Lakeland 200 (Lake District)

Well, the Lakeland 200 now this one is one challenging ride and probably one of the hardest routes in the UK, well the hardest 200km (130 miles) of my life. Admittedly, I did make this harder for myself with playing around with the route while travelling to the start, to later find out that my route had changed some places meaning I would end up off course a few times. Silver lining, I did get to see some incredible views, even if I did have to turn back around.

In my opinion this is a route more suited to not actually bikepacking and much more for a MTB trip where you either just ride the whole thing in one go, would be a tough challenge, or you stay in a B&B for a night. This way the riding might be a little more enjoyable because it is incredibly tough and lots of very steep technical trails. And even without all your gear on your bike you will still have some pretty long hike-a-bike sections, the worst thing is sometimes you hike up and down its that kind of ride. Having said that though the Lakes is a beautiful place, and it is worth going just to sit in nature, nature that feels like you are sitting in a painting.

Definitely do not do this on a gravel bike, it would be horrible and not fun in the slightest, really I think you need a full suspension bike on this route to really get the most out of it, a hardtail if you have good bike handling skills. This is a type 2 kind of ride for sure, and I probably wouldn’t do it again, but I am glad I did keep going and get through it.