So, group of us plan to head up to Peaks this Sunday. Never been before. How easy is the route to navigate without a garmin? is it way marked? If not i need to try and work out how the navigation works on my fenix 3!
Also being a peaks virgin am i better doing another route first? Any advise gratefully received.
None of your group have a garmin?
The trail isn't waymarked, none of the natural routes will be. Are you planning on an out n back from Ladybower?
Jekkyl,
I have a Garmin fenix 3, which i believe i can load maps onto. But no we don't have a garmin. I believe the route i found on google is a loop from Ladybower yes.
Russ
I was hoping someone else would have answered by now. I've never done cutgate, well I went to do it but underestimated the time it would take so just went up the first hill and then turned around. As far as I can gather it's fairly straight forward, just one big track across the top and it forks at the end, at north america where it forms a triangle.
Just ride up the right hand side of ladybower/derwent and there's a load of pools at the top. When you're there you can see the first hill off to the right so just follow it up. I could suggest other routes but they are all more complex navigationally so it would seem if you're after straight forward cutgate might be it. Have fun.
I'd say it was impossible to get lost on cut gate - some folk are gifted, though.
It's a great trail but a bit isolated, so working it into a loop can mean going fairly large, but riding it as an out and back might leave the fit members of your group wanting more (rolling round the reservoir is easy riding). If you start from Fairholmes on Ladybower you have a lot of options as you could do Cut Gate out and back in the morning and then see how people feel. There's a few good loops you can do from Ladybower that aren't long but have good climbs and descents.
It's actually a pretty straightforward route to navigate, particularly the main Cut Gate track using an Ordnance Survey map and/or the excellent Vertebrate Publishing guide book.
If you have the GPX, you can load it onto the Fenix and follow the route using that, but it's pretty straightforward with a map.
I ran from Langsett to the top of Cut Gate the other day. Dead easy to navigate once onto the proper path. To be honest, I've ridden it a few times back in the day, but for me its not a great place to ride, especially towards the top before it tips down toward ladybower. Much better coming down towards langsett than the other way though.
Stunning scenery though.
If you are on Cut Gate you may wish to consider a donation to the Mend our Mountains campaign
http://peakdistrictmtb.org/project/cut-gate/
It’s relatively straightforward. MBR route and map describes it pretty well for someone who’s unfamiliar with it.
We’re fundraising to repair the 3 really boggy bits up top, please fire a few quid into the pot!
I’ll happily donate, once I am comfortable where we are going!
Cut gate itself is so well defined it's be hard to get lost on it.
However cut gate as a ride on its own isn't much, (yes the singletracks good but wont take long) so you'd want to incorporate into a larger route.
What I usually do is start langsett, ride over, do some bits around ladybower and back over with that great single track decent.
That'd require quite a bit of navigating though.
In the peaks other than the likes of lady canning nothing is waymarked so you'll need some form of navigation tool. Even if it's a map.
Has anyone got a GPX route? We are travelling up early from a Gloucestershire so would like a descent days riding. I have a Garmin Fenix 3 which has navigation
What do you want to do? Just cut gate or do you want to do some other bits, where do you want to start off from?
Remember it's not a trail centre with a standard start, stop.
Don't know which way you'll be driving up but maybe the M1 at some point? If so it's closed all this weekend as they're building a new bridge between J23a & 24
Fathomer. Thanks for that, looks like we may of dodged a traffic jam shaped bullet with that nugget of info! We would be coming up M5, M42 M1 I guess.
Larry Lamb, get it’s not a trail centre. I don’t ride much trail centre stuff really that’s what we are looking for is a 25mile-ish rideideally a loop with a good amount of natural riding. All capable riders, some very very capable downhillers in the group. All descent level of fitness
No worries, if I wasn't busy and trying to avoid said closure I'd have offered to show you around.
If I get chance I'll plot you a gpx tomorrow and email it over.
Here's a GPX starting from Fairholmes which has parking and a visitor centre, toilets and a little shop that does bacon sarnies and whanot. This is the basic out and back, you can add stuff to it but this is a good starting point and will take you a fair few hours as it is. It's not a hard route to navigate, ride up the valley to the end of the reservoirs, bear right and across the river, head up the biggest track you can see until you get to the top of the hill, then ride down the other side turn right at the big old fashioned sign post, next left, next left again and ride all the way back up and home the way you came.
There are actually quite a lot of signposts around the place, although it's not technically waymarked on account of it's just an old track over the hills and not a set route as such. You'll be doing well to actually get yourself properly lost though. Watch out for gormless walkers, especially around the reservoirs. 😉
But no we don’t have a garmin
Someone must have a smartphone though !
Download the viewranger app for free and you have a Garmin with a much bigger screen
GPX files can be uploaded or you can plot your own routes
OS maps can be downloaded for a small price but the online maps will be fine for that route with a GPX I would have thought.
Tbh, if I was driving up from Gloucester, I wouldn't bother with cutgate as it's a marmite trail and you run the risk of not liking it.
I would stick to the hope valley, ladybower area, there's loads of trails to form a good 40km route. Just look for bridleways on OS and link them up
Can no one read a map?
I'm alone in this but I find Cut Gate boring, Cafe to Cafe and back is 21 miles, over half of that is tarmac or fire road
I tend to combine the cut gate route from here with some bits of the Ladybower loop - usually just going on to Hope Cross rather than going down to Hope.
So couple of points...yes we can read a map! And yes it would appear that my Garmin Fenix 3 has a navigation function I have uploaded the cut gate GPX linked earlier into it super easy! I was being a Luddite!
If others are saying the cut gate route is boring...(I’m taking advise from magazine articles and web reviews having never been) can someone recommend a good loop with an attached GPX file for us to follow? I will buy an OS Map for the area as well , but a GpX with a descent route would reallly help.
This is the classic 'Ride in the Peaks' loop, and what I'd be doing if I was driving up from Gloucestershire for the day:
http://www.pedalnorth.com/content/ladybower-loop
A longer version (although this would be quite a big day)
http://flattyres-mtb.co.uk/route-guides/peak-district-mtb-routes/ladybower-loop
For either I'd start at Fairholmes (both go through it, second one starts there)
Cut Gate's great .
I 'rode' Cut Gate on my singlespeed once, and ran out of water on the way home. It's soured my memory for about a decade - I really should give it another go 😀
p.s. Donated to Mend our Mountains already - get in your pockets everyone else!
If starting at Ladybower I’d recommend this:
Climb out of Bridge End Pasture from the small car park. At the top turn right and along to the junction of four trails. Turn right and descend Lockerbrook. Turn left onto the road until you get to the bottom of Cut Gate (obviously signed and after a stone bridge). Ride Cut Gate and descend the left hand fork at the Langsett End (faster and more fun IMO) and keep going all the way to the gate at the very bottom. Retrace your tracks out again and turn left to North America. Then right to meet back up with Cut Gate proper. Back to the southern end. If you’ve got any energy left then do Whinstone Lee Tor and descend to the Ladybower Inn for a pint. If not, head back to the car.
Proper job.
What dannyh said ^
Have a great day.
Thanks Danny, do you have a GPX route? Or is it on Strava where I can export?
IHN thanks for The links I will do some more research
russ
If others are saying the cut gate route is boring…
Not really, it's mostly Podge on auto-repeat... it's one of those trails that's brilliant when it's dry or deep frozen, miserable in really bad weather and has a proper feel of remoteness even though it's not really that remote.
It makes a brilliant big loop combined with an outwards leg over either the Roych or Jacob's Ladder, plus Rushup Edge, Jaggers etc. But not over Doctor's Gate, which looks like the obvious option on the map, but combines an often unrideable trail with a big chunk of tarmac down the A57, Snake Pass. That's about 50 miles or so, but a cracking day out.
Just wanted to thank everyone especially Fathomer for the route advise. Popped our Peaks cherry today and had an absolutely fanstastic time! Other end of the spectrum to our local FOD and Staunton runs. We will be back in a few week! Just fantastic
