Advice Please: Whinlatter, Grizedale or back to Llandegla

wilcocker

Hello all,

I took my missus to Llandegla at the weekend to ride the Blue Trail.

We both loved it!
Interesting but not to taxing with some decent jumps and Berms to keep me interested.

Where should we go next??
We live in poreston so we are fairly central for loads of places.

The options are:
1) return to Llandegla and have a go at the red route (can always push if it looks to much)
2) Try the Blue Trail at Whinlatter in the lakes
3) Dive straight into the Red trail at Whinlatter
4) North Face trail at Grizedale (red rated).

If anyone has ridden these I would appreciate any feedback and opinions on which would be the next best step up the ladder

Cheers

whalley665

erm...well the trail at grizedale (NFT) is only a blue rated tbh and is really easy. I think you should go to whinlatter and try both the blue and reds. they aren't that hard but have some amazing downhills. i dunno about llandegla cuz i've never been.

sniper68

Grizedale(NFT) is easy,better if you ride bits of it tied in with some of the brilliant natural stuff.Whinlatter red is better(haven't done the blue) if you want to stick to waymarked trail centre stuff.Haven't done 'Degla but the vibe i get from people i ride with who've done it(loads)its not that good.

pdid

I`ve ridden all 3 on numerous occasions and TBH i`d say the either the North Face at Grizedale or Llandegla red as your next step up. Whinlatter red is in a different league and certainly wouldn`t be my choice for a first attempt at a red run.

cammer

Grizedale North face is somewhere between a blue and red route IMO. If you have the time make sure you also look for some of the bridleways. Some good decents towards Coniston Lake.

Blue at Whinlatter is very short but good fun. Follow this by having a go at the Red south loop, and if you enjoy that try the red north which is tricker.

wilcocker

Thanks for all the feedback everyone,

Please keep it coming !!

Ive got till weekend to draw on everyones opinions and make my mind up.

A few comments:

1) I defo need to be following clearly marked routes for the time being. Dont want to brake the flow checking maps or worrying about going wrong way

2) Blue routes tend to be a bit short so i was hoping to couple it with another route to make a days riding (Cammer - thanks for the tip about the north and south red loops at whinlatter)

Thanks again to all that have commented

Cheers

gregsd

How about the new stuff over at Gisburn Forest (Trough of Bowland)? I've not ridden it myself so can't say if it's a blue/red or whatever, but might be worth a trip seeing as it's not too far away from Preston.

wilcocker

How about the new stuff over at Gisburn Forest (Trough of Bowland)? I've not ridden it myself so can't say if it's a blue/red or whatever, but might be worth a trip seeing as it's not too far away from Preston.

Hi Greg,

Funny enough Ive ridden most of the Red and black trails at Gisburn with the lads from work without too much difficultyand I love it.

The advice on these other trails is based on me taking the missus.
She did the blue trail at Llandegla without a problem and im looking at the next step.
Gisburn is fun on the new red/black stuff but a step too far at this stage and it doesnt flow the same as these other suggested routes with lots of fireroad comnnecting the fun bits.

Looking for nice flowing trails, plenty of single track with steady progression of technical stuff.

Thanks for your input.

p.s. I would recommend Gisburn, its superb. some of the Red/Black stuff is amazing!

Markmjh

Sorry to hijack a little but could you direct me to the start/ carpark for Gisburn.
I thinking ofheading there tomorrow for the first time, i'm also taking my girlfriend whos not that experienced off road.

Cheers,
Mark

wilcocker

Cocklet Hill Car Park

At intersection of Dugdale Lane and Hole House Lane, Gisburn, lancashire
or
Start from the dog and Partridge pub in Tosside.

Should be able to find it from that
Cheers

gregsd

wilcocker wrote:

How about the new stuff over at Gisburn Forest (Trough of Bowland)? I've not ridden it myself so can't say if it's a blue/red or whatever, but might be worth a trip seeing as it's not too far away from Preston.

Hi Greg,

Funny enough Ive ridden most of the Red and black trails at Gisburn with the lads from work without too much difficultyand I love it.

...
p.s. I would recommend Gisburn, its superb. some of the Red/Black stuff is amazing!

I'm up in Preston visiting my parents at the weekend, so I'm hoping to make it over at some points. I might be taking along my nephew, so we may end-up going to Grizedale as he needs to hire a bike and I don't think there's anywhere close to Gisburn to do that? He's not done much off-road riding, but I think he should be able to cope with Grizedale, if the boardwalk isn't wet as it can be slippy and intimidating to a newbie.

Greg.

snotty badger

I'm a regular up Whinlatter- I'd say do it all as tey're quite short by themselves.

Start with the Blue- as you finish this you come to a kind of fenced path, this is where the South Red starts so roll that into one.

The Souths fast flowing, but its a case of of nothing but climbing then nothing but descent. The view from the top is worth the hike though!



Then have a nice bit of cake at the visitors centre then do the North Red- bit more techincal this side but I've seen people of all skill levels do this. I managed 42mins the other week, and that was when it was busy!

SiLanc

I've ridden the lot and I think that If you've done blue at Llandegla then I would do North Face next, Whinlatter will really test your metal if you go and do the red route there straight from the blue at 'degla...some sections are quite tricky if you're not used to it. North Face should be ideal for you, particularly as they have removed some of the actual North Face now making the course a lot easier....it's like 'degla blue, but with more climbing and some sections where a little more thought is required...not like the 'paths' on 'degla blue which are very straight forward

Depends what you want I suppose...they're both XC courses obviously but Whinlatter is definitely more technical. If you're both pretty handy on the rough stuff go with Whinlatter, if you're still new to this do NFT. Better yet, head over to Coniston and do the Walna Scar Road, a Lakes classic and a real day in the mountains.

Enjoy!

Si

wilcocker

Thanks for your input chaps.

Turns out the missus is ill this weekend so I think im gonna check out Degla red today by myself and save NFT/Whinlatter for when she's better.

Went to Gisburn forest again yesterday. The few days of dry weather have certainly improved parts of the route.

Anyone who has or hasnt been yet I suggest you check it out. All the signpost are now in place and it is a doddle t ofind your way round now and the red signed route flows beautifully

We had missed out 2 new sections of trail by having to guess which way to go.

Thanks again for the advice.

Think i will take her to do the whinlatter blue in the morning followed by coffee and cake and then a trip to NFT in the afternoon. should make a good days riding with natural skill progression.

SiLanc

Sounds like an excellent plan. I was up at Gisburn yesterday, first time there. The trail is excellent, although the section which gets boggy and heads back to the fireroad climb and the right turn down towards the lake/reservoir I got a bit confused with sort of went round in circles a bit! It's excellent though and when they've done the lower boggy sections it will be spot on.

wilcocker

Hi SiLanc,

I spoke to a chap who was working on the DH track and he said that they intend to bypass that boggy section by turning right just after the bridge.

I got full on Bogfoot carrying the bike through that section, I could smell it all the way home!!

SiLanc

lol, I got the "wet foot" medal of honour when I went through there too. It looks more like it's some sort of manure...worse than just normal bog caused by mud and rain...it was horrendous...having said that I had just had the bike extensively serviced so I carried the thing over the bog and got my shoes ruined rather than the bike...

I'm beginning to suspect I'm a closet roadie! :O

wilcocker

Think im just closet lazy!!

I have an unofficial rule that if you get 3/4 of the way round without getting the bike dirty then keep it clean so you dont have to wash it

SiLanc

LOL

I think that's just good sense! Although we're probably in a minority. In my defence I spent most of Summer '08 racing in various mud baths up and down the country so I'm hoping to be granted mitigating circumstances ;-)

wilcocker

LOL

Think you've earned an honourary "bog bypass" for 2009!

Can the Walna Sca Road route you mentioned be done as a loop? Can it be linked in with the NFT and would you know if there is any route info/maps anywhere?

Cheers

SiLanc

It's usually done as a loop from Coniston, down to Torver, up onto the ridge and then back via Walna Scar Road, you can find this route in most trail route books which cover the Lakes. I was thinking of setting off from Grizedale, do half the NFT, drop off it and then head to Coniston, do the Walna Scar loop and then maybe do Iron Keld on the way back before finishing the NFT.

A bit of an epic Summer day out in the Lakes. I reckon it can be done it about 8 hours.

wilcocker

If you get up early enough you could probably do it twice!! LOL

Looks like I will have to invest in a decent trail book.
Any recommendations??

meesterbond

wilcocker wrote:

If you get up early enough you could probably do it twice!! LOL

Looks like I will have to invest in a decent trail book.
Any recommendations??

That's easy...This one