The website says just 10 miles but reckons 2 1/2hrs to do it. Either they’re measuring the time taken by a mincing 12 yr old or there are a lot of hills. I shall be travelling south from Keswick so could just do whinlatter again or the short back o’ skiddaw route before heading home on Sunday, opinions plz. Thanks.

IMO NF isn’t anywhere as good as Whinlatter, although there are a couple of nice sections. And a lot of fire road. There’s only one big climb so 2.5 hours is a significant overestimate.

However, if you chuck in a few of the ‘natural’ bits of the forest, or just do natural bits, you can come up with a 3 hour loop that you’ll enjoy a heck of a lot more.

I was out there last weekend on the natural stuff and it was all in brilliant nick. Best day I’ve had on the bike this year.

It’s a brilliant track for novices but for anyone else who has some experience of riding its a bit tame. Grizedale on the other hand has among the best rocky Singletrack anywhere in the UK. They are the bridle ways criss crossing the south part of the Forrest. Truly excellent riding. I have a strava track of a ride I did last august that I can show you.

It’s ok. It’s a lot better than not riding your bike! Good views, an interesting climb and a few good singletrack sections. But it’s not the best route in the forest at all. A similar length but much better loop is the short Grizedale Blast in the Vertebrae Graphics Lake District Trails book.

Here you go Grizedale Forest ride

Or this one, which has three brilliant descents in it, the best bit of the NF (the initial climb), and is basically the same as the ‘Grizedale and Parkamoor’ route in the Vertebrate Graphics guide.

http://www.theedgecycleworks.com/mtbroutes/grizedale-parkamoor/

Cheers lads, I have the vertebrate book in hand at the mo. The parkamoor loop looks ideal at 27km. Getting excited just thinking about it.

Any route that involves an encounter with Breasty Haw cannot fail, really. 🙂

Ye, get parka moor and breasty haw in your ride and you’ll be sorted, sack the north face it was made 10 years ago and not been touched since.

A NF/BW combo is some of my favourite riding anywhere. One of the best descents IMO is not in the VG book. If you go out to Parkamoor then turn left and go back over and down to Satterthwaite – crosses the fire road twice.

If you’re short on time, useless at map reading and like your trail centre rides then yes, it’s OK. There are far better routes through the forest, some great bits of singletrack but a lot of it is fairly hidden – sort of local trails for local people! There’s a network there way too dense to show on any map, a wonderful mix of BW, FP and random unmarked trails. Map and compass can be very useful there, even when I rode it all the time I’d still end up popping out at unintended places sometimes and wondering how I got there!

sack the north face it was made 10 years ago and not been touched since.

God was it 10 years ago?! I did one of the first ever “formal” rides around that route with Sue Clarke – we were absolutely nailing it, took me everything I had just to stay with her but we did the full loop in 37 minutes. 🙂