[Closed] Favourite peaks descent?

Shatners bassoon.

Cut Aate (if/when dry)
Potato Alley
The Beast

Potato Alley.
&
Cumberland Clough.

I dislike potato alley tbh. The only reason I ever ride it is because it's an easy ride up the other side to the screaming mile (which is ace) rather than pushing up Hagg Farm.

Potato alley is great. I dare say better than the beast

Les Arcs
Parkin Clough
Cut Gate, either way.

Edit - brucey bonus - that one with all the rock drops off Higger Tor. That really is the business.

chevychase - Member
I dislike potato alley tbh. The only reason I ever ride it is because it's an easy ride up the other side to the screaming mile (which is ace) rather than pushing up Hagg Farm.

I'd agree that potato alley isn't up to much but pushing up Hagg Farm rather than riding 2 minutes along the road from the end of the Beast to the Lockerbrook climb is total lunacy.

I also don't like potato alley, much prefer the beast. Potato alley should be great, but I just don't get on with it.

In no particular order:
Lockerbrook
Stanage Plantation
Shatner's Bassoon
Fox/Strines

I haven't ridden that much of the Peaks but I think my favorite is Cave dale, or the Beast. Stanage plantation is a blast too.

Edit:

Lockerbrook and Potato alley are good fun but not in the same league.

Add Les arcs to the favorite list.

Have yet to do Cut gate and North America, or Parking Clough. Maybe on my next Peaks trip

Les Arcs
Lockerbrook
Jacobs Ladder

Though this changes on a regular basis, there's so many good descents and conditions/mood can make a massive difference.

I'd agree that potato alley isn't up to much but pushing up Hagg Farm rather than riding 2 minutes along the road from the end of the Beast to the Lockerbrook climb is total lunacy.

Exactly what I thought 😀

Edit: where's Shatner's Bassoon?

Not ridden in the Peak for years but for me simply because it's not there anymore - the Chapel Gate of old (10-15 years ago) with the ribbon of tarmac that occasionally ended and necessitated a bunnyhop to the next. I loved that.

Always liked Jacobs Ladder for the gasps and commentary by the tourists as you dropped off the top.

Cut Gate

Lockerbrook closely followed by cutthroat descent back towards the pub for me

pushing up Hagg Farm rather than riding 2 minutes along the road from the end of the Beast to the Lockerbrook climb is total lunacy

The Beast
Cumberland Brook (especially the top bit off Danebower Hollow)
Jacobs Ladder
The woods off Win Hill
Macc Forest/Nessit Hill
Derwent Edge to the Ladybower Inn
Cat & Fiddle/Shooters Clough/Errwood Reservoir
Embridge Causeway/Super Smashing Whoops/Errwood Reservoir
Mam Tor/Hollins Cross to Castleton
Stanage Plantation
Cavedale.

Want to do Parkin Clough and Doctors Gate.

The Peak is my new local but I have no idea where most of these trails are yet.

I've got the Dark Peak guide book with a lot of loops in but it doesn't name that many individual sections. Can someone put up some maps, or recommend a route that takes in some of the favourite descents?

If you ride the Beast without knowing what it is you'd say at the bottom "chuff me that was a beast of a descent". So then you'd know where you are! Can't be any other reason it's called that surely?

Though this changes on a regular basis, there's so many good descents and conditions/mood can make a massive difference.

+1

Jacob's - if it isn't swarming with walkers
WLT to Ladybower Inn - if it's nice and dry
Cut Gate - if it's dry and not blowing a gale in your face

I like the beast and lockerbrook but I probably ride them too much so they don't make the list. Spud alley would make it if it wasn't for the couple of bits with loose rocks the size of babies' heads where you're just pinging around and hoping you don't flat. Or smash a mech like I did last week.

Sharkattack, [url= http://flattyres-mtb.co.uk/route-guides/peak-district-mtb-routes/glossop-cut-gate/ ]this route[/url] takes in Jacob's, the Beast, Lockerbrook, and Cut gate (in 1 direction anyway). All should be named in the directions. Where it goes down to the Beast from Hope Cross, if you turn left at Hope Cross (NW) instead you'll go down spud alley.

No one mentioned hollinsclough?

Also the descent off totley cairn towards sheep skulls.

Blacka moor- Devils elbow and piper house gate.

Bradwell edge

White edge

Les arcs/insanity is awesome but getting wider and less awesome through use.

I enjoyed a couple of the descent in this video of mine. Think the last one is Les Arcs?

Cavedale, how could anything else be a favourite? Steep, rocky, fast lower sections with a flowy top bit until you hit the gate.

Bradwell Edge is good fun in the dry too, but the fun bit is only about 20s long. Blaca moor used to be good fun, but rode it on a recent trip after a 10 year absence and it's not a patch on how it used to be.

Loads of good descents, all for different reasons. I really have no idea what my favourite is. I do prefer either fast, poppy and swoopy or proper-line-choice-is-essential descents, rather than loose and rocky, straight-line let-the-suspension-soak-it-up descents.

No one mentioned hollinsclough?

Hollinsclough is on my to do list. Seems popular with the MX boys. Can it be incorporated into a decent loop, I mean with other good descents without endless miles of boring slog?

Hollinsclough is on my to do list...Can it be incorporated into a decent loop...?

Therein lies the problem and the simple answer is no. That's not to say you shouldn't get over there and have a go. The descents are tough, challenging and ultimately rewarding, but it's not easy to create a classic loop out of them. Part of the problem is that there is such a high concentration of descents in a small area, so unless you session them, you end up riding/pushing up what would be a great descent to get to the next descent.

The VG White Peak guide has a reasonable loop but it has too much road and/or grassy slog. I recommend just having a play, push back up, have another play on another descent etc...

Bear in mind Swan Rake and Limer Rake - the two that end in the centre of the village - are officially closed.

I keep meaning to get back to Hollinsclough.

When I rode it I'd done a big, boring loop round Millers Dale & Monsal Head first - and the descents at Hollinsclough were amazing by comparison.

Dunno what my favourite Peaks descent is, maybe Cumberland Clough - I would like to do Cavedale again though.

MrTortoise speaks truth about Hollinsclough. My advice would be to avoid the area entirely. The descents that are there are too short and too remote to make into a decent loop. I was there a couple of months back and there was downed trees and lots of mud and generally it was awful. Just the length of them (short) makes them not worth it, add it the other stuff and yeh I wouldn't bother. Gradbach and cheeky roaches singletrack the other side of the road are much better.

Thepodge will be along shortly to admonish anyone who mentions 'Les Arcs' which, I believe is aka 'Mono6ti'.

For me my top three are:

Cut Gate northbound (left hand fork and all the way to the gate).
Jacobs Ladder.
Lockerbrook.

The whole place is ace to be honest.

I just prefer calling you a dick these days

Les Arcs/Alpine

Where's shatners bassoon?

Right next to his euphonium.

Has no one mentioned The Campsite descent into Hayfield yet?
That's my fav, from the very top (the horrible grassy field) it's just a fast fun blast right down
Then possibly Cumberland Clough and the long blast from Shooters Cabin down to Glossop Road although as others have said it depends on the conditions and can vary on how I'm feeling
Although good I've riden all the stuff around Ladybower too much for it to feature

Cut Gate. On and on and on. 🙂

Cavedale, how could anything else be a favourite? Steep, rocky, fast lower sections with a flowy top bit until you hit the gate

My favourite but as a visitor I don't know the area as well as most. Jacobs is good but it's sort of straight down and hang on, not really a massive amount of line choice etc. The Beast .. mmm not so sure either. As a Surrey Hills (ex) local anything rock I appreciate and since my first visit to the Peak 10 yeats ago I hardly ridden in Wales both being a similar 3+ hour drive

You can get from the bottom of beast to Lockerbrook climb without hitting the road......

Lockerbrook / Screaming Mile
Devils Elbow
Hearthstone to Lea

Tough to choose, but current top 3 would be...

Cavedale
Beast
Jacob's Ladder

HMs to Devil's Elbow and Lockerbrook

Loads of my riding mates love Cut Gate and WLT/Cutthroat but I'm not such a big fan.

Only ridden Les Arcs once - in it's current 'wide' guise - wasn't all that fussed over it TBH.

I too am intrigued by the location of Shatner's Bassoon, and also the Hayfield Campsite descent...

I think the bassoon one could well be a red herring 🙂

You know you can still ride the right line on Les Arc?

Loved cut gate but more as a whole ride than a descent.

You need cake to get the best from Shatner's Bassoon, surely?

Hearthstone to Lea

There is actually a Shatner's Bassoon descent not a million miles from the Peak district 🙂 [url= https://www.strava.com/segments/3740623 ]Shatner's Bassoon trail[/url]

Soooo tough to choose. Soooo many amazing descents.

Non-cheeky:
Cave Dale
Cut Gate top cairn to North America
Jacob's Ladder
Roych Clough (as long as someone has all the gates)

Cheeky:
Roaches top trig all the way to bottom of Hen Cloud.
Burbage Rocks to Fox House Inn
Surprise View down to cp
Taxal Edge

Narnia
Burbage edge to fox house
Back of The Grouse inn down to grindleford
Riber all the way down through Bow Woods
Black rocks multiple ways down

Not sure any of them are legit

Cavedale is good too

Benman - yeah, I know but it is a great long and fun one 🙂

Riber all the way down through Bow Woods
Black rocks multiple ways down

Would completely agree with this but
1. Technically they are not in the Peak District
2. Both cheeky

I too am intrigued by the location of Shatner's Bassoon, and also the Hayfield Campsite descent

Hayfield campsite is from here down to the gate, hairpin left and down to Hayfield past the campsite
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=404955&y=386317&z=120&sv=404955,386317&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=622&ax=404955&ay=386317&lm=0

Feeling oddly smug that neither of my faves feature. The Hayfield campsite descent has changed massively over the last 20 years, from grassy ruts to sanitised Pennine Bridleway dullness to the current state of quite goodness. If you're feeling brave you can also reach the top by riding along the crest of the ridge from the gate on the skyline above Coldwell Clough...

Anyway, if you've not ridden the campsite descent often, it's worth bearing in mind that there are often walkers coming up from the campsite, particularly in summer, below the blind righthander. And a couple of years back, shaggy highland cattle with pointy horns in the middle of the trail, that was interesting.

So that's riding to the right of the starting arrow, hooking that sharp left and then following the bridleway west along the bottom of Elle Bank?

Shatners bassoon.

Taxal edge
Berry clough

Cat and fiddle to erwood hall via shooter's clough

Froggatt Edge
Stanage Plantation
Wessenden Head into Marsden

Cave Dale to me seems to be in a different league to all the other Peaks descents when it comes to technicality. A huge step up from anything else that is there. It is the only one that I was too scared to ride and had to carry down.

Cat and fiddle to erwood hall via shooter's clough

Cat and fiddle to erwood hall via shooter's clough

A few have mentioned this. I haven't done it for ages as I see it as a climb.

Think I did this by mistake when following a friend's GPX the wrong way, it was the highlight of the loop (unsurprisingly).

Cave Dale to me seems to be in a different league to all the other Peaks descents when it comes to technicality.

Don't know about that. Lethal in the wet though what with all that polished limestone 🙁

Alex, it sounds like you're missing the bit that goes down in to shooters. It's cheeky, you need to hop over the gate on the left about half way down, then there are a couple of switch backs over some loose stuff down to the hall. If you go straight down to the car park then it does feel tame.

I like it, but think there's better. Charity Lane, cumberland for starters.

spacey - Member

Alex, it sounds like you're missing the bit that goes down in to shooters. It's cheeky, you need to hop over the gate on the left about half way down, then there are a couple of switch backs over some loose stuff down to the hall. If you go straight down to the car park then it does feel tame.

I like it, but think there's better. Charity Lane, cumberland for starters.

thepodge - Member

I just prefer calling you a dick these days

Posted 3 days ago #

Ha ha ha!

I knew you'd be on this thread eventually doing a bit of snooping - why haven't you put [b]your[/b] favourites on here if you are interested in the thread?

I guess it's all part of the 'local trails are for locals only' shtick?

By the way.....

FWIW - I am not unsympathetic to your points about 'cheeky' and the rest - its just the holier than thou act that gets my goat.

Am I the only one here that outright dislikes the beast? IMO its a waste of oxygen and calories.

Tom_W1987 - Member

Am I the only one here that outright dislikes the beast? IMO its a waste of oxygen and calories.

I've never enjoyed the Beast, can never get much momentum going. My faves change every few months and include most of the Dark Peak classics, cheeky or otherwise

Sometimes I love the Beast, sometimes I hate it. Was horrible when I last did it at dusk with a crap old light.

Looking forward to giving it a go on my new 29er shred sled. Lock up your KOMs! (not really)

dannyh - dannyh - Ha ha ha!

I knew you'd be on this thread eventually doing a bit of snooping - why haven't you put your favourites on here if you are interested in the thread?

I guess it's all part of the 'local trails are for locals only' shtick?

I didn't realise I had to post on everything I read, my post count would be phenomenal if I did. I don't have a favourite, there are lots that are good but all for different reasons. Having ridden my mountain bike only a handful of times this year my current faves are not in the Peak and are ridden on a Gravel bike so don't really count on this thread being that they are quite tame.

I also don't have a locals only "shtick" but you're not interested in that or the work Keeper of the Peak / Peak MTB have had to go into, just interested in constantly bringing my name up on threads... Top trolling, dick.

I think ive ridden most of these, but no idea where Les Arcs is (other than in France) can someone please enlighten me?

If you are on the main road with Ladybower on your left look straight ahead and you will see a bracken covered hillside with a large and obvious track going across it.A few years ago you could barely see it but now it is so wide and damaged from overuse that it is very obvious.

Is it the footpath from Whinstone Lee Tor down to Ashopton?

footpath schmootpath, no bike's gonna wear the mountain away.
The laws regarding access are ridiculous in England and are there to be ignored.

Not technically in the Peak i dont think but the many cheeky bits in Macclesfield forest are excellent, particually the cheeky starting at the top of...... 😉

Blackflag - Member

Is it the footpath from Whinstone Lee Tor down to Ashopton?

If I'm lucky, it's on this link:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/53.3783/-1.7027&layers=N

Cave Dale to me seems to be in a different league to all the other Peaks descents when it comes to technicality. A huge step up from anything else that is there. It is the only one that I was too scared to ride and had to carry down.

It's not too bad, if someone holds the gate and you can roll into the steep bit afterwards it's fine*, that's the only section which is 'do or die' in that any dabs would likely result in a nasty OTB. Once past that you can bail onto the verges if it gets too fast.

Stanage plantation is the one I can't do quickly. I can roll the whole thing easily, but the narrowness just means I'm never going to be troubling the Strava leaderboard. Whereas some people scream down it like it's a scalextric track.

*added bonus, you don't see it until the last second so don't talk yourself out of it.

thepodge - Member
dannyh - dannyh - Ha ha ha!
I knew you'd be on this thread eventually doing a bit of snooping - why haven't you put your favourites on here if you are interested in the thread?

I guess it's all part of the 'local trails are for locals only' shtick?

I didn't realise I had to post on everything I read, my post count would be phenomenal if I did. I don't have a favourite, there are lots that are good but all for different reasons. Having ridden my mountain bike only a handful of times this year my current faves are not in the Peak and are ridden on a Gravel bike so don't really count on this thread being that they are quite tame.

I also don't have a locals only "shtick" but you're not interested in that or the work Keeper of the Peak / Peak MTB have had to go into, just interested in constantly bringing my name up on threads... Top trolling, dick.

POSTED 5 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

I would hardly say 'constantly'. I would say I've only done it as many times as you've popped up telling people they can't ride Cut Gate after a bit of drizzle etc, but I do appreciate how busy the Peak is and how sensitive some issues can be.

And I am interested in what Peak MTB have been doing and I am grateful for the work they have put in, but they certainly have some poachers turned gamekeepers in their ranks judging by some videos I have seen. I doubt they'd be very keen to swear under oath they don't ride cheeky every once in a while.

In any case, I do think I've been a bit of a tedious dickhead to post on this thread like I did, probably shouldn't have.

Truce?

Do you lot do the top section of Cumberland Brook, the cheeky bit that cuts out the road riding bollocks. That's what makes it for me! It's almost trialsey in places (but not shit your pants silly) and really fun to crack without dabbing, don't see bikes on that bit much TBH.

The hidden stuff at Macc Forest (not the bog standard Grit & Gears or the DH tracks) is really nice with some decent jumps and drops. The tracks show up mickey mouse tyres pretty quick in the wet though, Majic Marys being king round there.

The reason I don't rate Cavedale higher is it's just so tedious to get to and from. It's only the short hardest section (after the gate) that's any good, the rest is a bit meh. It's perpetually wet with no tyre making any difference to traction on the limestone.

Love the bridleway to Castleton from Hollins Cross. It's really short and not worth doing alone, but is sweet as part of a push up and session with the four other tracks off Hollins Cross.

Ah so that track in the woods is called Narnia, now I know 😉 there's a couple of other tasty roots down that hill.

It's only the short hardest section (after the gate) that's any good, the rest is a bit meh. It's perpetually wet with no tyre making any difference to traction on the limestone.

I agree its always wet, but its loose and well drained and only runs out of grip when it freezes!

I usually ride up the road to the top of pindale then past the old quarry. As Peaks rides go its quite economical in terms of climbing vs descending compared to Stanage or any of the ladybower/derwent descents.

Do you lot do the top section of Cumberland Brook, the cheeky bit that cuts out the road riding bollocks. That's what makes it for me! It's almost trialsey in places (but not shit your pants silly) and really fun to crack without dabbing, don't see bikes on that bit much TBH.

thisisnotaspoon - You're right about it not being the hardest to get to the top of. Seems as though it's the ground water run off for that entire hillside. Every time I've been, in the summer with a few dry days beforehand, it has been like riding down a babbling brook 😀

AlexSimon - Fair game for week day/less busy times riding IMO. The FP over the other side, Derbyshire Bridge that skirts the hillside down into Goyt Valley is fun too.

Ermm, I'll go for Jacob's (incl the bit across the stream all the way down to the farm which I love for some reason), the Beast and Cut Gate (either direction), but I'll admit to not having covered the most comprehensive series of descents. Did one cheeky one that descended very, very steeply behind Ladybower inn. No idea what it was called, but put hairs on my chest.

As an aside, where exactly is the Screaming Mile?

Hang on, think I've worked it out. From Lockerbrook activity centre to Upper Derwent, right?

The screaming mile does exactly what is says on the tin. Your hubs (if Hope) will be screaming for a mile. And possibly your brakes depending how brave you are 😆

I've often noticed people wrongly describe the Lockerbrook descent as the screaming mile, bit it actually runs from the top of the hill down a long fire road all the way down to the little car park beside the cattle grid on the road between the A57 and Fairholmes carpark.