Alright every one. Heading down to the lakes end of September for the weekend. Looking for a good day out doing a wild ride, pretty capable on my bike, so some tecky stuff is cool. Any suggestions? Going to catch a few trails at Whinlatter, so don’t want to be to far away, 3/4 hour drive tops. Cheers dudes & dudesses

Going to the lakes and riding whinlatter is like going to a cheesemonger and buying dairylea. Borrowdale bash, helvellyn, ullswater, kentmere horseshoe + nan bield, etc etc…

Don’t knock Whinlatter, it’s great for young kids. My boy has a scar on his face that he got on the blue aged 5.

The Lakes proper though has some gems.

Dollywagon, Nan Bield, Rossett Ghyll, Stakes Pass, Garburn etc….

Hearing what you are saying. Is there any decent trail centres nearby? Going to have a couple of hours on the fri evening & a morning on the Sunday.

nobeerinthefridge x1

The Lake district is the best Trail centre there is! If you only have a couple of hours, google the borrowdale bash. Great wee circuit.

Borrowdale bash and a few extensions, depending on how techy you like it. Hawes Gate on Catbells has to be one of the hardest bridleways to descend clean in the Lakes?

SO is Whinlatter your priority with an extra trail thrown in or is riding in the lakes your priority?!

oh whats that? it’s a search function, fancy that:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/search.php?search=lake+district+routes&advanced=1&exact=1&posts=1&highlight=1&users=0&located=0&forums%5B%5D=1&maxcount=9999999&age=7&direction=1&sort=date&order=0

try this as well:
http://bit.ly/1uuwTGH

Only ridden in the lakes once .. Up Helvelyn past the lead mines, on a fully ridged Bob Jackson.. That was an ‘interesting’ ride

If you’re based at the northern end, you are pretty close to the northern edge of the Howgills or you could look norteast around Carrock Fell. Compared with the main Lake District honeypots, they’ll be almost deserted, even in high summer, and they can be pretty wild

As a local, a 20 min drive from Whinlatter, I hate the borrowdale bash. Granted there is loads of good trails and whinlatter is great for a good blast out with no navigation issues and if you park along the old main road theres some good climbing to be had thru the forest and a fast blast back down along a cycleway. If I were here I`d do the Altura trail and bollocks to what other people think 😀

Hearing what you are saying. Is there any decent trail centres nearby? Going to have a couple of hours on the fri evening & a morning on the Sunday.

Buy an OS for the lakes and make your own loop!

Grizedale and surrounding area has some awesome bridleways.

+1 for what biglee said in some ways, whinlatter was a great blast when I lived at the bottom of the hill but then I just used to pop up for a quick evening lap.

Borrowdale bash has a lot of road but the trails are good, it’s one to do on a nice day with ice cream at a cafe at least once on the way round.

If you want very technical, big mountain then dollywaggon.

Borrowdale bash has a lot of road

Entirely dependant if you take the option that involves a bit of road, there are far better ways to concentrate the fun bits. Castle crags is not the best tbh, but the descent to rosthwaite makes all the rest of the ride more than worth it. Hating the bash? Bizarre.

Try heading along to threlkeld on the cycle path, then up through the village and round Lonscale fell, then descend the spoony back to Keswick, interesting wee loop for an evening ride, just be careful riding the rocky bit coming round Lonscale. Walk if you haven’t rode it before, it’s only a few metres.

Ok, so scrap the whole whinlatter thing. Driving down from scotland on the fri, probably have time for something about 2/2.5 hours. Full on day on sat & 3/4 hours on Sunday.