Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • Must do ride near Coniston on a Saturday morning?
  • peterfile
    Free Member

    I’m meeting some (non biking) mates in the Lakes on Saturday at midday.

    Thinking about heading down from Glasgow on Friday night and getting in a ride early on Saturday morning.

    Are there any must do routes which can be accessed from Coniston (I’m willing to drive to a trail, but would prefer not to), less than 4 hours long and with lots of fun descending?

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    There are approximately a brazillion rides in that area but a must do for four hours – over walna scar left at the big hairpin to the BW across to Jackson ground (make sure you’re on the right of the beck otherwise it’s a fireroad down) then, depending on how your doing timewise, a loop of the dunnerdales and etiher a mess about in broughton moor forest and road back or back over walna scar.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Thanks.

    Is that covered by this route description? Walna Scar

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    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Yep but in reverse…good either way round but the natty bridge descent is the pick of the bunch (my way round) If doing it the NT way round I’d climb up the fireroad in broughton moor forest, do the natty bridge descent and then either go back up the fireroad, or if you’ve plenty of time go over to park head road via long mire (it’s another hour hour and a half though) and up walna from the valley floor (pushing a plenty)

    Drac
    Full Member

    Isn’t Walna Scar road road now just a flat surface or has it weathered back to it’s former glory?

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    the bottom section (coniston side) was surfaced (last year?) but the top bit is as good as it ever was and the bottom section was a bit riverbed of babyheads before hand. It’ll have weathered out a bit too. Not back to it’s former glory but still a must do if you’re there.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    !!WARNING IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS POSTS!!

    Saturday morning Walna Scar will be redsockarama. Drive to broughton moor/torver and ride from there. similar routes but more of the dunnerdale bits – much quieter

    Drac
    Full Member

    I thought it was most of the way up but not ridden since they started, I loved the baby heads.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    My recommendation would also be to ignore Walna Scar altogether.

    I’d head north to Tilberthwaite, head into the quarries/Iron Keld across to Hawkshead Hill, into Grizedale Forest, along the top track, then your choice of bits followed by a descent back to the Coniston side, depending on time constraints.

    I would have thought that in four hours, you’d have time to do the above get along the top of Grizedale to Parkamoor, do Grandad,Dad and The Dentist down to Satterthwaite, climb back up, then take the Lawson Park descent down to Coniston, or just do the brilliant Nibthwaite Descent to the far end of Coniston and take the road back along – but many other variations are possible.

    d45yth
    Free Member

    You’d be better off biking from Coniston and doing some trails around Grizedale…I guarantee you’ll have more of a smile on your face after doing the descents/trails around there, than you would doing Walna.

    EDIT: Take heed of MH’s suggestions.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Better in grizedale than in the Dunnerdales? Mmmmm,
    OP asked for ‘must do’ not ‘same as could be done pretty much anywhere’

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Just as useful note, if you try to plan a bridleway climb direct into Grizedale from the north end of the Lake, the most obvious BW on the OS is closed for logging from the halfway point and can’t even be pushed up without difficulty. Bitter experience talking…

    d45yth
    Free Member

    Better in grizedale than in the Dunnerdales? Mmmmm,

    ‘Around’ Grizedale, yes! It tastes much better. 🙂

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Best trails period are the Lakes is in Grizedale Forest; not the same as the best ‘ride’ as it’s all lower level and you don’t get the same ‘mountain fee’ to the ride, but the trails are easily the best from a riding perspective.

    Grandad,Dad and The Dentist down to Satterthwaite

    If this is the trail from Parkamoor running roughly SE and finishing on a metaled road, then it’s also known as The Three Witches (name referenced by Bike Treks in Ambleside) and is brilliant; just brilliant.

    The other must do descent is The Fox down to Esthwaite from the top of Furness Fells north of Sattwethwaite. That’s one of the best descents I’ve done anywhere. Claife is also fun.

    The Lawson Park descent from the top of Grizedale to Consiton is also brilliant and can be augmented by turning left at the house half way down, then right into the forest about 200m later. Cheeky but well worth it.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Better in grizedale than in the Dunnerdales? Mmmmm,

    No-one’s suggesting he should do the trail centre stuff – these are all BWs in the forest, which offer much, much, better riding.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    I give up

    Scond thoughts no, I don’t. The BW’s and cheeky in grizedale is effing excellent. This I know as I live 9 miles from grizedale. I also ride regulalry in the fells and can absofrickinglutely guarantee that the best riding in the furness fells/consiton area IS NOT in grizedale and furthmore the trails I’ve suggested, as well as being better riding give that ‘out in the mountans’ feeling rather than the spinning round a trail centre feeling.
    examples include dunnerdales
    blawith common
    Iron keld
    black coombe

    all have descents the equal or better than anything in Grizedale.

    There, I have speakeded.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    I love a bit of passionate debate over the merits of different routes! Let’s face it, all the riding around Coniston is so good and varied, we can agree the OP can’t really go wrong.

    Unless he does Walna Scar, that is. 🙂

    d45yth
    Free Member

    thestabiliser – Member

    I give up
    Have you rode every trail in and around Grizedale? I do a route that takes in every decent descent (minus the one to Nibthwaite) around there and the surrounding areas…I can’t suggest to the OP, as I don’t know all the names of them.

    There are some good trails around the Dunnerdale Fells, I can’t argue there. Do you really think there is as much of a concentration of decent trails though?

    EDIT: I hadn’t seen your ‘second thoughts’ edit Stabiliser. 🙂

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite 🙂

    d45yth. Yes. Unequivocally. I ride in grizedale probably 3/4’s of the weekends of the year as i can pedal there from home

    The long mire and Natty bridge descents together with a couple of the BW’s (and one FP, shhhh) in broughton moor are worth the trip alone. that and the views into seathwaite from the park head rode must rate as some of the best in the northern hemisphere. If was here one day I’d do that. If i was here riding for the weekend I’d spend more hunting stuff down in grizedale

    d45yth
    Free Member

    black coombe

    I think you maybe more interested in views rather than quality of trails, especially suggesting that! Even ridden in both directions, back to back, it has no decent descents…fast maybe, decent, no! 😀

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Black Coombe: normally do the south up and down. It’s decent enough for me.

    tomaso
    Free Member

    There are just too many good trails to recommend.

    You can ride to Grizedale and back by various routes and take in some amazing trails. Descent to High Nibthwaite is a cracker.

    If you head north into the honey pot of biking around the Iron Keld Hodge Close Little Langdale – I can’t think of better way to kill four hours.

    Sanny
    Free Member

    <cough> Coniston Old Man Wetherlam cheekiness <cough>

    wors
    Full Member

    <cough> Coniston Old Man Wetherlam cheekiness <cough>

    and tiberthwaite gill 😉

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite Don’t bite

    d45yth. Yes. Unequivocally. I ride in grizedale probably 3/4’s of the weekends of the year as i can pedal there from home

    Can you help me then. There is a descent somewhere in the Satterthwaite area that I was shown a few years ago now by a guy called Nick who used to run the bike hire at Ambleside YHA.

    It’s double track through a forest, lots of rocks, loamy soil and fast. It gets more technical further down and the bit I remember that is very distinct, is this technical ‘jink’/dog leg you make through a large gap in a dry stone wall. Fast entry littered with embedded rocks and then singletrack on the exit making it very technical but super fun.

    I did a 50km ride around there the weekend before last and thought I would come across it but sadly I didn’t. I don’t know if it runs down east west or the other way around. Sorry to be vague and while a long shot, I am thinking your local knowledge might be able to identify this. Here’s hoping.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Cheeky on a sat morning in the lakes is a bit like shoplifting from the police station canteen

    geetee that’s……hole in the wall, it’s from the low dale park to hawkshead road and spits you out on the esthwaite road. On the east side of grizedale

    wors
    Full Member

    Can you help me then. There is a descent somewhere in the Satterthwaite area that I was shown a few years ago now by a guy called Nick who used to run the bike hire at Ambleside YHA.

    It’s double track through a forest, lots of rocks, loamy soil and fast. It gets more technical further down and the bit I remember that is very distinct, is this technical ‘jink’/dog leg you make through a large gap in a dry stone wall. Fast entry littered with embedded rocks and then singletrack on the exit making it very technical but super fun.

    I did a 50km ride around there the weekend before last and thought I would come across it but sadly I didn’t. I don’t know if it runs down east west or the other way around. Sorry to be vague and while a long shot, I am thinking your local knowledge might be able to identify this. Here’s hoping.

    Breasty Haw?

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Breasty Haw – western end? quite possibly so. Did it end on an s bend on a road or a the start of steep road into a village? If the latter breasty haw

    wors
    Full Member

    yea, loose singletrack spits you straight out onto the road.

    tomaso
    Free Member

    Or is it the other side drop down from Parkamoor to Moor Lane?

    Sanny
    Free Member

    thestabiliser

    ….it depends on what time on a Saturday morning you start 😉

    In my experience and to be fair I’ve ridden an awful lot of cheeky stuff in the Lakes over the years, it’s rare to get hassle particularly the higher you are. I’ve no doubt that there are some folk who might see a biker and wish they weren’t there but then there are plenty of folk who don’t like any group that doesn’t conform to their social / political / economic grouping …….which is probably one of the reasons why the Daily Mail is so popular. 😀

    It’s funny how many variations on cheeky riding rules there are. On a related note, I wonder if walkers forums are filled with anti bike rhetoric and concerns overs bikes of footpaths or are we as bikers the ones who seem to agonise and ponder over such things in a way that doesn’t reflect the majority view of other outdoor users? 🙂

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Can you help me then. There is a descent somewhere in the Satterthwaite area that I was shown a few years ago now by a guy called Nick who used to run the bike hire at Ambleside YHA.

    Stabiliser – is Hole in the Wall sometimes called Devil’s Gallop in the guides/map? That’s the one I’m thinking of.

    Everything in Grizedale seems to have about three names. There’s at least two ‘fox’ descents that I’ve come across.

    tomaso
    Free Member

    Devils Gallop is a greasy green rock chute but its a reasonable distance from Saterthwaite.

    scruff
    Free Member

    There cant be two fox decents, there a great big fox at the start of it !

    And Iron Kelds a bit dull. Pretty, but dull.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Which direction from the Fox though? There’s the one off to Esthwaite, which is definitely called ‘The Fox’, but I’ve heard the one down from there to the Visitor Centre called the fox too…

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    geetee that’s……hole in the wall, it’s from the low dale park to hawkshead road and spits you out on the esthwaite road. On the east side of grizedale

    Thanks mate – looking at an OS map that would fit with the general area I remember riding in with Nick and what we didn’t cover in our ride on Sunday week. Linky to Strava Route

    I am not sure we could have managed to squeeze that in without missing out Breasty Hoare. Even if it’s not the best track in the world, it’s still worth riding because of the name!

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    If you’d have carried almost straight across after Breasty Haw instead of climbing back up to The fox sculpture, you’d have done a tricky climb then hit a descent which involves a choice of rocky bits just after passing through a ruined wall, which is the one I think you mean.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I’m a wee bit confused now, think I’ll maybe just have a blast around Grizedale 🙂

    Thanks

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