I discovered Whinlatter Forest Park almost by accident. Bertie and I planned to hire bikes and spend the day exploring the Langdale Valley, but we didn’t pre-book (“we won’t need to”, he said…) and the hire place was closed when we got there. Cue arguing, sulking and a conciliatory drink at the lovely, remote Woolpack Inn.

I googled other hire places and the nearest ones were at Keswick or Whinlatter, which I’d never heard of. I was sold when I saw “mountain bike trails” at Whinlatter, so after an hour’s (silent) drive we were fed, helmetted and fixed up with a couple of neat Cube hardtail bikes. The centre is well thought out, with a good café, shop, loos, information centre and big car park, and there are three MTB trails – the blue Quercus trail (“moderate”), red Altura North loop and red Altura South loop (both “difficult”).

Altura North

We started with the Altura North trail, 10km of bliss (for me) / terror (Bertie). It’s a well-signposted, well-maintained singletrack route with 200m ascent, exhilarating downhill sections and breathtaking views over layer upon layer of green, brown and hazy blue mountains. There are some tough climbs, particularly “The Slog”, which require a decent level of fitness and determination. Equally, the downhill sections are challenging in places but SO worth the effort, with sweeping berms, technical rocky and rooty bits, small drop-offs, jumps, flowing switchbacks and optional features graded “black”; the “Grand National” section is particularly thrilling, as the forest opens out onto a steep, gravelly, long switchback. Somehow I avoided causing serious damage to myself, the bike and the densely wooded forest, and I grinned stupidly for the whole 10km.

Quercus

Running out of time, we skipped the Altura South loop to my absolute dismay. However, the 7.5km Quercus trail didn’t disappoint. While it was more family friendly than the Altura, it still had technical sections, a few boardwalks, some flowing downhill and stunning views. The terrain was smoother (less rocky/rooty) than the Altura trail and it felt slightly more artificial, possibly just because it was less rugged. Although less thrilling, it was definitely sufficiently fun – a great warm down XC trail with some really satisfying, flowing sections.

Despite being a glorious day, mid-heatwave (late June), the forest wasn’t too busy. There were a handful of other riders out; a mix of seasoned-looking bikers with bank-breaking kit, happy-go-lucky visitors (sadly our category…) and a couple of family groups on the Quercus trail. The forest is also popular with walkers, but fortunately the real singletrack didn’t cross any pedestrian paths so our human contact was limited to pointing a lost rambler in the right direction on one of the gravel tracks between the “fun bits”.

So by late afternoon, the grumpy Naomi of that morning had transformed into a gleeful, buzzing idiot with sparkly eyes and an uncontrollable grin. Whinlatter exceeded my expectations and I’ve sworn to return to take on the Altura South loop. I’d also like to do the trails at Grizedale (west of Lake Windermere, also exhilarating) again, which – back in 2014 – I crashed on, horribly twisting an ankle and ending up at Keswick minor injuries unit (but not before I bandaged it up and completed the trail). Looks like another Lake District trip may be in the pipeline…

https://youtu.be/mI0SFrkyv_w – GoPro clips of the trails, unfortunately I adjusted the chest strap badly so it’s angled down!