A BIKE RIDE TO HIGH DAM

High Dam is in the Lake District and was built to serve Stott Park Bobbin Mill at Finsthwaite near Ulverston. The mill produced millions of bobbins for the once thriving spinning and weaving industries in Lancashire.  Today, the mill is a visitor attraction and still in use. The dam occupies a particularly scenic location above it. My daughter wanted me to join her husband, new baby and her to go wild swimming in the dam. It was a 47 mile bike ride to achieve this. I am becoming a regular visitor to the Lakes and enjoy its many and varied bike routes.

The dam involves a climb on a rough track and it can be reached from the newly formed Lakes and Dales Cycle Loop

The woodland was quite splendid with many varieties of trees. I ask someone at the start of the track if I can cycle it. He thought that a mountain bike might be needed but I took my cyclocross tourer anyway. I walk with the family up the track as it is too gritty to cycle and it was good to see a tree creeper scampering up an oak.

Baby Finn is encouraged to try the saddle. The water is crystal clear with no wind and surrounded by woodland. My daughter encourages us to do a mini triathlon by running around the dam and swimming across it. We resolve to do this another time but all take a dip.This is my first wild swim for a long time so it is brief for me but both parents swim across and back with no wet suits.

Baby Finn is only 10 months old but he is already being groomed for sport including cycling. He loves being in the child seat of my daughter's bike.

The bike ride started from Milnethorpe and followed The Lakes and Dales Cycle Loop through Levens, Grange, Cartmel and Newby Bridge. Apart from the tree creeper, I had close up views of a young fox on the road and nature in the raw where a sparrow hawk was eating a pigeon still alive no more than 1 metre from where I was standing and quite oblivious to my interest.