Easter Holidays - Day 2

The next day, during breakfast, chatted with our host, Peter, for a bit and found that he was a jet turbine engineer turned B&B owner and mountain biking guide. We've never done any mountain biking (in the mountains) before but ended up hiring him for a guided tour of the mountains in the afternoon (£25/person). It was a nice compact group. There was Bo and I and Peter brought along a friend. His friend was an awesome mountain biker and a very fit bloke. Actually, they're both very fit and they're nearly 50 years old!

We rented bikes from a shop by the lake and Peter got a us a deal, £10/bike, since we need them for just a few hours and they only do daily rates. We took the ferry across the lake (got a free ferry ride since Peter knows the guy) to where the mountains were. In the beginning of the mile, it was flat or had a slight incline and I started off well. Then there was our first climb. It was so steep that even the experts had to get off and push. I started to cycle the first bit of it but my front wheel hit the only rock that was popped up from the rest and I fell over. My speed diminished quite bit before that point so it didn't hurt (much). It felt like a never ending up hill push and I was having a hard time with it. Luckily, Des, the other guide, helped me out and pushed my bike for me. Even then, I was having a tough time walking up the mountain. By the time we got to the top, I felt like puking. Bo reckons that I didn't warm up enough and Peter thinks I ate too much for lunch. I think i'm a tad bit out of shape. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I had to walk around for a few minutes to calm my heart rate enough to talk.

There were a quite a few more uphills but they weren't as bad as the first. I was still at the end of the pack and the guides took turns with my bike but I didn't puke. We cycled through a town where there were bits of road and that felt good. It gave my butt a break from the bumpy trail. Biking down the mountain was exciting and frightening because it was my first time going down a steep uneven trail with rocks sticking out. One tip that the guide kept saying was 'Pick your route', but it's easily said than done, especially when the route I pick suddenly became more rocky or when a puddle suddenly appeared in front of me. Well, it didn't suddenly appear, I just need to look further ahead. At the end, we covered 12 miles in a little more than 3 hrs and caught the ferry back at around 4:30pm. Then we returned the bikes, thanked our guides and started our drive to Keswick. Keswick is pronounced as Kesick by the locals. Apparently the 'w' is silent... then why put it there? Anyways, it's another town in the Lake District about 30 minutes from Windermere. We would have stayed in Windermere, but our B&B was fully booked.