I’ve not been mountain biking long, and only really took it up as something that would get me out in the hills that I could do on my own (i.e. less dangerous than mountaineering, climbing or kayaking) and wasn’t just walking. I thought that given that I had some time this summer, I would have a go at some bike packing, and though that, given I am generally happy with long days in the hills on foot climbing, that being on a bike for the same amount of time wouldn’t be a massive stretch, I saw the Lakeland 200 route on the internet, and thought I’d give it a go over 3 days.

Pulling together all the kit was pretty straight forward, I already had the dry bags etc. and did a basic run on the bike to get in and climb at Ben Alder earlier in the year (with winter climbing gear on the bike. That time I used bunjees to hold an Ortileb dry bag to the bars, but it was too bouncy, so I made my self a bar roll harness type thing which straps round the bag and the bars, and fastens it to the stem to hold it in place – I might add another strap to the bottom, and this jumps up when you go over anything too big. I also made a frame bag, both from some nice cheap cordura, pretty easy on the sewing machine, only took a couple of evenings (I can do some proper pictures on request).

So, I mapped out the route on my lakes map, got my train tickets – 2 singles to Oxenholme (first mistake) from stafford, £9 each way, bargain. I should have got tickets right through to Staveley – this ride isn’t far, but I could have done with the extra time and legs come later in the trip.

It was hot, but this was ok, I survived.

The first day went ok, I rode the route as planned, generally didn’t have any navigational problems, I missed a turn on the map and ended up going up the wrong bit of bridleway (in the picture above – past Dubbs tarn) but it all went to the same place and I wasn’t being too fussy about the route, I just carried on.

It all went well till I got to Grizedale, actually, it went well till I got to Esthwaite water – the turning off before you enter Grizedale forest, in the valley before Grizedale itself – the map has a Bridlepath with a track on it, and when I got to the trail centre, later in the day it says there is a Green Lane – but I was entirely unable to find it…so I took off up a forestry track in vaguely the right direction and went for it, after sliding along the muddy forestry road and then much bashing through Bracken when it went off in the wrong direction, I emerged at the top on to some road or other – which wasn’t on my map – it did have cars on it, so wasn’t just a forestry road. I was pretty stumped. I went up the road to find a path through, I went down the road, to find a path through. No where could I find any path through…so I sacked it off and went down the road. I eventually found a turning which took me back up the valley into Grizedale and followed it up to the trail centre, used the bogs, and pressed on (my third mistake was not looking at the trail centre map…). Found the Bridle path, pressed on up the hill. The problem with this section was that whilst there are lots of nice paths if you are following a way makred trail, if you actually want the bridle path, then the marking is less often, and unlike everywhere else, it’s not clear which is which – so I guessed, I should have looked at which turnings were which and what correspnded to what on my map – but I failed to, I spent an hour riding round the forest, only find myself descending back down into the same bloody valley I started in, so I sacked it off for the day and went to the campsite.

End of day one.

Having established how I’d screwed up the day before, first thing in the morning on day 2, I cracked on, checked the trail centre map and clear Grizedale pretty quickly, it’s actually a really nice ride up and over, down into Coniston.

The problem came when I was descending, for some unknown reason, my chain snapped. So I stopped, popped off the links and went to add in a split link from my little tub in my tool kit – but it wasn’t there…still not sure where it is. So I couldn’t. Luck would have it that the break was just 5 or so links along from the split link in the chain already, so I popped them off and re-linked the chain – this meant there was significant restriction in the gears available and I was now nursing the bike (I forgot to mention that I had already used both my spare inner tubes because the rim tape had slipped on the front wheel causing the wheel to cut through the base of two separate valves.) I got into Coniston at around 0830, thinking that there must be somewhere I can buy a split link and some inner tubes…but no, 0900 came and went: “There are 2 bike shops in the lakes, both of them are in Ambleside” so I could either nurse the bike over the rest of the course, or sack it off and go to Ambleside. I tried for the first, and on the first climb changed into the wrong gear and folded the cassette. I then rode (with even less gears now) to Ambleside and got the cassette and the chain changed. (Thank you Ghyllside cycles for being great).

At this point, I had sacked off the lakeland 200, I think without the mechanicals and the second of 2 navigational errors, I would probably have finished it (just) within my 3 day time limit – I was pretty hard going on the first day, but with the 12km extra before I started, and the 10km or so of going round in circles in Grizedale forest, I think I did around 72km in the first day – with better navigation that would have put me well down the Walna Scar road by the end of the day.

I spent the second night in YHA ambleside, bloody hot. I went for a nice ride in the afternoon after I got thoe Ambleside and the bike was fixed – up Loughrigg tarn and down Loughrigg terrace, very good fun indeed, then day three I went up and over to Troutbeck via Robin Lane (retracing earlier steps) then over the south side of Kentmere Park (rather than the Garburn Road) which has some great Bridleways, then down into Kentmere and back out over to Longsleddle via Skeggleswater and down the Sprint valley into Kendal.

I’ll have another go at some point, probably next year, maybe later in the year – I think I can do it in 3 days, and in the end I must have done 150km all in all even with my mishaps, so it certainly wasn’t a wasted trip. There was a bunch of stuff that I now know I can probably leave at home and slim down the kit list even further as well.

Sounds like fun all the same 🙂

Nice post mate! Sounds like a good run even with your problems.

Im jealous! Looking forward to seeing the next trip out!

Good write up.

For future reference there is a big bike shop at Grizedale visitor centre.

Grizedale has a shop does it not? it did a couple of years ago when we lived there mind. Also if all hell break loose for you again Muncaster now has a shop, as does Keswick and Whinlatter.
good effort though. I am giving it a go in September.

I didn’t think about the Grizedale Bike shop – the quote was from a bloke in an outdoor shop in Coniston.

Probably not much in it from Coniston. Sounds great though – sometimes it’s good when a plan doesn’t work out, frustrating at the time but still. Fab weather for it too.

awesome effort and good honest write up

Thanks for writing this up. I’m considering a go after my new bike is built. You had a lot of bad look and also a taste if how precise you have to be with planning for long distance routes. For every sport we do there is a learning curve to begin with. The Lakeland 200 looks a great starting point. Maybe something bigger like cairngorm loop if that goes well. The following week TD14 🙂

The Lakeland 200 is on my list of things I’d like to do. That looks like a good writeup despite the disasters that befell you.

Greenmug – the Cairngorm Loop is brilliant. I finished it at 12:50 this morning, in 39:50 and would suggest that it’s best done now when the trails are dry as opposed to May when there is still a lot of snow melting.

I would recommend tubeless tyres for bikepacking (and in general tbh). In terms of Powerlinks, I carry two on my chain next to each other, so if I snap the chain I can simply remove one of the Powerlinks and use it to join the split. I would also recommend a mapping GPS – I was working off a trail of breadcrumbs on a Garmin Edge 500 and it was as good as useless at times!

I’d recommend getting a Garmin 800 or above, with a 1:50 UK map on it, it’s £300’ish, but absolutely priceless for giving you a clue as to if you’re going wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, this does not replace a map and good navigation skills. But it saves you having to get a map out every 10 minutes – which is why I think you didn’t notice you went wrong – it was just too much hassle.

If you spend an hour marking your route out, or even download the GPX from someone else online, then you can just glance down at the GPS every so often to make sure you’re on the right route.

This has been a life saver in Scotland for me.

If you have an Android phone, the OruxMaps app will let you cache OS maps from the web when you’re at home. You can then overlay a GPX file and you should be set.

Memorymap for the iPhone (and andriod too I think) works very well for displaying mapping and GPS tracks etc

Good effort I did my effort of the L200 this Sunday with one other, due to the weather I decided to miss the loop around Grizedale and Stephensons ground and the loop around Keswick it was more of a recce as I have done those loops before. First day was very hot and my riding pal sacked it due to the heat I continued on hitting eskdale around 6pm found the pub ate and drank and watched the tour highlights until 11pm then retreated to the pod.2nd day was a lot of walking up and down trashing a pair of shoes in the process Black Sail was a bitch great riding though and and a food stop in Keswick @ 5pm then a 2 hr ride to Pooley Bridge. Cheeky shower in a campsite then located bivvy spot then found a pub on the shores of Ullswater.Woke @ 9am!!! the next day huge brekkie at a café then headed for High St which is different to the L200 route but it was so dry and rideable I did not fancy anymore hikeabike. The route was amazing and rode around the tops heading for Ill Bell then down Garburn for a monster downhill blew my fork seal in the process dumping oil all ove my front brake. Greatroute and a must do ride if your in to long days in the saddle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/sets/72157634672946804/

DSCF3490[1] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

DSCF3461[1] by Richard Munro, on Flickr