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As it says on the tin - Next week I'm going up to the lakes for a bit of a getaway during annual leave and I've got 1 day really when I can go riding (due to seeing family, going hiking, etc).
I've done the Borrowdale Bash (Inc Walla Crag, also trudged up to High Spy and rode down to Cat Bells on that route as well) and both Whinlatter trail centre loops before, so I'm looking for the next thing to do really. Ability wise I'm around the red-ish kind of area when it comes to trails (trail centre or Bike Parks) if that helps.
I'm currently eyeing up Helvellyn via Keppel Cove, Sticks Pass and Seldom Seen, but I'm open to other suggestions 🙂
Sticks/SS is good. Though I'm not as mad effusive about SS as some people. It is very good, but I'm not convinced it is out of this world.
In theory I'd be a bit cautious about SS on my own, as it's less travelled. But in reality I just did it anyway! You can also miss the summit if short on time
If it freezes ( properly) and you like cycling uphill then I'd go up the Dodds Ridge to the north instead. It's nearly all rideable that way, but only if the above two criteria are met.
I was going to ask where you're staying and suggest Sticks west and down Birkside as an alternative. But it is a lot harder than SS and perhaps not so good alone.
If you get to Patterdale and the weather is shit up high then go up Ullswater east shore Bridleway, road to Pooley Bridge, Cockpit ( towards High Street,) lovely mellow descent to Howtown, over Boredale House and descend to Patterdale. Only problem with this route is the completely varying difficulty..UBW is gnadg heaven, Cockpit to Howtown is mellow heaven, Boredale ascent is lung busting heaven and the final descent is just heaven. But all at very different degrees of difficulty.
If you fancy easy but hard work and it's frozen then do High Street. But only if frozen.
Blencathra is pretty good.
Gridesale Pike perhaps too tech for alone.
4 passes if you're a beast
Iron Keld and Loughrigg if you're not.
Staveley 3 passes if you're a masochist.
Staveley 2 passes if you're not a masochist but love tech. ( Cut across Harter Fell from the top of Gatesgart. ( Gnarr warning)
Troutbeck, Garburn west, Ill Bell, Froswick, down Nan Beild south is awesome.
Gotta go
PD, do you ride footpaths?
Gridesale Forest has excellent stuff if you avoid TNF.
Or if you want a traveling experience then Coniston, Semi Walna, Torver, Torver Common, up Parkamoor south, some Gridesale stuff then back to Coniston
Full Walna Scar is ok but IMHO not worth the slog. Though Stevenson Ground is sublime
Duddon meh
Eskdale legal is meh
Wasdale ditto apart from 4P
Tell us where you're staying and we can narrow it down a bit... also footpaths yay or nay?
Wow, thank you for all the recommendations - highly appreciative of that!
I've got family who we're staying with up in Ivegill, so realistically I'm going to have to drive to anything (not fussed about that though).
I'm happy with footpaths or anything really. Obviously conscious I'm going solo and everything is weather permitting, but I'm happy for anything!
Blencathra is pretty good
@thegeneralist do you have a route for this one? Personally love Blencathra as a hike but never considered it as a ride...
If you don't mind cheek, then Braithwaite > Coledale Hause > Crag Hill > Sail > Rigg Beck is a cool ride. If you have too much energy then can always spin up the bridleway to Whinlatter for a lap there afterwards too.
@colournoise sounds like that could be a decent route!
Have you got a GPX or anything that I could shove on my Garmin?
My favourite lakes trail is the loop around coniston lake.
Having done a few lakes rides it's the coniston loop that I enjoyed the most.
Nothing to add, just did think there were enough bears on this thread…..
If this doesn't work and you can't download the .gpx from Strava, just ping me a DM here with your email and I'll ping it across. It's not perfect, as I went a bit wrong at the bottom of the link between Sail and Rigg Beck but you'll get the idea.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1742176909
thegeneralist do you have a route for this one? Personally love Blencathra as a hike but never considered it as a ride…
I'm a complete technophobe so no GPX, but you may be able to create one from the Strava?
This was going up the west aspect ( which is reasonably rideable for a good chunk) and down the east. Having said which, we ended up going across a slightly nasty gully so avoid that bit towards the bottom
: https://strava.app.link/9crxmPdvgQb
If that looks too easy then you could do either Atkinson Pike descent ( a little bit ditchy for my liking)
and then loop back up to descent Doddick Fell ( scary and hard in places
and very scary and very hard in others:
https://strava.app.link/fnBKgCHvgQb
Nnmnmg. Must resist. I could quite happily spend the whole evening scrolling through Flickr looking for photos of awesome lakes routes!
Which date you riding?
Loughrigg Ellterwater Over to Coniston back via Timberthwaite ?
@thegeneralist I’m thinking of maybe Tuesday. Sort of seems the best day for my plans overall for the trip up to the lakes.
Looks like realistically it’s going to be wet down low and cold up high wherever and whenever I go lol
I think I may have been tempted now by Blencathra descending down Blease Fell.
Looks like a cracking route from what I’ve been able to find.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18282686
I was about to comment on that and only just realised at the last minute that you're planning to go *down* Blease Fell...
Wouldn't be my choice of direction, but I'm keen to hear what you think.
Wouldn’t be my choice of direction
Any particular reason for that, or is it mainly just better in the other direction?
Blease is the easiest way up Blencathra, and I'd always go up that way, traverse east and descend scales fell to mousethwaite Combe and down the final single track yee ha from the col back to the road at Scales. It's a lovely ride, not too hard, one of teheasier ways to climb a high mountain with a bike in the area. Probably cloudy Tuesday but navigation is straightforward. Blease would be disappointing in descent for me- some vaguely interesting hairpins at the top but lots of soft grassy path below which lacks interest and finishes quite high at the road, so you then either ride not great FP along the base of the fell or end up descending the road- this is a BAD THING in hike a bike riding!
TomB has expressed it beautifully.
Generally speaking any big mountain track that I could ride up a proportion of ( even if just in little chunks) suggests it's not that great a descent.
See also Helvelyn Dodds Ridge
Keppel Cove ( admittedly not much of it)
High Street
Skiddaw Bridleway
Scales Farm is about 225m. You can ride to at least 450m on Blease Fell if you have the beans, and various chunks above that.
Anyway, basically wot Tom said...
especially the bit about the grass.
And all the rest!
If you want a nice round trip, you could start in Keswick, along the railway line to warm up, then you could add on a ride round to Mosedale after descending off Blencathra, along the gated road, then up to skiddaw house (potentially a bit of a slog) then return to Keswick along the fun bridleway from there.
Well I think I'm truly stumped with the choices to be fair - so many to pick from with so much potential.
Think I may play it by ear with plans up until Monday night (several routes will most likely be loaded on to the Garmin!) and then make a decision Tuesday once I've seen the forecast for the day and the bike is loaded on to the car.
Lovely day for it if you’re out today with atmospheric cloud and opportunities for clear tops- let us know how you got on!
I’m currently eyeing up Helvellyn via Keppel Cove, Sticks Pass and Seldom Seen, but I’m open to other suggestions
This will be really good. Better choice than Blencathra probably.
It's not a long ride though, so you could pop up to Helvelleyn summit and back, before the descent.
And/or go along to Patterdale and do Boredale Hause as an add-on after.
For a satisfying full day you can start from Thirlmere and go up and over Sticks, down Seldom, then up Keppel, to the summit and down Birkside as mentioned above. Very rugged and steep in places though.