I am heading up to the Lakes next week with my son, he is 13 but 5’10” and pretty capable. He is capable of a 14 mile Surrey hills loop and can handle most of the trails there at a sensible pace to give an idea of ability.

My thinking is that we will ride 2 days, one fairly sensible natural route and one trail centre.

We are camping down at Eskdale but anywhere is fine as the drive and subsequent exploring are all part of the fun.

Trail centre wise i was thinking Whinlatter as I seem to recall a thread on here saying that Grizedale was a disappointment.

Natural ride wise I am lost, about 10 miles would be ideal and as ridable as possible… any suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers

whinlatter’s good as for wild trails theres to much choice to list, this book is a good starting point http://www.amazon.co.uk/District-Mountain-Biking-Richard-Staton/dp/0954813189
They stock it in Biketreks here in Ambleside?

There’s good riding from eskdale – up miterdale round burnmoor tarn and back down to Boot in eskdale.
The Esk trail along the south/west side of the river.
The trails in the Duddon valley (south) and heading around Stephenson ground/bottom of walna – in fact that’s the best bet – park in seathwaite, duddon valley and head up walna scar. Half way up, head right through old quarries to the river pickle (true right bank – not into the forest). Follow around to Stephenson ground and back round down rocky descent to the new field inn, seathwaite.
Grizedale is much quicker to reach from eskdale and the north face trail is fine – more xc than whinlatter. Ask at the shop and they’ll point out the excellent ‘natural’ trails accessed from it.
Mail me if more detail needed.

Just returned took my eldest lad (11) on the north red route at whinlatter his first time on anything near as challenging & his first time on SPDs he handled no probs. had a couple of minor spills and a few rests on the long steep fire road climb but if your lad is older & more competent he will love it. Whinlatter also has a pretty cool blue route as well that’s well worth a ride. It’s a nice centre good cafe & other activities. Parking is expensive though.

If you do get the time seriously try & seek out & ride some of the HIgh St (roman road round ullswater) it’s an epic & so beautiful.

Grizedale is ok but when we went a few weeks ago there were diversions in place and theis a lot of fire road. We rode both reds at whinlatter and the blue and had a really good day. Plenty if climbing but the way down more than compensated.

Boxelder talks sense, it’s a bit of a shlep to whinlatter from eskdale.
I thought grizedale was quite good fun tbh. Plus loads & loads of options for natural stuff nearby.

Great suggestions from Boxelder, although I’d personally go Boot > Burnmoor Tarn > Miterdale.

The riding around the Duddon Valley is superb. I think my last four or five times out on the bike have all been around there, purely because I enjoy the trails and the area so much. Might start a thread about that, actually!

Thanks for all the help, looks like Duddon Valley it is… was pretty confused until I realised there are 2 Seathwaites!!

Might squeeze in Miterdale too but will see how things go.

Weather looks ok too so getting very excited about the trip now.

Found Grizedale was not rewarding what so ever, climb on Singletrack and descents on fire road!
Cannot comment on new section.
Whinlatter is a better choice and is also rewarding.
Too much to mention with regards to natural lakes!

Grizedale needs some serious maintanece to make it more user friendly, I’ve met so many mtbers recently that were very disappointed with the NFT, There are however some brilliant descents on the bridleways in the area, and the fact that they are enjoying the natural trails rather than man made can’t be a bad thing.

Boxelders route is a cracker,Burnmoor tarn is also worth a visit if you have time, enjoy..

Miterdale to burnmoor is quite overgrown with bracken at the moment.

you must be new here, people usually spell it ‘advise’ on thread titles.

Whinlatter is well worth going to – when I gave Grizedale a go I was so disappointed by the trails that I headed out onto the bridleways in the forest which were much better.

As Whinlatter is split into 2 reds and one blue all of which start from the same point it would probably work well for your son as they’re not too long, so you can stop relatively easily once you’ve had enough.

Enjoy!

I you’ve never been to Whinlatter you owe it to yourself to go. Three trails, a blue plus two reds (called North and South loops). All three are excellent, even the blue is actually pretty decent, similar if not tougher standard than the Sherwood Pines red. The North loop is the must-do one, the last descent is fantastic.

Keswick Mountain Bikes will sell you route cards of the famous routes on waterproof paper but they might be a little longer than your lad can manage.

Enjoy.

Going to the lakes and riding Whinlatter or grizedale is like going to Italy and eating tins of beans.

The NFT is not representative of Grizedale! There is loads of fabulous riding if you bother to read a map. Also links very well with other surrounding routes such as Claife, Tilberthwaite / Hodge Close, Iron Keld etc.

My 11 yr old likes Grizedale a lot – a usual ride with him would be start at visitor centre and use first 2 sections of NFT to gain some height. Then turn off onto Bridleway to Parkamoor (great open views of Coniston). Then Bridleways towards Satterthwaite – excellent but quite rocky and techy descents (need to go carefully but they aren’t impossible – my 9 yr old has rolled them on rigid & 24″ wheels provided I slowed him down before the rough bits). They get progressively rockier / harder so just gauge his ability. If he’s tired then don’t go right down to Satterthwaite – just contour using forest roads back to VC.

If has energy, then Moor Lane down to Satterthwaite, up Breasty Haw. Do first couple of BW sections but don’t drop right down to road on other side – unless he wants another climb :-). Various options of forest road / short section of bridleway to “The Fox” then he’ll probably be ready to head back to VC.

Whinlatter isn’t worth the trek from Eskdale.

Eskdale and Duddon valley are nice as already mentioned – some of the nicest and quietest bits in the whole of lakes. Don’t bother with Harter Fell. Some good stuff heading over to Broughton in Furness.

If you have a bit of spare time then for something different can also go up Ennerdale but would just be a fire road out and back. Making it a loop becomes an epic (Scarth Gap / Black Sail pass).

The NFT isnt too bad, about five or six years ago I used to ride it 2 – 3 times per week and still enjoyed it. Saying that, I havent ridden it for about 2 years so perhaps I over did it.

Whinlatter is definitely a better trail centre though, although it is a bit further away for you

The trip is a camping holiday which will include walking, ghyll scrambling and biking so the trail centre day is for brain out ease of navigation and the drive will be a good chance to see the northern lakeland area.

I think it is important to do a natural loop too so that my lad can get his head around what is on offer once you get off the beaten track.

Overall the week is going to be pretty exhausting but fun… have a few sacks of logs ready for marshmallow toasting too…

Thanks again for all the help, hope to get up to the Lakes about once a year so will be checking out all the suggestions on the OS for future reference.

Cheers

There’s a great bridge at Eskdale for jumping off. Check water depth obviously, there was loads when I was there in, err, 78 I think.

Pic from Edenoutdooradventures

Just got back and we had a terriffic time… my lad loved Whinlatter, we did the 3 trails and he was buzzing and loved every second… he cleared all the climbs and came down with true flow…

The Walna Scar loop was excellent, we had to battle the pretty brisk wind and showers but again he did great and climbed some very tough sections and flew down without a stop. I am one very proud Dad.

A great week, thanks for your help.