With my brother having a milestone birthday to celebrate; I initially suggested a trip away down to our old stomping ground in the New Forest to look at racing motorcycles at the Sammy Miller Motorbike Museum. It was a positive response around going away although back to the drawing board for ideas on a destination.
Feedback was for a preference for a ‘memorable’ trip, maybe an adventure involving walking or maybe even a cycling, to travel and explore. Cycling was decided on as it would be more of a novelty for both of us, as neither of us had done any cycle touring for more than the odd night. For me it would build on my cycle camping trips with the kids although would need a lot more thought and planning.
Logistics
The first challenge was where to go, with COVID causing restrictions the obvious choice would be too keep to a route in England. I started by searching for existing long cycle routes and quickly came across the Sustrans routes and the Pennine Cycle Way Route 68. This looked perfect, the route started near our homes, passed through beautiful landscape and villages and would have those great views that you only get by cycling up big hills. All of this I was sure would make it memorable.
So with the Sustran Maps laid out on the table, the task of trying to work out where to stay and most importantly how far we could get in the three days of cycling we had together. Ideally I was keen to make it to one of the railway stations on the route to enable my brother to get back home by train. Originally I planned on carrying on to complete the route although like all best laid plans this was not going to be the case, more on that later.
When arranging the return journey by train I discovered each of the train companies have a different approach to booking bikes on to their train, most of them require a reservation and information on how to do this can be found on the specific train companies website.
The town of Settle was one choice for an end although I was keen to try and include some more of the Yorkshire Dales and Howgills Fells. So with some tweaking of the accommodation I came up with a plan that got us from Ashbourne to Applby-in-Westmoorland, staying in Holmesforth and Settle.
For some insight into how I planned my accommodation, I discuss this in my Fastpacking the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coastal Path post.
With a route planned and accommodation booked, now all that remained was checking over our bikes. Just before heading off on my summer holiday I checked over my bikes and realised that after years of not really using them, there was an huge amount of maintenance to do. So I decided it was a good excuse to buy a new bike. Unfortunately the challenges with bike supply cased by COVID meant I was a little limited on choice and I decided on a Decathlon Triban 500, which I was going to regret slightly as I had a number of problem with it including the freewheel coming disconnected from the hub and having to limp 20 miles into Applby-in-Westmoorland.
For food and supplies on the route we found there were good range of facilities including: pubs, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and bike shops in the towns and villages we passed through. We always had a few snacks with us to keep us going between settlements as occasionally there were large gaps. For the Northumberland Section I did later on, the gaps where between settlements were much larger so I carried more in the way of snacks to keep me going. We were able to planning ahead each day for possible places to stop using google maps to identify places for food on route.
Experiences on the cycle way
My brother and I set off from Ashbourne together and in good spirits to start our journey with a ride along the Tissington Trail to Buxton. The route ahead of us over the next few days had a real mix of cycling terrain.
The majority of the cycle way was on quiet country lanes although there was a good amount of other terrain. Some of the sections of the trail were disused railway line, canal tow paths or farm tracks and we made good progress along these. There were a couple of sections that are specifically mentioned on the map as not suitable for road bikes and I had planned on just pushing the bike through these sections and gaining the benefit of the road bike on all the long sections on road. Turns out the map makers were a little optimistic in just a couple of sections being unsuitable for a road bike as a number of time I had to get off for short section or teeter along on my road bike across muddy ground. I was happy with the approach to pushing these sections although looking back on it sure this would be a great route for a gravel bike and I would not have wanted to cycle it on a heavy mountain bike.
In general the route was well signed with the white arrows on a blue background of the Sustran route 68 signs. Google maps helped keep us on the right track often just with the speaker volume turned up and the screen turned off so it would warn us about a upcoming turn and with paper maps in our bags as a back up we found the route finding fairly easy although there were a couple of slight detours on the way.
Weather wise we had a real mix. We had a good bit of sunshine and in general we were lucky, as the Pennines is known for getting more than its fair share of British weather. We had one particularly wet afternoon, where were grateful for our waterproofs and breaks in cafes to dry out a bit. We took good lights with us and recharged them overnight. As it was the end of September the nights were starting to draw in and with the long days in the saddle we finished every day cycling in the dark. This added some memorable moments particularly cycling through the mist in the dark on the way down into Settle.
The views on route were amazing and the following photos where some of the highlights.
What went wrong, well we had a good range of challenges on route including a puncher, loose bags than needed tightening and water getting into one of the lights.
By far the biggest challenge we had was my rear wheel. To start with I had a bit of rubbing from my rear disc and assumed it was a bit of dirt that had got between the disk and the pads. Then the rear of the bike felt a bit odd and I stopped to check the wheel was in correctly, it was so we carried on. Unfortunatly it had not got any better and with a break on a bench as we entered the Howgill Fells, I took the chance to have another look. Then I realised the wheel was wobbly, and on further inspection and following a call with a local bike mechanic we came to the conclusion that the likely case was the freewheel coming disconnects from the hub. This was very much in the category of things we could not fix at the side off the road. It would have been bad enough on a local ride although we were miles from any help with around 20 miles to our next major settlement and our accommodation for the night; not to mention that I was meant to be carrying on for a few more days. This was not what I had expected from a bike that I had only had a few weeks. After some debate, and a quick check of the cancellation policy on my remaining accommodation I decided that I wanted to pause the trip, get the bike repaired where I had bought it and then when I was confident it was fix to return back and continue on my trip. So on arriving at our destination for the day, I cancelled the rest of my trip and had a enjoyable train journey back south with my brother.
We had a delayed start to our journey home due to a late running train, which made for a nice opportunity to chat to the other cyclist waiting for a train who were at the start of their adventure to do part of the Pennine Bridleway.
These three days of cycling around 200 miles together, were one that I will definitely remember and left us with the taste for more adventure to come.
Finishing the route on my own
Having got my bike repaired it was time to head north and complete the route. So I headed back to Appby-in-Westmoorland on the train. This time I had decided that I would take my bivvy gear and do a mix of bivvying and staying inside. The extra weight made it noticeably harder on the ascents and in hindsight I would have left my bivvy bag at home, stayed inside and travel lighter. The scenery and remoteness of cycling through Northumbria was amazing. Northumbria is rapidly becoming one of my favourite parts of England. This was not my first adventure here having really enjoyed running the Northumberland Coast Path a few years earlier and definitely won’t me my last adventure in Northumbria.
The combination of cycling, visiting historic monuments and the adventure of the trip was exactly what I was after. Cycling from home to the border of Scotland was something I never thought I would do and it was well worth it. The Pennine Cycle Way is a route I would recommend to others looking for an challenging cycle route. Worth bearing in mind that with the significant amount of off road mixed in with long road sections and a lot of ascent it is definitely for the more adventurous minded out there. The whole experience has left me looking forward to my next cycling trip.