is there a route for a north to south offroad ride of the lakes.
i am pretty sure i could plot one on bikehike, but was wondering if there was one mapped already.

wot no lakes riders…… 🙁

Completely off road might prove tricky. Back of skiddaw-threlkeld-old coach road-Dodds-Raise-Helvellyn-Dollywagon-Grisedale Tarn-Patterdale, then up onto High Street and south to the Nan Bield area (sorry, at work and can’t remember that bit off hand) would do the trick, and allow overnights at Threlkeld and Patterdale. Any good?

worth a look, cheers. sounds a bit tough tho, was wanting to do 2 days riding.

Where are you starting from and where do you want to end?

Possible Tony, but at some point you’ll have to go across the north/south divide. So either High Street or Black Sail and neither are going to be easy.

Check out the Lakeland 200 and pick half of that?

c2c to keswick, round back to petterhouse farm, up whitewater dash, skiddaw yoho, terrace, keswick, borrowdale bash in reverse to rosthwaite, up langstrath, stake pass, langdale, baysbrown to little langdale, through hodge close, up arnside, into grizedale, wind through to force mills, ickenthwaite, oxen park, bouth, then lanes to grange over sands.

not too much offroad there i reckon.

lakeland 200

looked at that, but it looks a bit too tough for me to be honest.
the route i just posted only has 1 big pass, which i have walked up with the bike before.
and hopefully i can reach langdale in one day to get beer and sleep.

Nobeer – I’m assuming you’ve ridden carried that route? (otherwise you may be in for a shock)

Tony – I did a similar route a few years back. Stakes pass is a long steep push up and quite a bit of a carry down if you’re following the Cumbrian Way

Matt, you could keep me company, and show me how to put my bivi up in langdale…… 😀

Always Tony, just let me know. I’ll do the bivi stuff you get the beers in 8)

8)

If you’re looking for an established route to follow then a variation of the Bob Graham Round but missing some of the tops/route which are really not (fun) riding might be worth thinking about. The Bob Graham north from Wasdale isn’t something that I’d recommend with a bike so adapting and extending it North to South one way could be something like…

Back of Skiddaw (or summit of Skiddaw) – old railway to Threlkeld – 2km on road – Old Coach Road – Dodds – Helvellyn – Grisedale Tarn – Grasmere (bit of road or footpath again) – Langdale – Rossett Gill – Sprinkling Tarn – Wasdale Head – (from here you leave the rough line of the Bob Graham route) – 200m road – Burnamoor Tarn – options to either Eskdale and then Ravenglass or Birker Fell and then Ravenglass or other options south that I’m not sure of.

Basically it’s a mix of good riding if conditions are good, horrible carries and walking, but only minimal road (and almost all the rest on bridleways). Heading South of Wasdale I don’t know well to suggest which options are best but have done a few of the bridleways a long time back which were OK. I don’t think that it’s a route for everyone though, mainly because of the Langdale-Wasdale Head bit.

Nobeer – I’m assuming you’ve ridden carried that route? (otherwise you may be in for a shock)

Ridden in the lakes for a few years now, I’m familiar with a lot of that, just posting it as a help tbh. The lakes doesn’t shock me any more!.

Ton – if your route brings you to Ulverston, give us a shout and I’ll buy you a beer.

Walked the Cumbria Way (north to south – makes sense to walk towards home) with my mam and dad when I was 8 years old, and have always fancied trying some sort of bike equivalent, so will be watching this thread with interest.

Mbr have a gpx on their site

If you stay further west – fewer people and better pubs…….
Caldbeck, mosedale, skiddaw house, lonscale, keswick, whinlatter, down hopebeck gated lane, ‘back of the wall’ along Lorton Vale to lanthwaite, down lanthwaite woods to Kirkstile Inn, behind melbreak and over Floutern tarn to Ennerdale, up Cold Fell road and left through skalderskew to nether wasdale (2 good pubs). Wasdale, burnmoor tarn to boot, harter fell to Duddon, stephenson ground to Torver, torver common through to somewhere south.
Short push up floutern and some up to burnmoor and harter fell. Any roads are minor.
Beer – kirkstile, fox and hounds in ennerdale (community run brew pub), screes in nether wasdale, boot, searhwaite inn in duddon, wilson arms in torver or great little pub in broughton mills.
Not exactly a crow flies sort of route though.

got a plan, train up to Langwathby, then road spin out to mosedale.
follow boxelders route, which a lot will be new to me.
then from torver, head to nibthwaite and wind a way over to the ferry, and train back from windermere.

roughly 90 miles……might have to spread it to 3 days.

Email me for more detail tony, some of it isn’t obvious and there might be some cheeky variants……

Thinking on, from Boot in Eskdale, cross the river and follow esk trail to the bridge near George 4th, then turn left and road over Ulpha, dropping into Dunnerdale lower down. Across and up kiln bank or BWs to Stephenson Ground. Also, earlier on, out of Ennerdale if you go part way up Cold Fell, you can reverse the coast to coast walk from the cattle grid, down Nannycatch, then out through Lowther Park woods towards Haile, then turn left up to cross cold fell road at next cattle grid.

tell you what, when the time comes, how about guiding me…..i will provide ale.

cos you are confusing me now…….. 😆

Being between jobs, that may be possible…….
Or I could do a map.
When are you thinking?

Lakeland 200 route from Keswick but go straight up High Street fromPooley bridge and down Ill Bell ,Garburn to Ings then Cunswick Scar Scouts Scar drop down into Kendal can only think of a couple of short carries 🙂