BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

DABBLE WITH BIG MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES IN THE HOWGILL FELLS, WHILE STAYING WITHIN SIGHT OF THE M6 MOTORWAY.

WORDS BY HANNAH

PICTURES BY CHIPPS

The Howgills were a mystery to me – my experience of them confined to the view from the M6. Approaching Tebay, as thoughts turn to whether we’re far enough into a journey north to justify pies, I’ve gazed out and wondered at them. They’re unusually rounded, towering lumps of green. No craggy chunks missing, just large, smooth looking sides, like huge sourdough loaves. Definitely hills, rather than mountains, with their steep, but even sides; there’s not the same level of menace I associate with the rocky-sided proper mountains on the other side of the M6, over in the Lake District. Evenly sloping hills with soft landings on all sides, these are inviting hills I want to play in.

There’s also an air of mystique about them, as I’ve heard from the rest of the Singletrack team that there’s a descent in there that was too long to get to the bottom of... (How is that possible? Surely ‘Too much descent’ is an oxymoron up there with ‘Too much adventure’ and ‘Too much chocolate’?) So when we start to line up must-do stretches of singletrack for a series of magazine features, this ribbon of trail is a natural contender.

‘Look like you’re enjoying the climb, come on’.

Planning on pubs and sandwiches.

And so we plan. The map is pinned to the wall and the long, almost straight, section of bridleway identified. It becomes apparent why there wasn’t enough time to ride it all last time Singletrack staff ventured this way. It’s a long descent, so perhaps predictably (although my brain hasn’t really done the equation until this point) it starts high. Getting up there is going to require a fair bit of effort. Then the descent, steeper at first, then more gradual, stretches out across the map. One grid square, two grid squares... seven or so kilometre grid squares. Put the climb and the descent together and you have a decent ride – and there’s still the getting back to be done, via more climbing, and more bridleway. We reckon at a rough guess there’s about 40km in the loop. We’re going to need sandwiches.