My wife & I are going to the lakes in July. staying in Cartmell fell.
shes VERY new to mountain biking (she has done Whinlatter blue route)and some local very easy Pennine routes.
where do people recommend?
hows Grizdale for a beginner? or any natural trails dont mind travelling 30mins.
cheers.
Maybe the Kentmere round route from Staveley would do the trick. Map available from Wheelbase and cake at Wilfs cafe + free parking 😆
http://www.mountain-bike-cumbria.co.uk/articles.php?id=staveleyKentmereArea
Try claife heights, just over the lake on the ferry. Nice ride from cartmel fell. Nothing to serious, but still great fun. One of my faves.
There's also some stuff in chapel hose woods worth checking out, quite hard to find the trails tho, but just above cartmel fell.
bump for the workers 😆
No would be the answer.
A bit of climb to start with and the trail was rocky from memory. Woodwork was very slippy (I couldn't ride it on half worn MKs unless it was straight and level). Not overly techincal apart from that.
Claife.
Grizedale fire roads. (all marked).
There is a trail in this book round cartmel fell also some other easy routes http://www.bikemaps.co.uk/lake_district_mountainbike_routes_guides.htm you can find it cheap on amazon also. Hope this helps
A really lovely day is to get the ferry over from bowness (chain ferry). Ride Claife Heights (the easiest route is to follow the lake shore). Then road to Ambleside and passenger ferry back to bowness.
The langdale valley has some very easy stuff as the path from Skelwith bridge to Elterwater is now a permissive cycle track. From Elter water you would then need to push up the track towards coniston (it has a sustrans sign) and then across into hodge close. Then back over Arnside. Its not that tachnical and you can always revert to the road.
You can also carry on up Langdale and come back down on the road
All a better bet than Grisedale assuming some pushing Uphill is OK.
think I'm going to do the Claife with the ferry ride - cheers!
+1 there are loops around Kentmere that are beginner level. Nice beer at Hawkshead brewey too 😉
might get that book - is that the best book then?
That book is great imo. There's a lovely Claife loop in it. You might want to cut out the tech ish bit at the end after where it climbs back up from near the pub in Sawrey.
I like the Cartmell Fell ride in this book - I haven't done the Whinlatter Blue, but there's nothing tricky on this one.
Claife Heights is nice too - we've done a route that misses that tech-ish bit using other bridleways over Claife.
The claife trail is good we often do it as a night ride. You could always make a day of it and go up claife over to hawkshead then into grizedale.