Bit of expert guidance needed please – I’ll be visiting Cockermouth (fnar fnar) in May, and planning to ride Whinlatter. I think there’s three trails in total, two reds and a blue. What would be the best order to ride them in?

And is there any other good doorstep riding from Cockermouth? I won’t have access to a car.

Ta 🙂

Red North, Red South and then Blue if you’ve got the time. How are you getting to Whinlatter from Cockermouth if you’ve no transport?

If I was doing all 3 trails, I’d go :-

North
Blue
South

If you look at the trail map, the end of the blue blends into the start of the South.

I ride up from thornthwaite&usually start the blue after the first downhill bit ,,South red, North red,with a few bonus climb sections & finish on the start of the blue ,back down to the lake.

From Cockermounth I’d either go up watch hill towards dubwath,lakeside path towards Thornthwaite,or, Lorton vAlley ,up the pass until the first car park ,then up the fire road to the top of the red.(you could take the road to the visitor centre instead of the fire road 😉 )
Have a look at the Lakeland monster cx ride route map,I seem to remember it does something similar .

When I’m there I ride up from Portinscale (up the Thornthwaite bridleway) do the red north, red south then Blue. That gives you a nice big climb from the valley floor to the highest point of the ride in one go.

Thanks very much all, that’s (almost) a consensus of which order to do them in 😀 .

According to Google maps it’s only 8 miles or so from Cockermouth to the Whinlatter carpark, so unless I’m mistaken it should be fine to ride.

Have a look at the Lakeland monster cx ride route map,I seem to remember it does something similar .

Thanks for tip, will do.

Popped down Sunday and we rode Blue > South > North which worked well with the blue working as a warm up.

love whinlatter, there’s one bit on the north loop which I would defo grade black where you come to it and go ‘woooooo no ‘king way I’m riding down that’ so you go back a bit and maybe get another run in, have another go you wimp and NOPE…walk down it, try again another time. 😀

What kid of riding do you enjoy?

You can ride to Setmurthy Woods from Cockermouth and push/pedal up for a selection of DH tracks. Not too severe and fun on an enduro bike (when I last visited a couple of years ago).

Video from Youtube:[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U81E76fMok[/video]

You can ride to Setmurthy Woods from Cockermouth and push/pedal up for a selection of DH tracks. Not too severe and fun on an enduro bike (when I last visited a couple of years ago).

Heard good things about this place, one of the sections on the next ‘Slice of Pie’ was filmed there.. I believe..

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I enjoy riding Grenoside in Sheffield so that looks right up my street 🙂

jekkyl – Member
love whinlatter, there’s one bit on the north loop which I would defo grade black where you come to it and go ‘woooooo no ‘king way I’m riding down that’ so you go back a bit and maybe get another run in, have another go you wimp and NOPE…walk down it, try again another time.

Is that the little downhill ‘corkscrew’ section near the top?

First visit to Whinlatter I rode that on my BFe no problem – mainly because I didn’t know it was there and just got on with it. Next visit on an Alpine I knew it was coming up and my brain got in the way – ended up clumsily ‘tripodding’ down it…

If it is that section, wasn’t it originally labelled up as a black option anyway?

I’d warm up on the Blue, do North then South! Just to ruin the consensus.

Before they shut the free car park at Maismill, the optimal way to do it was to warm up on the blue from there, pick up the north when you get to the VC, do that then south, finally doing the first section of the blue back to the car.

The problem with that rocky switchbacky rooty thing on the north is that it’s always so bloody slippery. Saw someone faceplant into a tree on it a while back which was a bit distracting.

Cockermouth local here. Setmurthy has some great little trails. For an afternoon of push up/ride down it is great.
As for Whinlatter as above I ride up from Thornthwaite. There is a recently repaired bridleway that takes you up to the blue trail which starts on your left (at a Woden gate)on the road. Ride that to the visitors centre, ride the North Red, then South Red then the remainder of the blue back and back down the bridleway to Thornthwaite. I pop over to Portinscale (The Chalet Cafe) afterwards for coffee and cake.
For a full day you could add in the Borrowdale Bash after doing Whinlatter.

OP happy to show you round setmurthy when your in Cockermouth. Just let me know when.

There’s also the 4play cycles shop ride on Tuesday night at 6pm, i wouldn’t have thought you’d have a problem scrounging a lift. Worth visiting the mountains while your in the lakes!

North blue South.

It’s not a bad spin up from Cockermouth to be honest.

Setmurthy Woods looks good. Is that ride in the youtube clip all one continuous run or several bits compiled together.

I think I’ll be checking the place out next time I’m in the lakes.

Deffo start from Thornthwaite and go up the (steep) bridleway. Lovely little valley.