Hi all,
Has anyone been out in the Howgills this past week or so? Thinking of a ride down there this weekend and wondering what the ground conditions are like. Given that there’s rain forecast tomorrow and there’s a bit of snow still on the higher tops (though maybe gone down there), can anybody who has been out there recently give a rough guess as to how good/bad (or wet/dry) conditions are likely to be?

Thanks.

No snow now, though when there was it was fantastic:

It’s nearly all hard surface anyway

bit muddy last week

Cheers sfb, just trying to see whether the water will be coming down from the sky only or out of the ground in the damper spots too. Like you say though, much of it is largely good in any case.

[edit]taka- thanks for that too.

Smooth and Grassy 😛

Seriously tho, the Howgills are good to ride in most weathers.

Cheers sfb, just trying to see whether the water will be coming down from the sky only

this changes so fast one never knows 🙂

Indeed. At least it shouldn’t be as windy as the past few days.

We did it a few weeks ago, a big ride and proper MTB, but we both agreed we wouldn’t particularly be bothered about doing it again. I think our expectation, born from various sources, of miles of sweet singletrack was quite a bit more than it actually delivered.

but we both agreed we wouldn’t particularly be bothered about doing it again. I think our expectation, born from various sources, of miles of sweet singletrack was quite a bit more than it actually delivered.

Really ? I’m surprised, unless you missed the Bowderdale singletrack and took the dreadful ridge track instead? It’s not sweet singletrack, it’s more demanding than that, but it’s definitely good. But then, a lot of people slag off High Street too, and I love that as well…

We made an error directly out of Bowderdale for about 1/2 mile (at some farm where there are two BW options), but otherwise it was all correct. The return was good, but the descent from the summit to Bowderdale was disappointing (considering the raving we got about the whole route). There’s lots of much better overall routes in the Lakes. It’s not a bad route, it just didn’t live up to expectations, which was quite high considering what we’d been told.

Fairy nuff. Different things suit different people I guess. I love the terrain and scenery.