It’s a North Farce 👎🏻 The Red Grade North Face MTB Trail at Grizedale Forest is 80% Fire Road 😒

I was so excited by riding Whinlatter (see last ride vid), that I came back to the Lake District with Ash to ride Grizedale Forest. The red / black route at Whinlatter was immense, so Grizedale has to be too, right!?
We decided to ride the Red route, the North Face trail, based on the trail map / website description it held a lot of promise:
"Purpose-built MTB trail, offering adrenalising sections of singletrack descent and leg burning climbs. Be warned, there are plenty of challenging boardwalks. This trail is suitable for mountain bikers only and requires a high level of skill and fitness."
So we were a little confused when all we seemed to be riding was fire roads! There were a few sections of board walk, in a really bad way, one section was closed completely. We asked in the shop (which is excellent by the way!) if we'd messed up, but no they confirmed the red is mostly fireroad with a little bit of single track.
Turns out a guy I know helps build / maintain the trails as part of his company’s CSR scheme, so maybe once Covid us over some serious live and care will be dished out.
I was in truth surprised watching the footage back, as the video looks more fun than the rude seemed at the time. For a two hour ride, I only got a 12 min video though, so that shows how much fire road hit the cutting room floor 😂
If you want to get a good ride in, head to the shop and ask them to draw / explain how to find the good off piste stuff, that'll be a video for another day... maybe.
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🎥 Instagram: / the_dunc_g
🗺 Route on Strava: / strava