Mountain Biking in the Lake District

We had booked into Center Parcs at Whinfell Forest in Cumbria for a break this Easter and decided to use it as a base to revisit some great mountain biking locations in the Lake District. First up was Whinlatter Forest Park which is home to the Altura Trail - 19km of fabulous red grade single track. Initially, I wasn't keen on this outing since the last time I had been to Whinlatter was to take part in the Whinlatter Challenge in March 2009. The Challenge is my only defeat to date in mountain biking competitions since I retired after the first of two laps fearing that daylight would be gone and emergency rescue vehicles be required if I set out on the second lap! In my defence I could claim ill health on the day and note that 25% of entrants DNF as we say but to be honest these are poor excuses. I can only hope that they keep running the challenge so I can go back and seek victory over that particular event one day.

However, the Altura trail is different again from the Whinlatter Challenge and we had a brilliant day out hitting the 10km North Loop in the morning before being seduced by the wonderful nosh at Siskins cafe for lunch and moving onto the 9km South Loop in the afternoon. Adam was not too impressed with the start of the North Loop, 'Bob's Traverse' being somewhat exposed and 'The Slog' being just that but it was all worth it for the descent:  'Happy Days', 'Big Dipper' and 'Grand National' need no explaining the whole family were on a high by the time we swooped back into the car park. The south Loop starts with a stretch of single track called 'Dead on Arrival' which was somewhat daunting but to be honest we all found this ascent much more engaging than 'The Slog'. Again both the view and the descent were more than worth the climb and we simply flew back to visitors centre.

 

The second outing of the Easter break was to Grizedale Forest and the North Face Trail another 16km of free flowing mountain biking. The Grizedale Challenge is held here in the month of September and for the last two years we have found time to take part along with other mad friends. I still haven't managed to complete the course in under 5 hours but am inching closer and who knows what this year will bring. Again the trail is completely different from the challenge. It starts  with an ascent which zigzags upwards and requires good concentration, technical ability and fitness to keep moving smoothly without any offs or dabbing. A moment of hilarity was provided by Ben disappearing from a relatively straight section of track into some very brambly undergrowth from which it was quite difficult to extract himself -the whole route can be completed in a couple of hours with kids in tow providing plenty of variety and entertainment for all. 

Move out the way kids Dad is coming through!