Me and the GF will be passing the area next week with a possible couple of hours to spare.. thought we’d throw the bikes in the van. Never ridden this area before so can anyone recommend a good ‘sampler’ loop (easy to navigate) that we might do?

Both of us are OK on ‘standard’ difficulty trails (stuff like Garburn, Borrowdale and a recent week in the Alps with TWR) as a guide but we are slooow climbers/pushers.

Well, the good news is the hills aren’t very long!

Checkout the Strava Heatmap

Navigation is tricky if you don’t know the place as there’s so many trails round there and the best stuff is all cheeky (that no one will tell you about on here). I’d suggest you go on Strava and look for the Blue Pig, Peckett Well, Stoodley Ridgeline and Rodwell End Zig-zags segments, then figure out how to link them up using the heatmap and an OS map.

I think the standard response for this question is:

I think a more helpful response would be for you to head up the BW to Jack Bridge, right at the road and up towards Slack, Zig Zags back down into the Colden Valley, spin up the BW/lane to Heptonstall and then do the Blue Pig descent to Hardcastle Craggs. From there you can either pootle back down the road to Hebden or push up one side of Peckett Well (the easterly BW to Peckett Well) and then come down the better one (the westerly one) back to Hardcastle Craggs. Great little intro to Hebden riding and weirdly, 100% legit.

Thanks dazh, I must look into this new-fangled Strava thing sometime.

Thanks DaveyBoyWonder… will get that suggestion mapped out on my ViewRanger for those “well, you’re in charge of the map!!!” moments.

Pretty self explanatory. Its more about learning the names of the trails around here. Telling someone who doesn’t know the area to do Jack Bridge, then the zig zags, then back up to Hepstonall with a quick loop around to Punch The Wall on the way before Barely Legal, Black Pig, Blue Pig and then up and down Peckett Well A and B means nowt!