what’s the riding like?

You ride up, up and up to then ride down, down and down.

Which route and direction you thinking? There are a few options.

well this is the thing. I’m trying to find a decent Lakes base, with a good ride attached, and have so far landed on Glenridding bunkhouse with Helvellyn….

thinking grizedale beck and dollywagon up, helvellyn, then sticks pass down

Dollywagon is a bitch of a climb, you can barely push its that steep.

But the way down the otherside (Miners Path) is well quick.

2 hours up, 20 mins down.

I wouldn’t bother again.

Good riding around Glenriding eh?

I’ve done it the other way round. Up Keppel Cove, up Lower Man, then down Dollywaggon (interesting!! 😯 ) and Grizedale which is fab.

Coming down Lowerman, then over to Sticks Pass, hang a right and down to the mines is supposed to be good, but I’ve not done it myself.

POOk also email my bro Jason Ashworth (singletrAction), the guy you did the vids for, he did it a few months ago and researched it.
BTW we met a few weeks ago at Stainburn, I was filling a barrow in the car park and asked you if you were someone else, you might recall.

yes i do remember – cheers old chap, I’ll drop jase a line

http://www.bogtrotters.org/route/showrouteframe.php?route=72

Really enjoyed the down on Lowerman and Sticks pass, would like to do the descent off Dollywaggon, but tales of mantraps have put me right off, is it all that bad ?.

Looking for some challenges this summer, anyone found a ridable route off Scafel pike.

I think the classic route is anti clockwise starting from the Lakeshore,and up to Great Dodd via Brutts Moss following all of the summits and decending via Dollywagon.

The decent from Grisedale Tarn is one of the best in the lakes
vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JJuAJKwWAY 🙂

Or theres an exellent winter decent via Lower Man,whiteside, and Greenside mine here..http://vimeo.com/3186895 😯

cool. Any accomodation suggestions? the bunkhouse is booked up

Welcome

Just say Gav sent ya..(always worth a pint) 😉

The YHA at greenside mine? I think it would be approx £17 pn for a non member. There’s also a YHA at Patterdale. YHA is more like bunkhouses these days, you can book a group room.

that looks ace – but there’s 8 of us. thinking more bunkhouse

fergal…you would be daft to ride off Sca fell Pike its covered in Mahoosive boulders! 😯

The nearest bestest decent is Via Esk Hause to Styhead Pass, awesome and a Bridleway! 🙂 some vid here

Gavgas are you a lakes regular, sorry to hikack the thread but do you know of any descents on Scafell worth a gander, i have this cunning plan to ride the big three this summer, Skiddaw by Ullock.

Cheers you beat me to it, may have to re consider.

Yep I know the lakes pretty well,as I said theres very little worth doing from Scafell,you end up carrying downhill,Its just not worth it, but from Esk Hause to Sty Head and then on to Seathwaite is arguably one of the best decents in the uk.

Styhead to Seathwaite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jzdQW22cZs

Oi!

Checked out that Helvellyn vid, my god how fit would you have to be to ride Keppel Cove dab free 😛

bet you aint done striding edge ! 😉

fergal – if you’re looking for something silly to do in that area over the summer, Great Gable down to Styhead is more ridable / fun than Scafell…like Gav says, it’s a carry until you get behind Great End. The front of Gable’s very popular with walkers though so late in the day is better.

bet you aint done striding edge

ermmm, back in the day a ‘knowledgeable’ mate suggested the quickest way up to get the descent back down was over Striding. Cue a long walk with a heavy Muddy Fox….

I think the keppel cove climb was one of the most impressive bits of climbing i have seen on a bike, although I have seen great dodd climbed too with no dabbs.. 😯

John and Rich in the Helvellyn vid, are both instructors for cycle active based in Penrith.. 😉

http://www.cycleactive.co.uk/

Theres a cracking epic route from Keswick. Ride around Thirlmere,bridleway to summit of Helvellyn (hike/bike),bridleway N/W down lower man and follow across whiteside bank,Raise,Stybarrow Dodd,Watson’s Dodd to Great Dodd. Take bridleway down Matterdale Commom until you reach the old coach road.Hang a left and head back to Keswick. Think it was about 35mile.

If you’re in Glenridding and the weather’s too grim to go high, the donkey track on the south-east side of Ullswater is a low-level classic.

DavidM – what’s your first route?

another question, what’s this path over Matterdale Common like?
Geograph shows its a good path to Calfhow Pike, but what’s it like following the stream? any better (in either direction) than the one parallel to it over Bruts Moss that I know is a bog-fest?

good to see you are planning me a nice little jaunt pook, keep it up!

once you have it nicely planned and arranged we can all start picking fault, a la pootle threads 😛

ir_bandito – Member
If you’re in Glenridding and the weather’s too grim to go high, the donkey track on the south-east side of Ullswater is a low-level classic.

Would that be the bridleway you can pick up from Side Farm opposite Patterdale? Can’t get a linky thing to work….

yep, this one

Pook,didn’t read whole thread as i’m on phone but did route with jason a. Last year.there’s a map on my site-see my profile-think flat tyres mtb also has a decent map.

ir bandito, the Bridleway up towards calfhow pike is not really used,its long grass and usually boggy,The best climb onto Helvelyn is via brutts moss imho,its a long drag but its usually rambler free, and is a quick way to get high up without a lot of carry.

Best times to do the climb is after a hard frost, or a week or so of dry weather. 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW_AC60ntkg (Brutts moss via Great Dodd)

ir_bandito – Member
yep, this one

That’s the one, me and my wife walked that just last saturday and there we were thinking how good on a bike it would be, we even met a biker going the other way.

Now, you’ll need to help me out on a good route based on it… we walked from Patterdale to Side Farm to Sandwick, and then up and over Sleet fell, Place Fell, down to boredale hause and back to Patterdale – not long after Sandwick there places I didn’t fancy the idea of biking… so go on then what would be a good route…?

Brutts Moss tried to devour me.

I’ve ridden down Brutts Moss, gravity helps get through th bog, but never up. Maybe I’ll try…

bellophron, you can include the donkey track in quite a few routes. Short and sweet would be up and over Boredale Hause to either Boredale or Bannerdale. Or you can loop it with a monster traverse of Helvellyn ridge. But the classic is to go up at Hartsop round The Knott onto High Street, then head all north the way down to The Cockpit and Pooley Bridge.

ir_bandito – It is the trail from the top of Highstreet down the ridge to Boredale Hause, then along the upper bridleway to the Paterdale path. It is pretty frustrating till you get to Angle Tarn, then it picks up a bit – Probably best to leave it for a quiet day though.

bellophron, you can include the donkey track in quite a few routes. Short and sweet would be up and over Boredale Hause to either Boredale or Bannerdale. Or you can loop it with a monster traverse of Helvellyn ridge. But the classic is to go up at Hartsop round The Knott onto High Street, then head all north the way down to The Cockpit and Pooley Bridge

cheers ir_bandito, I was talking to my wife about this again and we thought Pooley Bridge might come in to it. Anyway I’m off to study the map.

Thanks again

Dont do it if the weather looks like this…

Good fun off the bike though, for us southern softies.