Ambleside to Low Wood Hotel

Starting your journey in Ambleside, travel south along the A591 until you reach Waterhead. Here there is a narrow cycle lane and a 20mph speed limit. Continue south from Waterhead until you reach the Low Wood Hotel. It's worth pausing here to look across the lake towards the Langdale Pikes, Bowfell, and Coniston Old Man.

Low Wood Hotel to Windermere mini-roundabout

Carry on past the water sports centre, then just past the Langdale Chase hotel cross the road onto the cycle path. This takes you safely as far as Troutbeck Bridge, passing along the way the White Cross Bay caravan park and Brockhole, the Lake District information centre. At the right time of year (June to August) the verges swarm with flowering plants including buttercups, clovers, yarrow, ground elder, plantains and many grasses.

Climb out of Troutbeck Bridge until you reach the mini-roundabout. Straight on heads south to Windermere village, while left takes you up to the Kirkstone Pass and Ullswater.

A592 roundabout to the Kirkstone Pass Inn

Turn left at the round-about taking the A592 in the direction of Ullswater. It's somewhat over 8km or 5mi to the top of the pass and the ascent from here is over 300m. That would seem to be a gradient of about 4%, which sounds easy, but in reality the occasional downhill sections mean you end up climbing some 16% slopes.

As you climb away from civilisation, you pass the National Trust at St.Catherine's and St. Anne's school for lazy parents, and then Holehird Gardens - the home of the Lakeland Horticultural Society which holds national collections of Astilbe, Hydrangea, and Polystichum.

Looking across to the right you can see the distinctive line of Froswick, Ill Bell, and Yoke, and where Garburn Pass cuts through a gap.

Over to the left is the slightly sprawling village of Troutbeck. You pass Jesus Chapel (1736), a rather neat church, shortly after crossing Trout Beck. Limefitt Park, a camping and caravan site with some new wooden lodges is on the right.

After some more climbing, you reach the top end of Troutbeck village at Town Head where the Queen's Head Hotel invites.

A592 roundabout to the Kirkstone Pass Inn

From this point on, the scenery changes, with fewer trees and a wilder aspect. You can make out The Tongue on the right, with another Beatrix Potter farm at its tip. If you're weary at any time, take a break and try to imagine the route a legion of Roman soldiers might have taken to get to Galava in Ambleside after coming over High Street from a fort near Penrith, and that's a good few mille passuum, I can tell you.

Pressing on, the road swings round to the west and you get sight of the Red Screes massif. At last you reach the gap between Woundale and Wansfell and after another kilometre you reach the Inn.

Kirkstone Pass Inn to Ambleside

The return to Ambleside is made by taking the old coach road which meets the A592 just south of the inn. The first kilometre is very steep and has some sharp bends, so your speed needs to be controlled. You'll see where the road straightens out and you can allow your brakes to cool. This top section is called The Struggle, and I don't feel any further explanation is needed.

Once the brakes are off, it's all a bit of a blur. My top speed was 63kph (just short of 40mph or 4 Windermeres per hour), but hey, it's not about the speed, remember. I use a long downhill run to recharge the battery on my lights, using the dynamo. The entrance to Kirkstone Quarries is on the right, on the flanks of Snarker Pike, and the next thing you know Windermere seems to have doubled in size and there's St.Mary's Church.