Well Thursday is looking the least iffiest day this coming week so I may have to give it a whirl - thanks for the info. 😀
I always have a coffee at the very end of my rides as if I have coffee and a cake I'll never feel like getting back out again!
Is "the bridleway to Thornthwaite" the obvious one on the 25k OS map, running alongside Comb Beck further down? Is it easy to find from the red route / visitors centre.
We spent 2 days at Whinlatter last New Year, we wouldnt normally travel to the Lakes for trail centres either, but it had snowed so much very few other routes were rideable. Hoping for different weather this year....
Is "the bridleway to Thornthwaite" the obvious one on the 25k OS map, running alongside Comb Beck further down? Is it easy to find from the red route / visitors centre.
Yes, it actually starts near the point where the start of the blue route crosses the fire road about 200m from the wooden arch, but we took the wiggly blue route section downhill and started along the fire road it leads to until it swings about 300 degrees left, and just past the apex of the bend a steep singletrack goes up steeply on the left, and this leads to the bridleway after crossing 2 bridges. The BW crosses another fire road diagonally before plunging into Comb Beck ravine
If you click the "route" button above any of the photos it'll take you to a map, or you can right click "GPX" to download the track
I am thinking of riding Whinlatter but was thinking of riding both reds and then the blue. Is this a sensible plan? Each route does not seem too long in itself
I'd be inclined to do the blue first, but you'd manage all 3 🙂
Thanks Simon, lovely job, useful guide to riding up to the trail centre too. I've always tended to drive up from Keswick in the past, lazy really and misses what sounds like a top descent.
I think nearly everyone agrees it's worth the stiff warm-up climb at the start to have that downhill to finish 🙂
Well I rode the north red, the south red and the blue today and I wasn't dissapointed. I really don't have any DH skills, and would have liked a sturdier and slightly slacker bike I think (oh and some skills too obviously) but I thought there was some superb singletrack. Don't know why I didnt go sooner, maybe I had heard that it was getting worn or just wasn't that good, but plenty of smile inducing sections I have to say.
I had the same off as in one of the pics, just as you come off a tiny step off a small piece of northshore - I think there was a puddle after the step and my front wheel stayed there. I also comitted myself to that snakey steep s shaped stoney section on the north descent and that got the better of me but luckily I didnt hurt myself coming off. All in all a great day and a good ride if you do all three routes. Took me much less time that I was expecting, and I'm not fast.