Whinnlater forest

gavin66

I've recently got back into mtbing after a few years off and have broke myself in gently starting on my old quick fix routes such as Claiffe heights,Loughrigg terrace in the lakes and the tour of Norber in the yorkshire dales.These routes have taken me between 1 and 1 1/2 hours to complete and i've been fairly happy with how quickly i've got back into it.This weekend i'm going camping in keswick and would like to try one of the trails in the whinnlater forest.I am looking for a route that will last between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours preferably a loop.My skills aren't upto much,ie bunny hopping,jumping,so i'd rather avoid any big lumps,having said that i don't want something complete smooth and unchallenging,any ideas anyone..i will be tackling the trail with the bike below,,cheers

JxL

Erm... Are you talking about the Altura trail? If so there are 2 routes - south and north loop.

South is shorter and easier climb, everything there is smooth as its man made, good jumps but nothing un-doable for a normal rider.

North is a longer (but again easily doable) climb, with more technical downhill section with quite a number of slippy roots, but the last bits makes up for everything!

Google for Whinlatter Altura.

bungalistic

If you were to do the Blue Route to warm up followed by the Red Route, both sides North and South it'll probably take around 2.5 hours at Whinlatter or possibly quicker, depending on fitness and ability level.

RideTheLakes

The Altura trail at Whinlatter is great fun so that would be a perfect place to start. the Borrowdale Bash in Keswick is superb as well if your feeling more confident although it does have a couple of really techy bits!

Put a post up here if you need someone to show you around and we ride round Claiffe, Grizedale etc every week:

gavin66

bungalistic wrote:

If you were to do the Blue Route to warm up followed by the Red Route, both sides North and South it'll probably take around 2.5 hours at Whinlatter or possibly quicker, depending on fitness and ability level.

Thanks for the advice,,set off on friday morning from castlerigg campsite,(1st mistake),didn't check contours on the map and after i peddled for 6 miles(3 uphill from Braithwaite)i was a bit tired.Started the the blue route as you suggested,really enjoyed it,even though i took a wrong turn and ended up in Thornthwaite.(2nd mistake)After blue route set off on red route(3rd mistake),with legs starting to feel tired,derailleur problems and my feet clipped in,the idea of riding a narrow uphill berm with loose rocks and a very steep drop to my right wasn't my idea of fun so i bottled and did half the blue again,,very enjoyable,,cheers