The North Face MTB Trail red route is a classic in terms of mountain bike trails – named after the clothing company, it is 16km (10miles) of a mix of single track with some board walk, and fire road linking up areas.
Starting with a climb out of the visitors centre, up through old woodland, with a mix of firmer trail and rocky sections to test your technical climbing, you wind up and out to the higher areas of the forest, heading north, and progress through a mixture of fireroad and singletracks sections. Most of the remaining climbing is on fireroads. The final sections lead you back down a flowing singletrack section into the visitors centre and car park.
It’ll offer a challenge for beginners and intermediate riders, not always in the technical level, but the fact that the trail is at points rocky and well worn. There is a mix of challenging uphill and downhill sections. It’s good place for when the weather is a wetter, being sheltered in the trees for the most, but as it’s older, still has a lot of standing water in places.
There are stunning views over Coniston, and The Old Man of Coniston and surrounding Fells.
