Looks like it would be all gravel biking in the Lakes soon…
Cheers!
I.

For those of us not familiar with the route – it’s just looks like an access road of some description has been repaired/re-surfaced?

Yep, looks like a good job. Better surface to walk and ride on.

OP – I think you are being a bit harsh, they have done a reasonable job of it, yes it could be smoother but I would still say 8/10

I am sure walkers and horse riders will cope, although I can see that some extreme gnar core horse riders may feel its a little over engineered.

OP – I think you are being a bit harsh

Yeah, possibly :-/

looks like an access road of some description

I’m afraid not…
That is what it was looking like before – some random YT find https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cluP4MzTqrE
Looks to me that all interesting features has been completly sanitized.
Cheers!
I.

I wouldn’t worry, a hard winter will restore it back to the gnarrfest you want it to be

Looks to me that all interesting features has been completly sanitized.

or it’s been made far more accessible to a huge proportion of the population?

I expect it was a well built track in the past and had been eroded by the rain ice and snow, and that will happen again. Enjoy the difference while it lasts, if you want a challenge set yourself a stupid strava time and chase that next spring when the cracks start to show.

Ivan, remember this is a gravel forum now, if it was up to them, the whole country would look like that!.

Looks a shite job, but as above, it’ll bed in and the loose stuff will wash a way, kinda pointless really.

People need to remember that tracks are not there just for “proper” mountain bikers

Ooo. I’ll be able to go fast now!

I’m afraid not…
That is what it was looking like before

Looks like an old eroded farm track?

Didn’t realise the gravel bikers had taken over stw.

Op – looks rubbish now, but it seems to be happening all over. As others say, hopefully after a few winters it will be back to normal

People need to remember that this is a mountain bike forum, and shouldn’t really be surprised when a well loved descent is temporarily lost.

Looks to me that all interesting features has been completly sanitized.

That video makes it look very much like it “used to be” exactly like it is now at some point. Those cobbles didn’t occur naturally.

It’ll bed in, it’ll wash away and in a few years it’ll be a bit less tame.

And let’s be honest, half the trails in the Lakes have steps cut in, cobbles dumped down them, gravel, slabs etc. including a huge number of “classic” descents that people get all excited about. None of them got that way on their own.
It’s the up shot of it being a fairly well maintained and massively popular part of the country for out door activities.

Good opportunity to practice ‘skids’!!😂

Good opportunity to practice ‘skids’!!😂

I’m up for that, get a squad of us together and skid our way down it, get all that shit tae **** 🙂

Klunker weekend anyone?

Just needs a nice smooth top coat layer to make a nice little road bike climb. 😉

Where actually is this terrible damage by the way op? High nibthwaite to low parka Moor is an access track [to buildings] and “other access” so perfectly plausible it’s [publicly] vehicle accessible at least that far up. bing aerial makes it look like the BW follows a vehicle access track all the way up to the fire road in the forest from low parkamoor

Heres a comparison showing the same spot, for those struggling to see whats happened here.

Utter bastards.

Why the hell would Kankku want to do that? Makes no sense whatsoever. Are they planning minibus tours or something? They were pissed off when it got done to the Tilberthwaite track.

Bummer, Parkamoor was one of my favourite, not overly techy fast Lakes descents.

Also ‘Kankku’ that he references in the post are an off-road driving experience company (based in Keswick?).

Has the bed rock been covered over or actually removed?

[edit]. It does mention in the images covered and done in 2 days.

It’ll all be gone in a couple of months. The location is though vehicle access so tbh, you’d probably do similar if it were your drive way.

Has the bed rock been covered over or actually removed?

Covered, by the looks of it, so in theory we only have a couple of years of hideous ruts before it all blows out and the rock starts to resurface.

Nobeerinthefridge
Member
People need to remember that this is a mountain bike forum, and shouldn’t really be surprised when a well loved descent is temporarily lost.

People need to remember that this is a singletrack forum and not post doubletrack photos

Never understood the allure of kankku tbh, getting driven around fire roads, dull as ****.

Never understood the allure of kankku tbh, getting driven around fire roads, dull as ****.

This one was one of the only interesting ones (for 4×4 excursions) they had left. Apparently they’ve worked on the Fox byway down to Esthwaite too, don’t know if that includes boulder alley down to Grizedale VC.

Anyone been across the Oxen Fell byway recently?

Let’s face it, that ain’t going to last long. One good winter and plenty of rain will soon see it wash out. Oh and the off -roaders going up it will help shift plenty of it too.

If anyone has been down into the dell at Troutbeck by the river with the new wooden footbridge lately ( I was last there in December), you can see how tossing a whole load of chippies down is a recipe for failure. There was a massive channel in the track caused by the water coming off the slope. It would swallow your wheel completely so I imagine it is probably even deeper now. What was once a nice grassy climb was a mess of gravel and ruts.

More worrying is the spelling in the thread title! Ha! Ha!

Cheers

Sanny

They resurfaced that about 15-18 years ago (I was living in Lancaster at the time, rode up there pretty regularly), went there one day and found a lot of gravel/slate etc all over it.

It settled down pretty quickly: some of it washed out, some got sort of packed down, bits of it was bedrock or cobbles. It doesn’t look great but it’ll bed in within a year or so.

Anyway, there’s longstanding opposition to Kankkhu and similar 4×4 operations in the Lakes.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/16/lake-district-campaign-plans-legal-action-over-off-road-vehicles
They banned powerboats on Windermere (well OK, they introduced a blanket 10mph speed limit which amounted to a ban), this is the same sort of argument.

People need to remember that tracks are not there just for “proper” mountain bikers

Yes, how very dare people on a mountain bike forum express their own views based on being mountain bikers, selfish **** 🙂

How dare someone on a mountain bike forum be capable of seeing a bigger picture…

More worrying is the spelling in the thread title! Ha! Ha!

The OP (Ivan) is Polish, so go easy on his spelling!

That doesn’t look covered, that looks smashed up and flattened.

Thanks NewRetroTom!

I’m doing my best not to bastardize your language, but I’m failing occasionally.

I understand urge for accessibility but I’m not sure if there would be that many people on wheel chairs merrily going up on these slate chippings.

On the other hand it will more than likely encourage less skilled people to have a crack, probably with much higher speed than it is sensible.

Cheers!
I.

There does seem to be a effort to flatten all the good biking in the lakes

There’s lots of interesting footpaths however, you know for interesting walking obviously

<sigh> Ruined a good climb</sigh> 😏

Councils round here surfaced a few of our favourite bridleways a few years back. Most are pretty much back to the way they were.

The absolute hub deep bog fest is actually still not falling apart yet, and I fear that may not be such a bad thing after all

Sad but it won’t be long before it’s back to normal, well.. in a geological timeframe anyway. You have to wonder if there’s not better ways to spend money in a pandemic.

<sigh> Ruined a good climb</sigh> 😏

Made it less likely you’ll splat yourself on the descent and wreck your brake lever, though 🙂