RSF ride from Chapel House Wood

The Fox Sculpture, Grizedale

A different starting point today, the Forestry Commission (that shows my age, think it's Forest Enterprise now?) small car park. Five of us for the group ride, braving the stiff north-westerly wind laced with showers, as we rode off downhill through Staveley-in-Cartmel to Newby Bridge. The rain eased off once we turned up towards our first cake stop at Lakeside. The lake steamer's were tied up, must be the off-season! Cake and coffee consumed our route was north, past Low Stott Park, turning off near Graythwaite Hall to drop back down to the shore of Windermere. At Cunsey Beck we entered the first bridleway of the day this well graded track follows Cunsey Beck to emerge on tarmac near Eel House. We rode the road towards Hawkshead beside Esthwaite Water it was then uphill first on tarmac then the bridleway to Grizedale, which i've always known as "Devils Gallop." This bridleway has taken a bit of a battering from 4x4s by the look of it, a shame, we had to walk odd bits of it. Lunch was taken on the top in the sun, but also in the wind, we checked out the "Fox" sculpture before we enjoyed a long descent on forest roads to Bogle Crag. Time for another Cake stop, this time the visitor centre at Grizedale where I had possibly the largest hot chocolate ever! The bridleway/forest road down the west side of Grizedale was the way onward to Satterthwaite and then Force Mills. ere we branched of to the left on the last bridleway of the day, easy going this one, after a council of war the route of return was decided taking us via Rusland and the stiff pull back over to Newby Bridge and the River Leven. From here our outward route was reversed back to the cars at Chapel Wood.

The Rusland Valley