Day off work tomorrow, weather’s looking good so planning on heading up to the north end of the Dales to ride something new. Any route recommendations? Currently planning on doing either the Caperby loop or Gunnerside / Reeth loop.

That Carperby one looks like a bit of a trudge without much technical interest. I would certainly do it in the opposite direction ie descending Apedale and Greets Hill.

If you’ve got the legs though, do Fremington, over to Gunnerside Gill, Gunnerside, Summer Lodge, Apedale, Greets. You may not thank me when you’re climbing after Summer Lodge, but it has to be the best (legit) route there. I vaguely remember it was just over 30 miles, 4000 ft ascent.

The only downside is going straight into the climb up Fremington if you start in Reeth.

Everything is going to be bone dry. Drop in at Dales Bike Centre and ask Stu for recommendations.

DBC – Fremington Edge – Hurst – Storthwaite Hall – Langthwaite – Cringley Hill – Great Pinseat – Gunnerside Gill – Barf End – Gunnerside – Crackpot – Summer Lodge – Whitaside Moor – round to Harkerside – down pipeline descent to Maiden Castle – DBC

There are variations and extra bits you can add to the above, some legal, some cheeky.

Edit: pretty much the same as Martin’s suggestion

Cheers Martin. This is the one I was thinking of doing other than the Caperby loop;

http://www.mtbtrails.info/Trail_Venue_Map_TrailViewer.aspx?VenueNumber=125&TrailNumber=212&Unique=636299230229379408

How does the climb up Fremington compare to the climb out of Kettlewell towards the descent into Starbotton?

The first half of that ride is what Martin and I proposed. Above Gunnerside you cut back west and drop into that village then head onto the S side of the valley rather than follow the river.

The climb up Fremington isn’t as loose as the Kettlewell one and the steeper bit is at the top. Not sure which is harder, Kettlewell requires more technique, Fremington more fitness (IMO).

Climb up Fremington is steep on tarmac to start, then gets loose and scrabbly just as you’re running out of puff. It’s more the lack of warm-up that’s the issue (for me) when starting out of Reeth. I’d say the Kettlewell climb is slightly harder.

Don’t let that put you off though, it’s worth it. The Summer Lodge climb is also a bit of a bastard if you’re out of gas at that point.

Thanks for the advice guys. Fitness is good so no problems with sustained climbs and regularly do 30+ mile rides so will try and check out the south side of the valley after Gunnerside. Will post some pictures up tomorrow night if all goes well.

Just checked – 27 miles and 4600 ft according to the mighty Strava.

Have fun. Nice day for it.

Martin, do you have a .gpx file of that ride you can post on here? Or even a Strava link to the ride and I can plot the route myself.

My nearest version goes ‘offroute’ a bit in various places, so might be a bit misleading. Also doesn’t take you to the ‘Pipeline’, which might be a better recommendation than the full climb up Apedale – Whitestone might have something better.

The route you linked covers the top bit, you just need to get onto the BW all the way down to Gunnerside, cross the river, head through Crackpot, up past Summer Lodge onto the road, go left and down for a bit, then pick up the Apedale BW on the right. Your Carperly route then takes over if you want to go over Apedale and down Greets.

this is the same one i believe with print off map and gpx, it’s the one called The Edge.
http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/visit-the-dales/get-outdoors-dales/mountain-biking/mountain-biking-routes

edit; to get the gpx you right click on tracklogs file and select save to…. will save it to your downloads folder

Great cheers.

There’s a couple of options on Whitaside. Firstly you leave the road here then at this point you have your two options. The black dashed line is a newly resurfaced landrover track that goes round to Harkerside. It’s not flat! For the pipeline you want to leave the track here, it’s not obvious but it’s just after you’ve done a steep climb up through some zig-zags and crossed the top of a gully, there’s a very faint path that contours around the edge overlooking the valley. Just keep going until you see a small notch off to your left. Once on the moor below just bear right and contour until you get to the road, there’s loads of tracks and you probably wouldn’t do the same route twice.

The alternative is to carry on up the track from the junction, only one short steepish section just after the junction. Just keep following the track through the old mine workings, there’s no other tracks. Once at the gate at the top it’s a blast down into Apedale with one steep section that used to be loose but the estate have concreted part of it. At the crossroads turn left and climb up a track to Greets Hill which leads to a fast descent across moorland to the road. You might want to go across the road 😉 otherwise head downhill and bear left at the first bend for more fun.

Edit: B.A. Nan’s route is the same as you already linked to apart from the BW down to Gunnerside plus you can avoid the main road bit by taking the minor road towards Crackpot then take the lane starting here, it will be dry at the moment.