I’m planning my first mountain biking trip to the Peak District and I’d appreciate if someone could point me to some great trails on Strava/.gpx that I could easily follow.

Looking to ride a few 30-50km techy loops. Lots of singletrack interwoven with some techy descents would be great.

I plan to stay around Edale or Hope.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Have a look here for a few decent rides.

Or buy this book, it’s pretty good.

Out and back over Cut Gate with a loop around North America is always good.

http://monkeyspoon.com/peak-district-mountain-biking-route-map

Many thanks!

The routes in the v-publishing guide books are usually very good too.

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/mountain-biking.html

There have been many threads. Edale or Hope is a good base

Not huge on singletrack, but my go to Peaks loop is from Hope…

Up the Roman Road to Hope Cross
Turn right down the The Beast
Ride/walk back up The Beast
Turn right down Potato Alley
Cross the road and climb up to Lockerbrook
Descend down to the reservoir
Spin along the road (stop at the cafe) and slog up the Screaming Mile
Across the top and down Hagg Farm switchbacks
Cross the road and push/ride back up The Beast
Straight over at the top and down-up-down Jaggers
Spin along the road to Edale and pick your route up to Mam Nick
Across past the poultry farm and down Cavedale into Castleton
Spin along the road back to Hope

http://mountainbikerides.co.uk/routes/128-the-peak-district.html

One of the routes from the link that Mad Pierre posted includes Stanage Causeway which has now been re-surfaced – it’s now far from a tech-fest. Take the bridleway through Plantation instead which is much better.

If you want to see what the trails are like I’ve done a compilation vid of some of the best descents around the Hope Valley:

Peak MTB Compilation Video

Derwent Edge down to Cut-throat ridge (aka Alpine) is my favourite. Great view over Ladybower and a techy descent.

Wow, lots of stuff to keep me busy then!

Insanity is brilliant but cheeky so be polite. I wish it was as dry as that video currently.
For a change last weekend I rode the downhills at Hollinsclough. Not long or flowy but some uber Techy sections. Shall return when it’s not pouring down.

gorillainthepeak – Member
https://gorillainthepeak.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/peak-mtb-compilation-video

Good vid. Where is the “Rock garden into Castleton”? Not ridden that one. Is it cheeky?

adsbatts89 – Derwent Edge down to Cut-throat ridge (aka Alpine) is my favourite. Great view over Ladybower and a techy descent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_bwotMw-AU

Also one of the most controversial trails in the area. feel free to post it on line, ride it to death then complain when someone does something about it.

My ‘go-to’ Peaks ride (I call it the five-up, five-down) is:

Start at Ladybower Inn – climb to Derwent Edge and descend to the reservoir via the flags.

Ride round through Fairholmes to the Bridge End car park and climb from here. Traverse along to Hagg Farm and descend the swithcbacks all the way across the road to the river.

Ride along bank of res to the concessional track to Wooller Knoll. Climb this and turn right at the top, dropping at speed to the Roman Road.

Ride the Roman road northwards and descend Blackley Hey (potato alley). Cross the A57 and climb through Rowlee Farm to the cross-trails at the top of the Hagg Farm switchbacks. Turn left to Lockerbrook and descend the ‘Screaming Mile’ to the reservoir. Turn right onto the road and ride back to Fairholmes.

Now ride back to the bottom of the flagstones you descended earlier and reverse the first climb and descent.

As others have said, there is a cheeky from here – but it seems to be sensitive from the point of view of local riders – and the alternative legit trail is just as much fun IMO. Exercise a degree of sense here – cheeky does not combine well with busy times of day(!)

As mentioned above, Cut Gate out and back is a great ride too – and you can bolt on a couple of bits at the Ladybower end to turn it into a real epic (at least epic in my terminology).

Good vid. Where is the “Rock garden into Castleton”? Not ridden that one. Is it cheeky?

Not seen the vid but probably cave dale, down the back of Peveril castle.

jeffl – wasn’t Cavedale – I know that and it was earlier in the vid. This one was much narrower (basically a rocky ditch).

Not seen the video either but could also be the very bottom bit before you hit the tarmac if you’ve descended off Hollins Cross via the legit bridleway towards Castleton.

Rock garden to Castleton is Here

Yeah, it’s the BW from Hollins Cross to Castleton.

Cheers. Looks too short to go seeking it out specially though! Think Cavedale will remain my preferred drop into Castleton.

Its on the other side of the Valley to Cavedale so you can easily get both in if your out for a quick double type loop.

For example – Hope, up Pindale, down Cavedale, up the Broken Road, Round Mam Tor, descend from the Bus Stop, up Greenlands, down the bridleway back to Castleton, back up the Broken Road and round to the Bus Stop again, along the slabs off Mam Tor, down Backtor, Jaggers Clough and then Roman Road back into Hope 🙂

Er, I find Cavedale very difficult. I don’t have a dropper post and am more XC-biased though. The lead up to the main descent is pretty fast. You then hit a gate and it’s a very steep, wet, slippery, rocky ride. There are some thoughts on it here http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cavedale – it would be a shame to ride all the way up there only to have to push down. Like I’ve done 😥

One of our group dislocated her shoulder on Cavedale on Sat.
Mountain Rescue job.
It’s a shame as it’s one of my favourites, but most of the people I ride with have decided it’s not for them. The problem is that we ride gritstone 95% of the time and limestone can come as a bit of a shock!

It can get very busy with walkers too and if you’re concentrating enough to ride cleanly, it’s very difficult to gauge whether a walker is happy for you to pass or panicking as they often struggle to walk it safely.

Plenty of other great options above though!
My favourite riding area has recently become the moors around Stanage – just love the rocky outcrops and techy trial-like riding.

Dannyh – if I’m not mistaken you are going down Lockerbrook farm descent not screaming mile, which is found by turning right at the top of Hagg Farm. It ends in a carpark with a left turn to Fairholmes.

I’m with AlexSimon – I’ve been riding a 27-mile loop around Stanage / Blacka / Frogatts recently.

@tonto – I always thought the screaming mile and Lockerbrook were synonymous – evidently not. I now assume the screaming mile is the one that ends up at the Bridge End car Park – got sanitised a good few years back(?) If it is, I now use this as my preferred climb instead of Crook Farm as it cuts out the dragginess of the grass parts of that track.

Another aspect of the route I outlined above is that you can do the Beast instead of Potato Alley and either pootle along the A57 or climb the Hagg Farm switchbacks to the same point you would have ended up at anyway…….

I found Cavedale extremely difficult. I didn’t even attempt it and walked. There was water running all the way down the tricky middle section so I thought it would be slippy in the extreme. It looked like if I was to attempt that descent I’d need the brakes on nearly all the way down, and with all that water, I thought it would cause me to slide and fall off.

The Beast is far easier because it isn’t slippy

I would agree you need to brake on Cavedale ! Think more like Danny Mac than Danny Hart athoigh Imexpect he’s just fly down no problem.

One of my favourite descents in the Peak

My first attempt at Cavedale was VERY tentative, slow, on the brakes and ‘trialsy’. Also including a great many foot down moments (my excuse is that it was the last descent of a 65km ride around Ladybower and Edale and I was pretty much spent by this point).

[video]http://vimeo.com/132101499[/video]

Since then I’ve ridden it with only a couple of small dabs, still not that quickly but if you keep your eyes ahead, your weight centred, pick your lines and commit to them it’s not as bad as you think.

I did Cavedale for the 1st time on a Saturday a few weeks back and, as has been said, it was pretty slippy. The problem wasn’t that so much as the walkers though, there were hordes of them so line choice was limited and I kept getting pushed into bits I didn’t want to be on. Decided it was too dangerous for me and them to keep going so walked a large chunk of it (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it :-)). Might just have been an unusually busy day for walkers, but I’d probably steer clear on a weekend. Probably ok an a weekday though.

On the video it looks nothing compared to how I remembered it when I saw it in real life when I considered riding it & thought it looked way too slippy & rocky & regrettably decided to walk (based on the thought that my shoes have more grip than my tyres with brakes full on)

If I just watched the vids and never saw it for real I’d think it didn’t look that bad

It’s surprising how much vids make trails look a lot flatter & make the rocks look a lot smaller than it is in reality