Day 24- Carlisle to Pooley Bridge
Proposed distance 46.93Km or 29.16 miles (or 93,860 uncurled Cumberland sausages)
Total Ascent 666m (or 2,220 daffodils)
Staying with Eden District Commissioner
Getting back to it after a rest day was never going to be simple, but it gave us time to organise and repack the van which was increasingly essential except now we appear to have a single trainer on board that nobody recognises…….
We jumped back on the bikes this morning and headed out of Carlisle confusingly on the route 7 cycleway, which is also the route 10! A fantastic initial run of 10km along smooth tarmac set us up for a great day. The two cycle routes parted for a few kilometres and we (well Phil, though he denies this) chose to take route 10 for this stretch. Unfortunately this lead us to an incredibly muddy cow field where Ollie and Hattie quickly became completely stuck in the mud and unable to cycle. They were rescued by Jennie who managed to extract their bikes from the bog and push them to a slightly less squelchy part of the field. A reasonable stretch of mountain biking followed with no falls and good bike handling demonstrated by all (maybe all this cycling is paying off).
At the first opportunity we headed back to the 7 and took a shortcut up a sharp, muddy path to the road. Unfortunately this section took its toll on Hattie‘s ankle and she started to struggle to cycle. We continued along the route 7 along quiet country roads, with rollercoaster style short steep descents immediately followed by short equally steep ascents – great fun!
We continued dipping and climbing for a further hour and managed over 25km before we stopped for lunch. With her ankle now fairly sore, Hattie stayed with the support team whilst the rest of us continued to our finish point. Once we reached the end of our planned route, we realised that pushing on just a little further would allow for an ice cream (and pub) at the end, plus a shorter walking day tomorrow. With a little persuasion, and with the knowledge from Jennie (our chief navigator) that there was one more ‘little bit of up’ we ploughed on. Within a couple of minutes Ollie astutely noted the 12% gradient sign……
We met our support team at our new cycle finish point and, reunited with Hattie, finished the day with a quick 1.5km walk into Pooley Bridge for a well deserved drink and a lovely ice cream from Chestnut House. Suitably refreshed we headed back to pick up the van from Ratlingate campsite before driving to stay with Mike (DC for Eden District) and Amee (and their two gorgeous dogs!) who have been amazingly generous in opening their home to us, feeding us and providing us with beds for the night. Thank you both so much.