I’ve got a job on Sunday at somewhere I’ve never previously heard of called Ribchester. Rather than turn around and come home afterwards I’m thinking of finding somewhere to do a night ride on the Sunday night or stay over in the van and ride Monday. Maybe both.

I know about Gisburn forest. It looks good but I wouldn’t mind a bit of actual wilderness. I’m intrigued be the Lake District but I don’t really know my way around. I can travel home via Carlisle so I can go anywhere really.

STW local knowledge always seems to come up trumps so just putting it out there!

park near slaidburn and do croasdale/salter fell route….proper out there route.

The Lakes has loads of great trails, some with easy access from the M6.

Tell us how long you want to be out for and how technical you like your riding and I’m sure you’ll get some good suggestions.

The site at Coniston is grand, as is the pubs in town. Although I haven’t been there for a bit.

Depends what you want plenty of nice lakes rides out of Stavley – about 20 mins from junction 36 and wild camping would not be that hard in either a tent or a van

Some proper exposed stuff though ranging from Nan bield to Kentmere pass and easy enough to get to

Cannot ride that day though so no help to you

Personally I would ride natural and avoid the trail centres
YMMV

You could do various routes of different lengths and difficulties around Rivington and surrounding areas such as healey Nab or across to Darwen, 10 or 15 minutes out from preston.

Free parking with facilities at Rivington barn.

If you’re in Ribchester you’re very near to Gisburn, would make sense to ride there Sun eve. Take a route map though, some of the sign posts aren’t guaranteed to be there! Then maybe head over to the Lakes for a ride on the way back Monday.
I really wouldn’t recommend riding any of the more remote Lakeland routes in the dark if you’re not familiar with the area.

Kirkby Londsdale would be a good place to stay in between. You should be able to get a room+breckie at the Blue Pig for about £50. Avanti do good pizza to either eat-in or take-a-way & are reasonable. Alternatively there’s loads of accommodation in Kendal, or head over to the Mill Yard car park at Staveley to kip in your van, breckie at Wilf’s cafe, then pick one of the many rides from there..

There isn’t much decent legal off road around Ribchester; it’s all huntin’ shootin’ and fishin’ so quite agicultural and controlled. You could do a combined track/camp/back by road trip using the Salter Fell road, which goes over some pretty high ground but all controlled for shooting. Better to head for the Lakes but isn’t there biblical rain forcast?

IF you do chose rivvy then i can give a tour of there and you could easily camp there in a van..better options in the Lakes mind

I’m about 5 miles from Ribchester and there’s not much in the immediate vacinity. Nearest places worth a visit would be Rivington or Hebden Bridge but you’d need a local to find any of the good stuff at either. For a daytime ride, alone, I’d be heading off to the Lakes.
As they said earlier, Staveley would be a good start point for a loop of Nan Bield or similar.

Gisburn Forest is OK for a couple of hours but not wilderness at all. More suitable as a fall-back for either when it’s bad weather or as a night-ride. If it’s good weather and daylight, you should take the opportunity go up-high in the Lakes.

In good weather I would aim to camp high to get going at dawn and do one of the big Lakes epics such as the High Street circuit… except that that will be a mudfest by now.

A lot of the campsites will now be closed for winter, some of the yha’s are still open though, e.g. Ambleside & Grasmere..

http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/ambleside

Be careful about just kipping anywhere in your van though, they can be understandably quite precious about their land in that area..

Wow didn’t expect this many replies so soon. I’ll try and process the information when I get home later.

Thanks a lot.

Get the Vertebrate Graphics Lakes guide. Pick pretty much anything for a good day out.

I believe scotgate holiday park campsite, near Keswick, is open all year round