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Whinlatter Forest, The Lakes Roger Swannell brings a freeriding report from the weekend starting 11th June... There was a time, some years ago, when if you wanted to organise a mountainboard meet-up, then ATBSports forum was the place to do it. Then because of lots of bad vibes and the rise of facebook it fell out of use leaving a hole in the UK freeride scene. Step in SurfingDirt.com, an international mountainboarding forum that with members all over the world and all over the UK has become the place for meeting new riders and organising meet-ups. With the UK Downhill Championships not happening it seemed only right to go a get some fast downwards-pointing action anyway, so Joe, Jess, Chris, Adam, Clayton, Mark, Scully, Leon and me headed for the red light district for mountainboarders, otherwise known as the Lake District... Friday evening was spent the way Friday evenings are usually spent; we found a nice little campsite in the valley between Whinlatter Forest and Skiddaw that allowed campfires, set up our tents and went to the pub. We had a pint or two as we looked over the map and planned our riding for Saturday. We decided to have a look over the other side of the valley. The route we had chosen was busy with people walking up the hill to spot ospreys, but part-way up we found the Regional Headquarters for Borderloos UK, which seemed like a sign that boarders would be welcome and a good opportunity for a group photo. After explaining the joys of mountainboarding to a few more osprey watchers, we began our descent down the 1.5 km track. Joe went first saying, 'It's alright, I'll keep to a sensible speed', before quickly hitting 25mph+ and shooting off ahead. By the time the rest of us got halfway down the track the warden had told us that we couldn't ride here. It could have been because of the ospreys, it could have been because of all the walkers, or it could have been because of Joe tearing past the Tea Room at high speed. I guess we'll just never know... Not to be deterred, we headed over to the Whinlatter Forest Visitors Centre to meet Leon and Scully. Leon showed us some of his favourite runs, including 'The Hoon', a straight down 30 mph plus rocky track with two options at the bottom, either ride out on to a wide firetrack or kill loads of speed to take a right-hander over a grass bank and into another steep track with drainage ditches. Riding firetracks can be a bit daunting if you're not used to it. They often have sheer drops next to them, have very few options for speed control, are covered in hard sharp stones, and can get pretty quick. It was really good to see riders of all abilities having a go at all of these 1 to 2km long tracks. After such a good days riding, a nice meal around the campfire and a couple of pints at the local, there was only one thing we needed to make it perfect. We waited till dark and went back to ride Osprey. With headtorches on our helmets and boards dragging behind us we hiked back up the track with that tingly feeling of excitement. Osprey is a really nice track, it starts out pretty mellow, around an 'S' corner and into a long open straight section where you really pick up speed. Then it goes into the trees and closes in a bit with more corners before going into the steeper run-in to a sharp left-hand bend and past the Tea Room. Then another straight section to pick up speed before two close linked corners and the last fast and loose corner into the straight-line to the carpark. Our first descent was just after midnight and when we got to the bottom we wanted more. So we did it again. Sunday morning brought the rain. Not unexpected as we were in the Lake District, but not enough to stop us riding. So we headed for the hills again, this time to explore the opposite side of the valley to Osprey. The track we found looked on the map like a gentle warm-up, but after a 1.5km hike up we weren't convinced. Luckily for our tired legs it had little flat sections after each steep descent meaning the top speed we reached was only 40kmph. We hit it again just to be sure, but as the rain got heavier we all decided it was time to start the long drive home. Another awesome freeride weekend was had by all. Another in a long line of awesome freeride weekends. So much to ride, so little time. We'll be back. Freeride Forever. Find the original meet-up thread (with vids of some of the tracks) on SurfingDirt here words & pics by Roger Swannell... Leap! Thanks to all. |
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