Yrkshire Dales advice needed

mikedobson

Forumni, anyone in here give me a (easyish) route in t'Dales? I'm going up with a mate who's a non roady and has a great big clunking mtb so it'll need to be reasonably bump-free. Extra points for cake stops/scenery!

Ta.

marc4099

Where are you staying? How about Wharfedale? Anywhere between Bolton Abbey and Buckden/Hubberholme/Cray is reasonably flat and fairly quiet with options of little back lanes on the other side of the river for most of the length of the valley. As for cakes....fill your face at Bolton Abbey Cavendish Pavillion, Burnsall, Grassington and Kettlewell (my favourite). Scenery is fantastic of course.

nasahapley

I'll second Wharfedale, it's bladdy brilliant, but then I'm totally biased because I live there! Trouble with the Dales, as I have found out, is that if you want to do an 'easy' (i.e. fairly flat) ride, you'll always have to retrace at least some of your steps. A round route will invariably involve climbing a sod of a hill to get between valleys, and then another sod of a hill to get back again.

A good route would be Bolton Abbey - Barden Scale - Appletreewick - Burnsall - Grassington - Conistone - Kettlewell - Buckden - Kettlewell - Kilnsey (with possible detour up Littondale to Arncliffe) - Conistone then back the way you came. That'd be about 40 miles plus 7 for Littondale). If you want shorter, starting at Burnsall will cut out a few of the bigger hills; if you want longer, start in Ilkley and go the back way to Bolton Abbey (via Beamsley).

mikedobson

Thank you kindly, good inside track info!

Mithras

Base yourself out of Richmond.....loads of great routes form there!
Cracking Scenery and take in a trip to Arthur Caygills!