Last climb of 2008 - Haystacks, 29th December

Monday saw a band of intrepid Verdes Adventurers heading into the Lakes for a post Christmas relaxing walk.

After some thought we decided on Haystacks again and the team comprised of Davie, Rich S, Rich M, Paul B, Sharon and Davie's daughter Rachael, a Verdes newcomer.

The weather was superb, but cold, and the low sun meant that views over to the Gables and Scafell Range were a little prohibited.

As always, Rich S felt it necessary to move vertically and naturally Davie had to give it a try too, if at least to remove bragging rights from Slaney.

All that remained was a leisurely descent to the cars and a retail therapy session (as usual) in Keswick. Obviously, tea, cake and paninis were addressed too!

A great day out and thanks to the team for an excellent end to 2008.

Davie

Winter is here! Skiddaw, 6th December 2008

Well, it's time to get the crampons out. After a week of good snow the Lakes are again covered in acres of fun.

Paul B, John D and Davie headed up to Skiddaw to try and take advantage and to bag another first for Dicko.

The drive across was ok, the A66 having been closed earlier in the week, but the fun really started as we drove up the track to the Latrigg car park. As we ascended in Davie's apparently un -eco, Chelsea tractor (see earlier post for rant) we started to pass more and more cars parked in various states of abandon by the road side.

Sure, the road is very steep and sure, it was covered in ice but why were they abandoned so low down?

After a period of passing no cars and wondering if perhaps we had bitten off more than we could chew, we spotted 4 or 5 cars at the car park, windscreens reflecting in the sun.

Phew... 'the remainder of the road can't be that bad' we thought as we crossed another frozen stream across the road.

When we did finally arrive at the car park, to the amazement and wonder of the struggling pedestrians, we realised why they were so perplexed; the cars had been frozen in from the night before (or days before!) and had been abandoned by their drivers. The car park was pure ice and empty (see pic below.. zoom in and see the ice and the walkers avoiding it.)

Moral of the story is: ignore the assholes who put dumbass stickers on your windscreen - Discovery wins every time.

To prove a point, we turned the car on the ice rink and parked up in pride of place.

The rest was easy:

Yomp to the top of Skiddaw, through good quantities of snow, piccys on top, slippy and treacherous descent, with Paul using Davie's poles and Davie falling on his arse in the mud because he didn't have poles.

Round trip: 2 hours to the top and 1 hr 20 back. Forgot how fast Bolt-on moves with his hi capacity bumbag and travelling light.

Back to Keswick for some Verdes retail therapy, coffee and a cake and then home in time for tea.

Mission accomplished!

Davie

2008 Motorcycle show at the NEC Birmingham

Our latest outing to the Motorcycle show definitely came under the heading of ‘Therapy’, although it started off quite adventurous when I foolishly decided to take advantage of the free parking and go there on my bike. I should have realised it wasn’t a great idea when I went outside to move the car from in front of the garage and had to scrape the ice off the windscreen. The digital display inside the car happily informed me there was ‘risk of ice’ and the outside temperature was -3 degrees… hmmm, better get back inside and put another couple of layers on. The first couple of miles were OK out of the village and towards the M1 but as soon as I got to the first stretch of fast road the trip became a little cold and challenging. Trying to put some 150+ horse power through a cold tyre onto very cold and wet roads using a completely numb (from the cold) throttle hand was bordering on impossible. First gear, wheel spin, second gear, wheel spin, third gear, wheel spin plus slight forward motion and 120mph on the speedo. I knew, however, that I wasn’t actually breaking the speed limit as a cyclist managed to overtake me. This continued unit I got to the motorway and was able to stay at a constant speed.

Once at the show, I met up with Paul (Bolt-on) another Verdes biker plus Alex, Steve and Pete. Our plan was to do our own thing in the morning, meet up for lunch and then have a look around together in the afternoon.

I had two objectives in the morning 1. find some warm gloves for the trip back and 2. select a new bike to replace the R1 (Shhh, don’t tell the wife). The gloves were easy but the new bike was proving difficult. There are several new bikes for 2009 and the one I most wanted to see wasn’t at the show…doh!

After lunch (courtesy of Paul) we got together to revisit some of the show highlights. Paul took us to the Ducati stand to meet his latest acquisition. A Ducati Street Fighter, the latest lunatic bike from the Bologna factory. Basically a 1098 superbike without a fairing, it looks amazing and will probably induce involuntary bowel movements from anyone who dares to ride the thing. By coincidence the model I most wanted to ride was also on the Ducati stand and I managed to get a photo of Paul’s and mine together (below)

After a little retail therapy, I prepared myself for the freezing conditions and the madness that is M42 rush hour traffic on the way home. Fortunately the weather had improved and the temperature was a healthy 4 degrees.

Bring on the summer!

Rich S