Lake District

dogboy73

I'm heading up to the Lakes area in a few weeks. I'm looking for good rides in the area. Are there any good trail centres near by? I quite like just blasting around a way marked loop as opposed to trying to follow a map. I'm useless at it & spend more time map reading than riding!!

dogboy73

..... We'll be staying at Little dale, Lancaster BTW. So anything near there would be cool

stubs

Grizedale forest and Whinlatter forest are in the lakes. Gisburn is in the Forest of Bowland not too far from Littledale. All have waymarked routes, Grizedale and Whinlatter have cafes and bike shops, Gisburn is less developed and not as busy at weekends. Also your not too far from the Scottish borders straight up the M6 and you have the 7 Stanes trail centres.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatterforestpark
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedaleforestpark
http://www.gisburnbiketrails.com/
http://www.7stanesmountainbiking.com/Home

dogboy73

Thanks stubs. Just what I was looking for. I'd found the forest of bowland (just down the road from where we're staying) but not th other places. Perfect

dogboy73

...... As it turned out we were only staying about 30 minutes away from Gisburn Forest so I got some riding in there. The 8 loop (red grade) was fantastic. There were also a few black grade sections but I wasn't brave enough to take these on due to the wet conditions & severe lack of fitness!! :? Struggled enough on the red route! That's what comes of living in Essex - not enough hills or decent trails. Makes you soft! Gisburn was fantastic though. Challenging trails & fantastic scenery.

stubs

It is a nice route Gisburn got a little bit of everything, just right for a good blast with mates.

dogboy73

stubs wrote:

It is a nice route Gisburn got a little bit of everything, just right for a good blast with mates.

I really enjoyed but I was riding alone - My brother-in-law was supposed to be coming but he'd picked up an injury that he didn't want to risk making worse. But I loved it there. Some more technical climbs than I'd ridden on other red routes. They were hard work in the wet. Some great technical descents as well. Not enough fast, sweeping single track for my liking but plenty of other good fast downhill sections to blow away the cob webs.

I shat myself on the board sections in the wet :oops: I think I'm struggling with confidence on these sorts of trails since switching to SDP pedals. They've been great around these parts. But my bottle goes a bit on some of the more challenging sections. With flat pedals I was much more up for it.

compo

If you are going to the lakes, I wouldn't bother with Grizedale, the natural riding around there is far better and it can get expensive at Grizedale. If you want some proper 'mountain' biking, try getting up to the top of Hellvellyn Skiddaw or one of the other mountains. Its a fair old ride but definately worth it

bjj.andy.w

Compo- I take it you've never done the bridalways of grizedale, they are fantastic.

compo

I have, and they are undoubtedly good, however I personally prefer to go other places where it is quieter, but each to their own

IhateDNS

bump old thread.

Whinlatter Trails are not far from were I'm staying The Altura N\S and The Quercus Trail how entertaining are these, have see there not many miles could you fill a day here?
Riding each trail more then once.

Can Imagine going to be a bit different to Essex

Not look at Grizedale forest yet.
Thanks

styxd

Whinlatter is good fun, I think you'd get bored riding there for a full day though.

Grizedale on the other hand - loads of stuff to keep you entertained.

IhateDNS

Thanks just been looking at Grizedale printed a trail map plenty more there.

styxd

Theres so much there. And you're not far from langdale, coniston, walna scar, blawith common, etc.