Any good mtb routes that start from the door?
Cheers

Ride towards Patterdale and turn right for Hartsop after a mile or so on the road…wince in pain as you grind your way up to Hayeswater, push up the stupidly steep slope of The Knott, then it’s a short hop to the top of High Street. Bimble around picking up Thornthwaite Crag and Kidsty Pike, return by same way – it’s a LOT quicker on the return but not an awful lot of miles. Or for a big day out follow the roman road all the way to Pooley Bridge OR Ullswater shoreline singletrack which you can loop back round to Boredale Hause – then it’s a tidy decent and either a well earned pint in the White Lion in Patterdale or an even better Loweswater Gold in the pub at Brotherswater. Helvellyn’s an option which isn’t too far away either.
TBH I don’t think you’re in the best part of the Lakes if you have your steed with you – but I’m sure there are better informed people on here than me 😉

Instead of returning from High Street, continue north to the lake (The Cockpit) and then come back over Boredale Hause.

No nothing round there, you’ll need to get in the car and go to Grizedale or Whinlatter

Would I be better off cycling into Keswick and doing something like the Borrowdale bash etc? Not done much in the Lakes before and the number of routes available has me a bit bewildered.

BB is good – fair bit of road though. Really nice decent from Watendlath to Rosthwaite.

Top of High Street will be a bog at the moment I would imagine (unless its stayed frozen). Hellvelyn is more fun IMO but quite straight up and down. Dollywaggon Pike is the only descent I’ve done – steps at the top are mostly a ballache but the rest of the descent is ace.

Patterdale, up waterworks road (see how far you can get up that…), Boredale hause, down back of Beda Fell(nice) then to Sandwick and lakeshore singletrack back.

Nice route, used to be my lunchtime cycle for many years.

[IMG]http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/poorlybottoms/P1090783.jpg[/IMG]

High Street is excellent at the moment with hard packed Snow making the racecourse hill climb super easy, this photo was taken on Saturday.

From Sykes Side my route would be Deepdale bridge to Boredale Hause and the descending towards side farm,two Bridleways run parallel here, the higher one is more techy and more fun, the lower one is loose and washed out,The higher one is often featured in magazine photo shoots and a brilliant downhill with a tricky jump and a few big slabby sections,not a long descent but packs everything in, if your lucky enough to get a good day with less users.

from the bottom, cross over a beck but stay to the right, this Bridleway stays higher up along the Ullswater lakeshore giving excellent views across the lake, dropping down the steppy decent past Silver point.

From here continue along the classic single track staying right at Sandwick, road work to a bridleway past “the lodge” road from winter crag to dale head joining the long climb to Boredale hause again,you can repeat the mornings descent or head towards Brotherswater and Dubhow (much faster, but less tech) enjoy its a brilliant area to ride. 😉

as an aside, post ride outside the pub once, a bloke came out carrying 3 pints, tripped, fell down a flight of steps and landed in a heap face first at the bottom…..but didn’t spill a drop!

what a hero.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the routes in here:

Cheers Simon. I’ve just ordered it from Amazon. Should give me a good few ideas. The other suggestions are much appreciated also.