I’d say 6 hours-pegging-it 🙁

Plus any bailout points?

1) at the north end of Bowderdale one could turn west and take the road back to Sedbergh (rather dull though)
2) at Handley’s Bridge (near Murthwaite) you could join the A683 back to Sed.

neither bailout is any shorter than the main route, just easier tarmac

You could bail at the summit of the Calf and either retrace you the ascent, or you could descend via Cautley Spout. Much shorter and misses the rides signature singletrack. However, once you have done Bowderdale, then you are pretty much at the furthest point from the start.

You could bail at the summit of the Calf and either retrace you the ascent, or you could descend via Cautley Spout

I hadn’t even considered those, as they’d be too soon in the ride for all but the most novice riders!

There are 2 excellent downhills, Bram Rigg and White Fell, both about 400 uninterrupted vertical metres of steep grass strewn with rocks, but they’re evening 2 hour rides.

Cautley OTOH is vertigo territory, very steep and a vestigial track…