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I need an awesome ride in the Peak District - are there any? I've... never ridden there 😳
I'm camping with mates in the Hope Valley over the Bank Hol weekend and have a day free before they arrive. What's the most awesomeest biking we can do, anywhere?
Big scenery? Mega techy? Big climbs, big descents? 8)
You have loads of options there, in the valley alone you should consider putting a loop together around some of these downs.
Jaggers
Hollins to Castleton
Greenlands
Backtor
Cavedale
Potatoe ally
The beast
Hag farm
Etc
Or an easily route would be the Jacobs loop which you could extend by starting in hope.
this one's not bad, it includes most of the good stuff
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=zrmqddcljlkzfprr
jamesw - I'll go look for some of those in Strava then? I've heard of The Beast, don't know if that makes it any good. I have also heard of Jacob's Ladder - but mostly as a good (really) hard climb.
Soliseven - cheers. a GPX is actually great s it means I can plonk the route in to ViewRanger and follow it on there 🙂
There's no good riding round 'ere lad, best you try over towards Macclesfield. It's all rubbish in the Valley of No Hope.
The list ^^^ is a fair list, also worth looking at Winstone Lee Tor spectacular from the top.
My go to loop is up the Roman Road from Hope, then Potato Alley - Lockerbrook - Whinstone Lee Tor - Hagg Farm - back down the Roman Road.
Alternatively, Roman Road - Potato Alley (or The Beast) - Lockerbrook - Hagg Farm - Jagger's - up Mam Tor - Cavedale.
Cut Gate from Ladybower (also easily reachable from Bamford railway station). Very technical in places with good scenery. I fell off there in June, it was actually the last time I fell off my bike.
However it's not very long so won't take up much of a day so maybe link it to some of the other rides from the reserviors such as the 50k ride mentioned above.
The best thing about Cut Gate is it's a very easy trail to follow, hardly any junctions, you don't have to stop to read a map every 2 minutes and your unlikely to get lost. If you look at a map the route is incredibly obvious I don't even need to give a link to a map or anything.
It's even better as an evening ride it looks spectacular when the sun is going down.
Bad things about it - chance of getting hurt, very steep on the Ladybower side, you have to back-track on yourself once you arrive at the final destination (Langsett reservoir) there is little option but to head back up the way you came but the trail is so varied that it doesn't matter that much and at least it means you're not going to struggle with navigation.
Any other route in the Peaks means getting lost and/or loads of map stops to me if I've not done it before, but Cut Gate is extremely straightforwards so thats what I'd do if I didn't know the area and wasn't riding with someone who does.
From Hope head over past ladybower and do cut gate.. when you get back to hope if your feeling fit head up the broken road at castleton along rushup edge to hayfield and back via Jacobs ladder
a big day with about 8000 feet of climbing
your dinner will taste very nice after that.
Been a bit of rain recently so the top (middle) part of cut gate is probably going to be a rubbish bog fest. There was a thread on here about it the other day.
Didn't realise that. It was dry up there on a late June evening, have not been since as it's not local. But the amount of rain recently has been horrendous, some of my local trails are seeing conditions worse than anything I've seen since February.
Note that Jacobs Ladder as a climb a lot of it is a push, if I was to get that in I'd try and use it as a descent.
Having just moved to Sheffield, this thread is perfect. Thank you op.
From Hope
Up Pindale
Along Dirtlow Rake
Down Cavedale
Up the Broken Road (Mam Tor)
Along Rushup Edge
Roych Clough, Mount Famine, South Head etc...
Down towards The Ashes and the Full Campsite descent
Up to the Spotsmans Pub
Up Coldwell Clough
Down Jacobs
Up Greenlands
Down Back Tor
Up, down and up, Jaggers Clough to Hope Cross*
Finish descending on the Hope Roman Road back to Hope
*If you want more down The Beast (Fluffy Kitten)
**Along LadyBower to Thornhill
Round Aston
Up and along Hope Brink
Then finish on The a Roman Road back into Hope
**If you gluten for punishment after Ladybower, cross the dam, head down the road, left and up Hurst Clough, bridle ways Into Hathersage, head up towards the glider club, onto Shatton Moor, up to Shatton Mast, down Bradwell Edge, round the aback of the Cement Works and into Hope
Carlos
Off to the Peaks next week, shall be keeping an eye on this!
Try to take in Spud Alley, such good fun!
If you're thinking of riding there more than once, the V-Publishing Dark Park Guide - [url= https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/mountain-biking/peak-district-mountain-biking.html ]this[/url] - is a pretty good one complete with OS mapping.
Easier to follow than a list of official/unofficial trail names I reckon. I mean, how on earth does anyone identify 'Spud Alley' using an OS map? 🙂
Pik n Mix - which bit of Sheffield? if you're on the west side you can ride out to a lot of the good trails
BWD - I may try and pick that up. I got the Dales one and it's pretty handy. However we followed one of those from the Lake Dsitrict guide last weekend and it was a bit.... disappointing.
At the moment I'm likely to end up following the gpx posted above - I'd love to spend hours researching starva and cross referencing it with the OS maps but I reallly haven;t got enough time free to do that 🙁
Agree with the Jacobs Ladder thing, if you do it as a climb then you're doing it wrong! (unless you climb it on a hoppy trials bike!)
If you're thinking of riding there more than once, the V-Publishing Dark Park Guide - this - is a pretty good one complete with OS mapping.
So much this ^.
It's the John Barton book with Cy Turner from Cotic on the cover. Title is in a fetching retro font.
It's somewhere between A5 and A6 size, fits in a Camelbak easily.
Carlos has most of it covered. Thats definately a good start
In the end SWMBO said she wanted to ride the downhill tracks at Wharncliffe wo we went there. We did walk around the Hop Valley and I'm very likely to take the bike back for another trip some time, maybe even this weekend.
Walking down Jacob's ladder, it did look a bit of fun on a bike and saw a group coming down (so I heckled appropriately). I assume it's better to stay on the BW side of the descent to avoid the crowds on the FP? The bottom of the BW looks like it was less steps and more slope.