I'm heading upto the Lakes on Friday for a week and I've been given permission to bring my bike, never ridden anywhere in the Lake District, any good offroad routes closeby to Eskdale Green you good people willing to point me in the right direction of?
Happy with climbs but just switched to 1x10 will I die?
Heard that Grizedale Forest was good but a little "man made" is this true? I will take the Mrs there for a pootle if its fairly gentle?
Thanks
You're pretty much in riding heaven up there fella. Road and offroad, just buy and OS map and follow the heavy green dashes. Highspots would be mitredale forest, burnmoor tarn (bit of a slog over the top but worth for biking in the shadow of Sca Fell and the run down to Wasdale, pick a route back, you could do a road/mixed run over Hardknott and round by a few bits in the Duddon valley and back over harter fell. Just be aware that if you're a flat lander ou'll need to be doubling the time it takes to cover the distance - that's not a macho northern slight but a 10 mile ride in those parts can be two hours easy.
A good pootle from Eskdale with the missus would be to muncaster castle along the river and back
See that dashed line on the map between Miterdale and Boot.
Don't.
Unless you relish a bog slog on an undefined trail with many cows!
Which is a shame as the scenery is epic, there are stone circles and the descent into Boot is actually quite fun!
As above, I would take the road from Eskdale Green to Boot, then the bridleway to Burnmoor Tarn (a few sections you'll have to push, and it may be a little boggy the higher/flatter it gets), the either around Burnmoor Tarn or ride/push left of Burnmoor Tarn and up the other side until you get to the Bridleway/sheep track that heads back into Miterdale, past the farm and into Miterdale forest. Continue along the bridleway (not the forest track if you can avoid it), and just before you hit the road, turn left down a tiny little unmarked footpath that spits you right out at the Bowerhouse Inn.
From Miterdale Forest, you could also go over Irton Fell to Nether Wasdale, short, but a very steep downhill.
Duddon Valley is very nice indeed, too.
Don't try the bridleway south from the top of Hardknott Pass, mainly unridable.
Thanks people, it looks like it might be damp over the weekend so will add to the already wet bits! I,ve looked at grizedale on youtube which looks ok to me so will look at that as well. Looking forward to some good ups and downs all round.
I agree on the river track to Muncaster and back along the railway bridleway with your other half - nice food at Muncaster Castle and the Owls are cool..
You can ride from the door - some of the best rides in the Lakes are around Ulpha, no need to trek to Grisedale!