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Live in Ripon and have never been to either. I usually like rocky fast stuff or swoopy singletrack, so will I feel like it's been worth the trip?
I'd say not far from it if you like you swoopy rocky stuff you'll be disappointed with those. Both venues offer what they are geared to offer, I suppose, some trails to explore the forests but that's about it.
I thought that might be the case but was thinking there might be some surprises...obviously not. Thanks for the advice
More rooty than rocky. Some nice flowy sections on the red now section 13, transmission and accelerator. Ripon aint that far from Hamsterley so give it a go. There is a fair bit of hidden stuff if you can get someone to show you.
Hamsterley is a lot better after it's recent improvements, I was very impressed. Kielder is a bit too far IMO. (unless you stay overnight)
As above the Hamsterley black is pretty decent and the new red sections are great fun.
It's best to link the black with the new red sections as most of the remainder of the red route is fire tracks.
I would say Kielder caters really well for anyone wanting a long cross country ride. Most of the trails are non technical. Bits of Deadwater are harder but it's relatively short. It's rocky but probably not in the way you mean. Large parts of it are gravel and pebbles so it has a unique ride feel and can be hard work. There are a growing number of trails so it's easy to build up a long (I guess 75 miles?) of waymarket riding.
If you want a 50 mile ride with some big hill big views that isn't particularly hard technically then I'd go. I love the ride over to Newcastleton via lonesome pine and bloody bush. It's about 40miles and then you can tack on some playing at Newcastleton o r a loop of the deadwater if you've got the legs.
Kielder is a hell of a lot further from Ripon than Hamsterley 🙂
Hamsterley has a pretty unique talent of being enjoyed yet undersold by the locals. It's seen a lot of work over the last five years and has some great sections of track with links which aren't too tedious. If it's not taxing enough you can always do 2 laps! It's not all that far from Ripon either. You do need to know how to link up the black and red to hit all the best bits though.
I'm not so keen on Keilder, the dolomite surface makes it seem to drag far more than the distance and elevation would suggest. The Newcastleton route is good for something different from the standard trail centre fayre though. Keilder also has the better cafe.
Kielder seems to divide opinion but I love the Deadwater trail... Never done the other one though, we just end up doing laps of Deadwater red and black (without the top section, which is a horrible climb followed by a fast descent down what's basically a broken up fireroad)
The route marking at Keilder is pretty poor - even getting the right way out the car park challenged some people.
I was with a group of people who, professionally, are trained map readers and we still got off the way for a while up the hill using the official routemap.
The route marking at Keilder is pretty poor - even getting the right way out the car park challenged some people.
Actually hooning along a couple of bits of Keilder the wrong way is quite entertaining, althoiugh maybe a tad dangerous.
[i]Live in Ripon[/i]
I live in Boroughbridge but haven't been to a trail centre for 2 years (Dalby, Keilder & GT were the last ones I went to)
You live 15-20mins from the edge of the Dales, don't you do natchral stuff?
We might be doing Llandegla on 25th Sept!