All done yesterday on a cracking day in the lakes. Fair bit of hike a bike but also a good bit of loose, rocky downhill afterwards. 7 hours all round and a few aches today to show for it.

Well done to Bob for clearing the top section of Nan Bield – star.

Cheers to John, Jimmy, Bob, Dougie & Alistair

WillV

Doug

Gatesgarth

Alisatair

Nan Beild

Green Quarter

Cracking ride, innit! Took me a smidge longer but then i was riding to/from Ambleside. Nan Bield was outrageous, what i go to the Alps for.

WillV, Have you got a track that you could share?

What tyres for a ton of carrying? 😉

Great ride. Yer mate on the blue Five appears to have got a bit lost.

I love that ride. Aim to do it for my 40th birthday bash!

Add Harter fell for some cheeky above Nan bield 😛

Tis a nice route for sure. Last time I did it I turned it into four(ish) passes as in I did garburn twice. Garburn, gatesgarth, nan bield then back over garburn. Only 21 miles but over 5500ft of climbing. Tiring? I should coco 😆

Proper Jealous. Not done that since ’08

Thanks for the post Will great pic’s off a quality day in the Lakes, I was glad to get back behind the desk today too rest the legs. Cheers D

Probably see you at Mabie tomorrow eve 🙂
Have a look here for some Sanquhar pics and find the other pics from Sun

Nan Bield the other way is EXCELLENT.

We were discussing the merits of doing it the other way 🙂
What was your route ❓

Seems to be a lot of riding on the grass and not on the trail do rocks scare you?

He was overtaking/shortcutting the corners. Very able(more than me)rider more used to Inners DH course 😀
Or if you mean the 5th pic the rut was a pedal catcher and mech wrecker 💡

We just do it as an out and back, though we’re planning something good with footpaths…

That was the 4th time I have been over that route and have never seen so many walkers in the area. The weather certainly helped, the other times have a bit wild 😉

I’ve got the route on GPS if anyone wants it. Drop me an e-mail.

I did it late on last year and having had no offs all year I had 3 on the final grassy down hill on off the Nan Bield (lots of hiden ruts) and then got a pinch flat over the stream near Kentmere. Managed 5hrs 52mins.

I am sure the young, fitter guys could have got round quicker 😉
I suffered a broken chain, a puncture and then started to suffer cramp in my legs after the descent off Nan Beild. Really struggled to get flow/rythm going on the flat/rutted/bouldery
Enjoyed the Garburn descent, struggled on the up and then both legs cramped on the road after Dubbs ❗
With a bit of assistance in the way of a push up the hills I made it back ok.

Lovely thread and pictures. For a moment though, I thought you guys were supermen as Gatesgarth to me is always the Buttermere one. So I was thinking how did these guys do all that!?!?! Then I remembered the other logical one. Still a great ride. Haweswater to Ambleside is the mentally challenging part of the Lakeland 100 running race which is why I had blanked out the name on this occassional. The cobbles play havoc with the feet!

More of these great threads please!

The hiking plays havoc with my knees, probably the last time I will do that particular route. The ease and safety of trail centre riding for me as I head into retirement 🙄

Nan Bield the other way is EXCELLENT.

Which way(s)?

We rode from Stavely, up halfway along High st- short cut right along cheeky to the top/start of Nan Bield then descended to the Green Quarter – is this right?

I thought you guys were supermen as Gatesgarth to me is always the Buttermere one

Nice descent into that by Scarth gap to.

Could someone tell me which is the more technical and challenging way round to ride Nan Bield – I want route which is more steep/tech/sketchy etc. I think there’s a route with rock slabs and stuff. Thanks.

Could someone tell me which is the more technical and challenging way round to ride Nan Bield – I want route which is more steep/tech/sketchy etc. I think there’s a route with rock slabs and stuff. Thanks.

The North side is the ‘normal’ ascent route but if you want super tech then you can descend that side as per the Danny Mac MTBCut vid (skip to 4:00 for the descent, but watch the start if you want to see how involved it is as a carry up. There’s some off-piste on there). How you work the rest of the route is up to you. There’s loads of bridalways, some cheeky and plenty of hike-a-bike.

[video]http://vimeo.com/14277664[/video]

Superb pics and a wonderful route. Personally I dont take the Harter Fell cheek and the descent to Nan Bield, whilst shit scarey and technical (for me anyway) it just does not make up for the loss of Gatescarth to Haweswater.

Its ace up there!

Up there tomorrow on my tod i,d better pad up! 😀

Scuttler – thanks a lot, that’s the one I was after. I knew I’d seen it on the vid before.

From Nan Bield you can easily ride most of the way to the top of High Street. If you do that, don’t do the descent down Riggindale Crag, although the first 100m is great, the rest is largely unrideable or grass. Kidsty Pike looks better, but I’ve not done it?

wl- The North side is the more technical, not too nadge core though. We rode it based on the Mojo Trail diaries. We started in Kentmere, went up what Trekster and willv went down, then down the North side, then straight back up and over back to Kentmere.

I’d recommend avoiding the first chunk of bridleway on the way up from Kentmere, though, and use the road and footpath to the reservoir on the opposite side of the valley. It’s much quicker and easier.

We’ve also done some cheeky footpath stuff at the top.

Nan Bield is a giggle. The top steep section is the bit people talk about but the stony rutted mid section is a hoot to ride.

I did that ride with Munrobiker, it’s a fair bit of effort on the way up but is a fair hoot on the way down and makes up for it. I din’t do the super tech of mojo diaries fame as to get back to the start point you’ve got to push all the way back up or do one hell of a ride around the bottom and weather and time were against us. Definitely a goer at this time of year though.

Never managed this for some reason – looks great.

Nan Bield up from the farm at the top of Kentmere, beyond the village, up over to Sadgill, over Gatesgarth and then push your bike across Harter Fell to Nan Bield and back down to Kentmere makes a lovely night ride. Its great to get up on top of the mountains properly on a school night

We’ll be up there in July for a quick Wednesday night bash and in the Eagle and Child for last ordersboggies

Thanks OP for posting this. Did it over the weekend as an extension to the normal Garburn route we do. The downhill from Gatesgarth to the Nan Bield is brilliant!

A quick note to anyone doing it this week… if we didn’t have the water purifier to fill up from the streams that sun would have killed us.

http://singletrackworld.com/trailguide/files/2008/12/south-lake-district-hard-route.pdf