DO YOU go cycling or hiking in the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales or north Lancashire? Then visit our new Bike & Hike web page to follow our routes – and submit your own!

Bike & Hike allows Westmorland Gazette readers to download navigation data – meaning you can follow our routes using a GPS device or smartphone.

The section offers free downloads of GPX files, which contain route data and are compatible with most kinds of GPS equipment.

And we also upload our routes to the popular outdoor social media site Strava, which allows users to find new routes, hone their training and compare their performance with others.

Bike & Hike has been created with the aim of building a definitive database of cycling and walking routes for the region.

As well as including our existing archive of walks from all over the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales or north Lancashire, we’ve begun to develop a collection of some of the area’s best bike rides.

Mountain bike routes uploaded to the site so far include a brilliant loop over Claife Heights and Loughrigg Terrace, a tough ride over the massive High Street range and the classic Walna Scar Road adventure.

On the road, you’ll find a scenic low-level circuit around Windermere as well as a challenging hilly tour of north Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland.

To try our routes, visit the Bike & Hike section at www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/routes.

And if you’ve got a great route you’d like to share with our readers, email a route description and GPX file to ellis.butcher@nqnw.co.uk

HOW IT WORKS

  • Go to www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/routes to visit the Bike & Hike section.
  • Read our route description and look at a map of the route from popular outdoor activity social media site Strava.
  • Download one of our GPX files, which contain data allowing you to follow our cycling routes using a GPS device.
  • Get out and ride! Make sure you have a map as well as all the equipment, fitness and skills you need to get back safely.
  • Submit your own routes – if you’ve got a classic bike ride or walk you’d like to share with our readers, email ellis.butcher@nqnw.co.uk