Hardknott Pass: you have been warned… (Internet)

 

The 22 August is another great day. The forecast has changed and rain is now forecast from 4PM, again. Therefore, it is necessary to tailor my plans around the weather, again. I have a tour in my GPS called “Lake District Delight”, made one month ago and whose details are forgotten. But looking at the way points it seems this was “the one with the passes”. The plan is: Back for (late) lunch and hopefully no rain. In the afternoon, after a good (late) lunch, I will just stroll around until I have enough of the rain.

Start is at 9AM sharp. The beautiful, already well-known road along the Windermere (Lake 1) all the way to Ambleside is just a trampoline to the near Wrynose Pass. Mind, the route was prepared with Tyre To Travel and Google Map. You just connect the points, but unless you drop the little orange guy all the time it does not really tell you what you’ll find.

What I found was a bitch.

I discounted the initial warning about 30% gradient etc. Having been on many Alpine and Dolomitic passes I am not afraid of gradients. What I was not told is how darn narrow these hairpin turns are and, as a consequence, how challenging it is to get it right, obviously without dropping the bike. There were hairpin turns the like of which I have never seen. Doable with much attention; but boy, what nasty bitches.

Once on the summit, the descent on the other side (again, I was coming from Ambleside) proved quite nice and pleasant, and rich in beautiful views. All the time I had a Mitsubishi Outlander behind me, and it was reassuring to know help would have been fast at hand if I had dropped the bike.

Once in the vale you get no respite, as the second pass of the day immediately beckons: Hardknott Pass. Hardknott is the bitchy sister of Wrynose. It salutes you with a horrible Tarmac, full of hunches and, more dangerously, subsidence trying to guide your wheel towards the edge. The warning on the signs approach terrorism alert.

Bitchy sister has hairpin turns even worse than Wrynose, and a couple of times the Mitsubishi Outlander (which had followed me on the second pass) must wait for me to patiently test the hairpin turn; stopped, both feet on the ground, carefully moving one cm at a time before letting the clutch go and letting the bike surge through the damn hairpin, the momentum defying gravity as I say things in Italian I will not write here. This happens exactly twice, and only the “hand” just obtained on the Wrynose Pass prevents it from being more.

But bitchy sister has not stopped bitching. This time, the descent is just as nasty, with two hairpin turns also seeing me with two feet on the ground, and carefully watching the available space before going down (I am descending here, and I can’t work with the clutch and brake and get some more space by backtracking as I would have done on the ascent; here, if you are stuck towards the slope you are stuck towards the slope, full stop). Everything goes well, though I see from my mirrors the driver of the Mitsubishi having to reverse before completing the hairpin turn. Heck, never seen on the Alps, too!

As God willed, that was done, too, and I have already enough of passes for the day. My suggestion is that you do not try any of the two sister bitches if you are either an inexperienced motorcyclist or not accustomed to big bikes. Dropping a 260 kg bike in one of those hairpin turns must not be pleasant at all. With a Duke 390 or 690 both passes should be great fun, though.

The route now led me to Erksdale, Calderbridge and Ennerdale Bridge. After Mockerkin I encounter a very beautiful road covered in trees, through which I can see a beautiful lake, soon appearing in front of me in all its beauty. It is called Lowes Water (Lake 2) and it is so different from what I have seen up to now because, coming from the north, you see unspoiled natural beauty (not one house in sight) all the way to Buttermere, and again nothing a good stretch after it. The place “gets” not only me, but many others, as witnessed by the signs clearly stating that the passing places are not for parking!

After this natural beauty, the next pass awaits. However, Honister Pass is very civilised, and even gets the honour of a “B” road designation (B5289, since you asked). The beautiful ascent happens in what felt to me no time after the two bitches, and the descent was something your nonagenarian grand-aunt would call “quite manageable”. Pass 3 is quite a nice girl, then.

I ride along the B5289, a very elevated road, and I soon observe breathtaking views of another lake. This one is Derwent Water (Lake 3), and I seldom remember the like of the view from there, in the glowing sun, just absolutely darn glorious. The road soon leads to another quite nice stretch, the B5293, which is the road of the Whinlatter Pass. Here, on my way to the top, I stop at a panoramic point and admire quite a view of the vale below, with the terminal part of what the map would later tell me is called Bassenthwaite Lake.

Bassenthwaite Lake seen from the road leading to Whinlatter Pass.

I climb up the Whinlatter Pass (easy-peasy, and Pass 4) and descend on the A66, which has a beautiful stretch along Bassenthwaite Lake (Lake 4 for the day, then). From there there would be the possibility of riding fast back to Windermere and hence to HQ, but I decide to complete the tour as planned on the PC, because I am expecting rain in the afternoon and prefer a late lunch after a satisfying Motorbiking tour. The tour leads me, along the A66, to Troutbeck and then to the eastern tip of the A592, whence I once again ride along the Ullswater (Lake 5) and the Kirkstone Pass (Pass 5, beautiful and not challenging at all) to get to HQ before 2PM and ready for lunch. What a day, and not one drop of rain up to now.

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In the afternoon, I am expecting rain. I set up at 3:20PM already more than satisfied with the morning ride, and planning to discover some local roads until the rain makes me say “enough”. The rain never came, and I said “enough” three hours later. You pick on the map a road around the west of Windermere Lake, I have ridden it. Beautiful, but with the caveat that even if you often have the lake very near you won’t see much of it for long stretches. However, the narrow roads deeply embedded in the forest and the lake view stretches make for a very beautiful experience.

Note to self: take the weather forecast cum grano salis. Do not do the exact contrary of what they suggest you should do, but keep open the possibility of mistakes or, rather, erring on the side of caution. If I had stayed home waiting for miserable weather from 4pm onward I would have missed a beautiful biking afternoon.

Less than 190 miles in total today, but more hours on the saddle than yesterday. A very beautiful day at that.

But boy, the two bitches won’t see me again anytime soon.