keilder anyone ridden in the last week or so?

gaanrowl

planning on going to keilder in a couple of weeks any one been any reccomendations on which route fancy doing the lonesome pine trail.

an_original_name

I haven't ridden the lonesome pine trail, but the deadwater trail is really good. do the black route as well if your feeling up to it. the downhill is pretty awesome.

where abouts in cumbria are you based?

gaanrowl

based in maryport,

was thinking the lonsome pine as its got the option of extending to do the bloody bush if we feel up to it.

i like the sound of deadwater, how black is the black section?

ariteofpassage

I did the Lonesome Pine trail last year and really enjoyed it. Hope you like climbing though as there is a lot of it!

bluehelmet

The black stretch (Up and Over) is a good laugh. If you're confident on a bike and can do drops of 1 foot or so then you should be able to do all the down bits (you could always stop and inspect if there's no-one behind you). The climb at the start is a git though. It's an optional stretch though. If you do it get to the forest road at the bottom, turn right, then take the first fire road on the right and you'll eventually get back to the red route for the downhill back to the car park.

Take your climbing legs whichever route you do, also bare in mind that there may still be snow up there in a few weeks (there was still some lurking around in April last year) so keep an eye on kieldertrailreavers.co.uk or give The Bike Place in Kielder a ring to get the latest.

My fav is the deadwater, the lonesome is a good ride out but not as technically challanging though. Have yet to do the finished version of the Bloody Bush so can't comment on that.

gaanrowl

cheers blue helmet thats very helpful post.

the bloody bush is joined off the lonsome pine from what iv read is this right

tdougan

Brilliant place to ride, love it up there!

The Deadwater Mountain Bike Trail is pretty good!

bluehelmet

gaanrowl wrote:

the bloody bush is joined off the lonsome pine from what iv read is this right

Certainly is. When you get to the T junction of the northshore / boardwalk (it's 2m wide. You'll understand why if it's a windy day) go left for the Bloody Bush route or right for the Lonesome Pine. Maps available on http://www.visitkielder.com/site/things ... ain-biking

The Lonesome is graded red but is really a long hard blue. They ran out of money when building it as it was supposed to be pretty much all singletrack once you turn off the lakeside way. Plans are in place though to put a few more sections in this year (fingers crossed).

gaanrowl

i like the sound of the deadwater, have you rode whinlatter or ae forest how does the lonesome pine compare?

bluehelmet

Much easier technically.

Starts off with a nice warm up on the lakeside way, bit of singletrack up and down with the odd small jump and one optional drop off and then the loooong fireroad slog to the northshore / boardwalk. Then it's downhill pretty much all the way on singletrack with the odd sharp / off camber corner to keep you on your toes.

If you've done those two places you'll have no difficulties, just don't go expecting it to give you the best ride ever, it really should be graded blue but I guess there's too much climbing involved. But it is a nice ride out and on a clear day the views are amazing.

The Deadwater by comparison is brutal, one of the best trails I've ridden. If you've done whinlatter and Ae I'd advise doing the deadwater first then if you've got the energy left do the lonesome.

Nice bike BTW.

gaanrowl

i ride whinlatter regularly, the deadwater sounds like the one to go for then. how long to get round, we have all day so just trying to plan it out.

thanks for the comment on my bike.

bluehelmet

Depending if you do the upper loop to the top of Deadwater Fell and the black bit, I'd say between 2 and 3 hours depending on your fitness levels.

gaanrowl

iv spoken to the bike shop at kielder and they said the deadwater was just about unrideable any one got more info??