3 day, 2 night, circular off-road, bikepack inspiration please!

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 TobyA 25 Aug 2022

Hi all, I was about to head off to try bikepacking the Pennine Bridleway over the long weekend - getting all organised and excited until I decided to check the train for coming home (I can start the route from home), and found for one part of my journey all the bike place reservation were gone, so it would be impossible to get my bike back!

I'm trying to rapidly produce a plan B. Along with the Pennine Bridleway, I've wanted to ride the King Alfred Way for a few years - so I could have swapped my plan to that. But I've just got a new mountain bike, which is why I thought I should use this weekend to christen it with an off road bikepacking trip, plus the start of the PB is not far from my home near Sheffield.

So I'm trying to plan an alternative - probably somewhere in Northern England that I can drive to in a couple of hours from home. Circular, so I start and finish at the car. Off road, and moderately technical so that I enjoy riding my new hardcore hardtail and not wish I had brought my cruisey gravel bike instead. I want to ride for three days, and probably be able to wild camp for the two nights between them, although a simple campsite would be fine also. The Yorkshire Dales is a possibility? Northern Pennines - High Cup Nick and that sort of area perhaps? I know the Lakes has loads of possibilities but thought it would probably be very busy this weekend. Anyone with any ideas?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts!

 ebdon 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

Although it's a bit of a drive, the tour of the cairngorms fits the brief perfectly.

1
 spenser 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

Take a look at the options on bikepacking.com?

 Godwin 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

Is it not possible to get a train to the far end, and reverse your intended route.

 Exile 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

(This is on the hoof so apologies for spellings.) 

Lakes -

Threkeld - Keswick via bridleways around the front of Skiddaw - whatendlath - over and down bridleway into Borrowdale - over to Wadale - Coffin road to Eskdale - Over to Duddon (stick on the road, not the make believe bridleway on the map) - Walna Scar to condition - tilberthwaite / Hodge close bridle ways to Langdale - loughrigg terrace to Ambleside - Jenkins crag - up onto high street - pooley bridge - back down west side of Ullswater a little way - old coach road back to threkeld. We did it in two days with a gear stash, better as a three day if carrying kit. Lots of wild camp options and a few campsite options (Turner Hall in the Duddon is especially beautiful.) 

 Exile 25 Aug 2022
In reply to Exile:

The Lakes has not been super busy in the fells this year - a good day for walking in Langdale yesterday but the stickle barn carpark didn't ever get more than 1/3 - 1/2 full. 

OP TobyA 25 Aug 2022
In reply to Godwin:

> Is it not possible to get a train to the far end, and reverse your intended route.

No I tried that, but it's the trains between Sheffield and Leeds or vice versa that are the problem - Trainline just shows the bike spaces fully booked on every service. Northern (Leeds to Kirkby Stephen or vice versa) don't need bike bookings although I don't know if it's easy or not to actually find space on the trains.

 philipivan 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

I had wondered whether people generally use these bike booking slots as people around here nottingham/ Derby / matlock seem to take bikes on and never seem to have a reservation. OK if it's quiet I guess!

 Godwin 25 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

Right, you are entering the world of taking bikes on trains.

With Northern you cannot book, it generally works.

Cross Country I have never used, but you have to book.

I would go to a booking office at a station and ask their advice, the Sheffield one is open until 22.50 and IME the staff are super helpful. 

I would definitely get the train there, and ride back, far less stressful.



 

OP TobyA 30 Aug 2022
In reply to all:

Thanks for the suggestions all - Exile, I looked on a map at your route and will definitely keep it in mind for a future mission.

In the end I went to the Howgills and Yorkshire Dales. It was wonderful but also hard work. I consider myself moderately cycling and hill fit, I commute 100 kms a week and my ride home involves 260 mtrs of ascent, so I'm not unused to hills, but I had not paid enough attention to the ascent in my planned route!

Day 1 I parked in Sedbergh and went straight up onto the Howgills. Some pushing was needed but not too much (pushing the bike with camping gear and three days food on it wasn't that easy either!). From the highest point (the Calf?) the descent north down Bowderdale Beck is amazing. It's a bridleway so all legal and proper but on the ground its just the single track descent that goes on and on and on. Probably the best descent I've done on a mountain bike. I then went east and picked up the top of the Pennine Bridleway. Immediately you do another huge climb most of the way up Wild Boar Fell. The descent east from shoulder you reach is pretty mental too. Superb fun going down but I thought it must be heart braking for anyone trying to finish the PB (coming from the south), as pushing your bike up it must be so hard. The PB then takes another hard slog on a gravel track up the other side of that Dale, before taking a traverse line along the side of the valley that just goes on for miles. The PB drops down to Garsdale Head, but I carried on traversing on this remarkable bridleway (supposedly called Lady Anne's Road) before the final marvellous plunge into the valley just west of Hawes, where I stopped on a campsite for the night. 55 kms and over 1500 mtrs of climbing!

The next day I was definitely still feeling it so altered my route a little. I didn't go the whole way up the hill above Hawes to get on the start of the roman road - the Cam High Road, but traversed up to it about halfway the along the ridge it drops down. A few kms of fast dead straight but still rocky roman engineering took me to Bainbridge. From there I climbed southwards up on tarmac then tracks onto the high plateau before another huge descent into Langstrothdale. I was going to do another supposedly hard climb and excellent descent over a ridge south in to Littondale but my legs weren't really up for it, so instead went up to Langstrothdale to where you can cross over and drop in Ribblesdale, and down to Horton where I camped the next night. 42 kms but still 800 mtrs of ascent.

Yesterday I whimped out a bit of using the PB north from Horton and instead rode the road to Ribblehead, but then it was a good but tough climb up the side of Whernside, where the bridleway takes you NW above the head of Dentdale - amazing views down the dale to the Lakes and the Howgills. The descent down to Dentdale is also brilliant riding. I had originally planned to slog up the road here and take a track that traverse high above the dale again, but with thoughts of getting home and seeing the family and the tiredness in my legs - well all over actually - I followed lanes along the dale bottom instead. Even still I decided to follow a bridleway for the last bit that took me through a ford across the River Dee which was amusing! And then another tough climb up the north slope of the valley and a few more kms of fantastic single track down right back to Sedbergh where I had left my car.

I've never ridden in the Yorkshire Dales, but it's bloody brilliant I thought. If you enjoy mountain bike and also haven't I can thoroughly recommend it. Just don't underestimate how many climbs there are even if they aren't quite Scottish- or Lakes-sized!


 Phil79 30 Aug 2022
In reply to TobyA:

> I've wanted to ride the King Alfred Way for a few years - so I could have swapped my plan to that. 

I don't have much to compare it to, but I really enjoyed the King Alfred Way. I rode it in July over 3.5 days with my brother. It was my first multi-day ride, we wimped out and did it via B&B, but still surprisingly hard work. Mileage per day was 50/70/70/40 or thereabouts (although I did almost no training and haven't done any serious riding for about 3 years). I rode it on a gravel bike, but a mtb would have been much more appropriate for a fair bit of it. Ample places to discreetly wild camp/bivi. About 90 percent off road I think.

Given it threads through a fairly heavily populated part of UK, much of it feels surprisingly remote, or at least hidden away. I'd suggest a GPS nav system of some sort for the bit between Reading and South Downs way, as there are frequent turns and changes of direction and would be very easy to get lost. The Salisbury Plain and Ridgeway sections I though were excellent. Hard going across the sandy heathland around Farnborough down to the South Downs Way. One or two descents were I felt way out of depth on drop bars too. Some stunning views and bucolic countryside to enjoy, and lots of archaeology/history on route.

Post edited at 15:21

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...