Off to the lakes for half term next week, and Eskdale was the cheapest (well Ravenglass TBH) so that’s where we’re off to.
Obviously we’ll do the River Esk scramble, again, as it’s one of the best in the world, but am a bit lacking on biking options.

The missus and kids did the Muncaster route in the Cicerone guide last time and said it was shit (hideously overgrown ). I went up Burnmoor tarn last time, which was nice, but for the life of me can’t remember which way.

On this thread…https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/riding-near-eskdale/

@senorj said

I havent done it for a few years… but you have to do the bway from Wasdale via Burnmoor tarn.Do it both ways…Pint and back. 🙂
There’s also fairly nasty grassy climb up that starts near pickle coppice/river Mite.Some nice singletrack down to the tarn.

The problem is there are two bridleways north from Eskdale to Burnmoor. Anyone know which is betterer?

PostieRich posted

https://www.strava.com/activities/194334173

and someone else said it was better the other way around. Since I can never work out which way routes in Strava are anyway I am non the wiser 🙂
Any opinions?

When we were going up through Miterdale forest we said this would be a hoot coming down!

The bridleway through Miterdale appears to me to be n shaped in cross section. ie up one side and down the other. So is going north best, or south?

Also fancy trying to find some stuff I can uplift the lazy arsed kids on. Up the wee road to Ulpha. There is a b’way going west from Devoke water to the valley. anyone know if that is any good?

Or the very short bridleway from Brantrake Moss (north of Devoke water) down past Brantrake crags to the valley. Looks well steep…. any good?

Waberthwaite Fell any good?

Looking further afield, I was trying to find a way of getting the awesomeness of BlackSail Pass (south) without having to do the other 3 (not that the other three aren’t amazeballs, but I’m getting old and lazy). Three pretty shady options:
1) Over KirkFell to the col. Clearly the hike up KF will be hellish, but I’m not even sure that there down to the saddle is rideable. Looks hella’ steep. Anyone done it?
2)Nether Beck and Tewit How. Can’t find any info on it whatsoever. Anyone?
3) There is a bridleway marked further west up Worm Gill to Iron Crag, but then it just stops…. nope.
4) Ditto the bridleway above the west end of Ennerdale water. Just seems to stop in the middle of nowhere at the top of Red Beck.

In most of the lakes I would be confident of some sort of path/trail continuing, but that area is much less trodden and looks mossy as hell.

Anyway, tell me. What’s good. What’s bad?

Is Miterdale Forest open? Worth checking, it was definitely closed at some point. We did the BW on the Jennride in 2019, it would be better heading down through the forest into Eskdale IMO. The Wasdale descent was OK, bit loose and sketchy (on a fully loaded bike).

Burnmoor should be OK, descent to Boot is good.

Everything else heading up to the Black Sail col is hella steep. Easiest way would be to err..push up Black Sail.

I’ve done this ride :-https://youtu.be/0_rBFnpPCgo a few times first trail kicks off from the car park and is a fairly epic route

Both bridleways up to burnmoor aren’t great. The more westerly one is a stepp slog up grass, but gets you slightly higher. The easterly one goes through some boggy sections round ellerhow moss and again just after bulatt bridge. The descent into wasdale is reasonably decent though.

Mitredale is better north to south in my opinion. Don’t know if there’s any trees down though, haven’t been there since the storms.

Avoid the descent from whitfell down to warberthwaite, it’s all bog. Whitfellto biggert mire is kinda ok, nothing to shout about. You can get to it from the corney fell road by following the bridleway. The map shows it stopping short of whitfell but the path carries on to the summit and you can just pick your way down from the top till you hit the other bridleway. Debatable whether it’s worth the effort though.

Bridleway from birker fell road to hole house is a wade through bog on the way up, then grass that gets rockier on the way down till it’s actually ok by the time you get to the bottom. Again, debatable value.

The orpa/boat from corney to bootle is an ok descent.

Restricted byway from birker fell road to dalegarth is also ok, but a bit tame. Might be good for the kids.

The downhill section of bridleway from brats moss to boot is an alright descent, but getting to the top is a pain if you go from mitredale. Its a steep push up from mitredale head and then the path gets really indistinct for a while and if you miss the right bit you’ll end up wading through heather.

Avoid the bridleway from ennerdale to wasdale that crosses between haycock and steeple.

The decent from West of harter fell to the bottom of hardknott is probably the best in the area, but awkward to make into a loop. There’s a bridleway from the top of hardknott that meets it but the path is very poor and it’s hard to ride a lot of sections (my best efforts on it have been on the fat bike). You can incorporate a decent of wallowbarrow though, which is also good. Can give more info if you’re interested.

The bridleway along the river esk is a pleasant pootle. Nothing exciting in terms of mtbing but it’s a pleasant place to be.

There’s more stuff round dunnerdale, cold fell, ennerdale etc depending on how close you want to keep to eskdale. Happy to give more advice

Just noticed you mentioned you’re actually staying in ravenglass. Best riding options would be to drive over into dunnerdale and go from there. Can suggest some routes in that area if you don’t know it

https://www.strava.com/activities/6921037056

Sets off from Ravenglass. Nice route, the descent from Blea tarn to Beckfoot station is a favourite of mine. Little cracker.

Riding the ridge of Illgill head is also a nice ride, but the carry up from Burnmoor was a bit steep.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1481807330

If you do Nether beck the best descent is off the summit of Haycock, suprisingly good rocky singletrack down the ridge north to Ennerdale water (a few walking sections but mainly rideable).

https://www.strava.com/activities/6921037056

The key question here is – did you really create a segment called ‘Jimmy Savile bummed my cat’? You’re the only one who’s done it! 🙂

Erm could so.eone put Mr out of my misery and tell me how to tell which direction a strava route goes….☺

Put your cursor over the elevation chart and starting moving it left to right.

Erm. I don’t have a cursor. I’m on my phone .
Is there a way to do it on a phone?

Select the first segment and see which bit of the ride it’s on.

Erm could so.eone put Mr out of my misery and tell me how to tell which direction a strava route goes….☺

Both of my routes are anticlockwise.

The key question here is – did you really create a segment called ‘Jimmy Savile bummed my cat’? You’re the only one who’s done it! 🙂

Couldn’t possibly comment 🙂

For a semi uplift route you could park part way up cold fell road and head up onto Crag Fell, descending to ennerdale Bridge. Leave the Mrs and kids at the pub/cafe and pedal back up the road to the car. All cheeky this route but never busy.

Cheers all. Did a few good rides.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6921037056

Sets off from Ravenglass. Nice route, the descent from Blea tarn to Beckfoot station is a favourite of mine. Little cracker

This one was defo a tale of two halves. Gotta admit the ascent to Devoke Water sucked. Despite the dry weather there were lots of bogs and the path just disappeared in places.

Filed in the never again folder 🙂

Bit better from then on..

Veered onto the footpath a bit for the descent into Eskdale which was good. Wife and No1son went to the cafe, smaller son continued up the Bridleway and over towards Blea Tarn on the promise of awesomeness. When we topped out I couldn’t stop grinning as I knew he’d love it. Grassy awesomeness.

Then rocky awesomeness

.

On the main switchback descent I didn’t take any photos as we just wanted to enjoy the flow. It was ace…. grassy switchbacks galore then gnarly rocky ditches. We loved it. Many thanks @lowey

Mitredale is better north to south in my opinion. Don’t know if there’s any trees down though, haven’t been there since the storms.

God yes. We cycled up the forest roads and then the last bit of the Bridleway. I peeked over the north side but luckily decided against it, so turned around and headed down the south side. It was bloody marvelous. Lots of trees down, but cut through, so all good. Singletrack up top then some lovely dual slalom at the bottom…

Then a walk up Great Gable wondering at all the Jennriders walking down from Styhead. It looked awful.

Then the Esk Scramble with half a dozen if son’s mates.

Definitely the best thing in Eskdale 🙂

Then the family was knackered so I git sent off on my own.
Over Burnmoor Tarn, which was indeed quite boggy. The rocky first few km of ascent from Eskdale Mill is brilliant though.
Descent to Wastwater was pretty good. Then git talking to some random bloke in the campsite and took him along the lowest Bridleway to Styhead Tarn. As expected it was much more mellow than the highest of the three, but since we didn’t have loaded bikes we came down the good one…

The first bit was sketchy as hell in the wet, but the rest was brilliant.
Lunch in the pub then, as the man above said, the best way to the top of Black Sail Pass is to push up Black Sail Pass 🙂 . So I did.
And the descent was bloody marvelous. Some random ramblers took a video!

Then along Wastwater and up the other side of the Mitredale forest Bridleway. The first mile or two was great but the rest was awful. Sooooo glad you guys had warned me and I didn’t drag the family down it earlier in the week. Going up was bad enough. Anyway, down the south side again and pub meals. Big day that, nearly 50km, but really good.

Anyway, hope the pictures etc are useful if anyone finds this thread in future searches. Many thanks for the info all.

PS, if the bloke on the purple bike that was heading up Netherbeck, Red Pike etc reads this, would love to know how it went.

PS, how can I stop this effing phone from autocorrecting got to git.