Trail advice - Buttermere/Ennerdale/Ambleside/Kendal/Dales

***Updated the title to make it a bit clearer as to where we are looking to ride***

Hello fellow Northerners.

I am doing the Off-Road Coast 2 Coast in September and have some plans in place, some guides to look at and some ideas from people of how to do it, but I am wondering if anyone has A) done it before and got any route advice or B) some good recommendations for any trails we should incorporate during the ride?

Accommodation plan and therefore fairly rigid start/finish points are thusly:

St Bees > Eskdale > Ambleside > Kirkby Stephen > Danby Wiske > Blakey > Robin Hoods Bay

Aiming to do 30ish miles a day but happy to do more to get some good riding in.

Many thanks in advance!

Re:

I did an off road coast to coast from Whitehaven to Scarborough with four others in the summer of 2009.

We did it over four days using B&Bs and YHAs. Very lightweight in terms of gear as we carried everything with us. I used a 13 litre Camelback and a 1.3 litre Ortlieb saddle bag. The weather was mostly okay but It rained heavily on both day one and two.

Great few days of riding even though I'd badly bruised my ribs in a crash a week before setting off.

Our route was roughly as follows:

Day One:
Whitehaven - C2C route to Whinlatter - section of Red loop - Keswick - Borrowdale - Stake Pass (unrideable) - Langdale - Ambleside - Windermere YHA

Day Two:
Windermere - Staveley - A6 north to Borrowdale (the other one) - Tebay - Crosby Garrett Fell - Soulby - Winton - Rookby - Heggerscales - Tan Hill Inn - Melbecks Moor - Reeth B&B

Day Three:
Reeth - Skelton Moor - Richmond - Catterick Bridge - Danby Wiske (stick to the roads here) - Deighton - Ingleby CroSs - Osmotherly - Square Corner - Snilesworth Moor - Chop Gate B&B

Day Four:
Chop Gate - Urra Moor - Bloworth Crossing - Farndale Moor - Blakey Ridge (Lion Inn) - Spaunton Moor - Cropton - Levisham Station - Hole of Horcum - Dalby Forest - Scalby Nabs - Scarborough

You are really spoilt for choice for riding across that part of northern England. The Eskdale route through the Lakes looks to be a good option. Any route across the Lake District is always tough. I wouldn't want to do the Stake Pass again on a bike.

The Yorkshire Dales are fantastic, just watch out for wet limestone. It's like ice.

The North York Moors are also fantastic to ride through. Lots of long sections of great singletrack and high level trails.

Quite jealous.

Re: Coast 2 Coast / Local trail advice wanted please

Thanks Paul, looks like you did a fair few miles more per day than we are planning, but it hopefully means we can do more hitting the trails than just plain getting to a destination as we get tired.

O/S maps are on their way.

So, we aim to include Ennerdale/Buttermere/Wasdale/Eskdale on the first day, though it's none too clear how we are linking them up at the mo, it has been suggested we try and take Scarth Gap into Buttermere, but I can't find it on the map!

Second day is Eskdale to Ambleside, but that isn't too far in a straight line so hoping to include Dunnerdale Forest, Walna Scar into Conniston and, er, some more miles.

Any locals advice much appreciated!

Walna Scar Road is a fantastic piece of rubble, but it's going to be fairly hectic if you're fully loaded!

Re:

Coniston, you can always ride to the other side, grab some food from a nice b&b cafe there bank house? And then head into grizdale for a trail blast then head up Windermere side and we'll loads of places around there and many ohter routes to get to where you are going.

Moors, I have a route for MTB I plotted it avoids coniston iirc and dalby as you are heading to robin hood so further north.
But it runs along the north side, into Blakey lion inn for some food and then of towards robin hood via what is know as 'the blue man'.

To be honest I would do a longer route and take in the southerside then heading once in Cropton and into goathland, then out towards the coast. I'm sure Kaya (Vern) and Gil can plan you a nice route as they know it pretty well.

Re:

I won't be on the site for a few days but will help with a few tips the FIRST and probably the best is DON'T plan any routes across the moors using the blue man, unless you enjoy full on technical riding... after rain it flows like a river with hidden rocks and in the dry its...
Well lets just say abit rocky see below

Dry


Wet

Re:

Vern!,you're spoling it... what more could somebody want than a last technical blast to the finish line ;-)

Re:

Blue Man looks awesome
(without luggage)