Day 1: Saturday 19 July - St Bees to Grasmere

We all woke very early, it must have been the excitment! Thanks to Ed, we had a spot of breakfast and then gradually organised our kit into bags and wandered over to meet the Packhorse (http://www.cumbria.com/packhorse/) minibus with our bikes. The minibus was soon loaded and by 8:30 were on our way to the start at St Bees. The weather was dreadful, and we were all very quiet - what were we doing? After an hour an three quarters, we arrived at St Bees and flagged down a passer by to take the obligatory photos on the beach.

The team - Nev, Ed, Hedd, Matt, Stu and Ad

It was absolutely freezing, and we took shelter in the local cafe/shop, picking up a few last minute supplies. We were away by 10:30, heading along roads and a disused railway line to Cleator Moor. A quick stop for some Greggs sausage rolls for lunch and we headed on into the Ennerdale valley. Our Packhorse driver had recommended a route change, avoiding the boggy Floutern tarn bridleay over to Buttermere, and instead staying in the valley up to the remote Black Sail youth hostel and crossing using the Scarth Gap Pass. This climb was very steep and involved a bit of carrying, but we were all pretty fresh and we handled it without too much trouble.

Nev and Ed carrying up Scarth Gap Pass

That said, we were all pretty happy to reach the top. The descent started out ridable, but soon became very difficult. Ed and Ad managed to do the most riding, although their lines often took them way off course with stopping in the wet a real challenge. From halfway down, it became much easier, with some fantastic technical rocky sections for us all to get our teeth into. A few of us took tumbles here, including Hedd and Stu, but we all agreed it was great fun when we arrived at the bottom to repair the first puncture of the ride.

Hedd on the Scarth Gap Pass descent

Our next challenge was a road climb on the Honister Pass, which was tough but doable. We stopped for some tea and panini at the Slate Mine Museum Cafe at the top. It was 3pm and an early finish was on the cards. We descended quickly on road and headed for Stonethwaite and the start of the final pass of the day - Greenup Edge. We'd all read some pretty daunting reports about Greenup Edge, but how hard could it be? ....errrr ....very hard!

After a couple of puntures we got started. The climb was brutal. We pushed/carried for about two hours, focussing on the rocky outcrop of Lining Crag ahead.

The Greeup Edge climb with Lining Crag on the horizon

Some walkers struck up a conversation with the line "Why?" - we explained our mission and they kindly donated £5 to Cancer Research UK! We were hoping that our trail passed to the right of Lining Crag, but unfortunately it went to the left, up a really steep rocky climb that was flowing with water in the rain. Stu struggled with this due to vertigo, and wasn't helped by leaving his rucksack at the bottom and having to go back for it. Eventually we all made it to the top, expecting the summit and a nice easy descent to the Grasmere youth hostel.

Stu on Greenup Edge.... But where is his rucksack?

Unfortunaltely, what followed was another hour of traipsing through knee deep bogs on the summit plateau, followed by a descent that was largely unridable. We managed to ride some sections, but this was scant reward for all the effort we'd put into the climb.

Matt takes a tumble on the Greenup Edge descent

We eventually arrived at the Thorney How youth hostel in Grasmere at 7:30pm. The drying room was just what we needed, and after a quick shower we strolled into Grasmere for a bite to eat, making the pub's 9pm food order deadline by seconds!

Matt at the Grasmere youth hostel