Following my recent thread about a weekend biking next year
I would like some input from you guys about routes around Ullswater.

Any videos would be good too.

Is an OS map worth it? I’m going to look at getting some GPX files and putting them into my phone to follow.

I’d suggest an OS map is always worth it – just in case you get lost. Don’t forget there are BIG mountains around Ullswater so it pays to be prepared and an OS map is a part of that preparation.

As for routes – Ullswater Singletrack, High Street, Helvellyn.

Just another quick question, I have this route.

Without the pink bit, I have just read this pink bit is a decent bit to add, it also says on the same forum that its better ridden the other way round to the MBR route.

Can anyone confirm that its better the other way?

I rode this route recently. We climbed up the BW from Patterdale(higher line) but it was a carry so defo try Bridgend climb.

I found having the route in my phone useful at Boredale Hause as the BW you want is not obvious.

As for the Ullswater BW, I’m not sure in matters which way you ride it. Heading either way you may find the downs testing but you will certainly have to push up some of the climbs. We headed down the lake back to Patterdale and I thought it was superb. Glad the rocks were dry though.

My phone won’t show me your route but if you send it my email I’ll have a look.

As for Hellvellyn, we rode/pushed up Keppel Cove then came back down via Sticks Pass. I thought Sticks Pass was really good but there’s no real point in going all the way to the top to ride that.
Maybe Dollywagen Pikes more rewarding?

What might be an interesting ride would be go out on the high Ullswater BW to the far end before returning on the lower one to Patterdale before heading over to Glenridding, up Keppel Cove and down Sticks Pass.

Personally, and I admit I’m no expert, I think that some of the highest routes in the Lakes are mire about ticking boxes & there is more interesting stuff lower down?!

The pink bit is the best bit!

docrobster + 1

it’s worth buying the vg lakes guide book. plenty of ideas for that area and all of them good ones.

Agreed that the pink bit is the best bit. I did that route backwards (compared to the map), with the addition of the pink bit (which is the best bit of the whole ride!).

I’ll undoubtedly get slated for this but I think high street is a massively over rated ride (the route I did anyway). Long hike a bike up, then just a boring boggy/rutty (depending on current conditions) undulating stretch, eventually finishing on an uninspiring grassy/firetrack style road downhill. View are pretty good though.

Personally, and I admit I’m no expert, I think that some of the highest routes in the Lakes are mire about ticking boxes & there is more interesting stuff lower down?!

I’m going with some friends in a few weeks and we’re looking at ‘ticking off’ the box of the highest mountain in England that you can legally ride up, but if the weather is bad I think we will need a ‘plan b’. Which routes do you think are better lower down then Mugboo?

I’m thinking of Borrowdale Bash as an alternative to Helvellyn – would that be a good one to do?

Loved the borrowdale bash. The route we did was off the Bogtrotters website and included a really fun techy footpath on the outward leg. (I only ever go to the Lakes on a weekday)

Or put something together that starts in Grizedale that takes in the Parkamoor BW before looping round Coniston. Then head back up into Grizdale (seek advice on a rideable route up, we pushed). We started and finished on the NFT at Moor Top car park.

I think that some of the highest routes in the Lakes are mire about ticking boxes and there is more interesting stuff lower down

You’re going up the wrong mountains 😉

If you do the pictured route, do it anti-clockwise. Why would anybody want to ride it clockwise? That means you are riding UP the several miles long arm of High Street that goes gradually down to Pooley Bridge, they must have been some kind of halfwit.

Park at Brother’s Water and ride/push/carry up to Hayeswater then on to The Knott. Enjoy fantastic mountain top riding over High Street to the beacon on Thornthwaite Crag, a great place to stop for lunch. Then retrace your steps and head for High Raise, be careful at the point where you must diverge from the ridge that goes east to Kidsty Pike (readers of some of the earliest editions of STW might remember my story about going the wrong way in bad weather at that point!)

So find the ill-defined track, turn north east at Rampsgill Head and ride almost due north towards Loadpot Hill. After that the real fun starts; you’ve a couple of miles of fast twisty single track down towards Pooley Bridge. At The Cockpit turn west and ride down to Ullswater then follow the lake edge back to the start. It’s a hard day out and you need to be fit, well equipped and carry food and water.Better go with a small, fast-moving group with well prepared XC bikes in good nick

I’ll undoubtedly get slated for this but I think high street is a massively over rated ride (the route I did anyway). Long hike a bike up, then just a boring boggy/rutty (depending on current conditions) undulating stretch, eventually finishing on an uninspiring grassy/firetrack style road downhill. View are pretty good though.

Agreed. The Ullswater singletrack is by far the best bit.

Its not that near Ullswater but if you want to do a big mountain route I’d go for Skiddaw/Ullock Pike (FP though so be sensitive). Dollywagon on Grizedale is good but very demanding. The steps/drainage ditches at the top are a killer for me – the section after the tarn is absolutely superb tech though.

+1 for anticlockwise on that route. having said that, just noticed that it’s an mbr route in the pic – do they do these things the wrong way round for a reason ?

personally i’d start it from brotherswater then climb to boredale hause and take your pick of the descents to martindale. then i’d swing round to the lake and ignore that top section to pooley bridge. not a huge ride by any means but loads of really good riding.

Agree the section from Howtown back to Glenridding is really rewarding. We did this section a few weeks ago after doing Helvellyn. We rode/pushed up Keppel Cove and then did the Dollywagon Pike descent. (Very techy). Rode back into Glenridding for coffe, then ot the ferry across to Howtown and rode bac. It only covered about 18 miles, but we acheived 4600 feet of ascent/descent, and came home with a massive feeling of achievement.

Parked Tiger

Quite possibly! In all seriousness, like I said I have limited experience of the lakes. If only that Euromillions had come in. Pretty sure you know alot more than I do about the area. 🙂