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I never normally take my camera riding, but yesterday convinced me to.
Train to Garsdale from Leeds before 8am, over the road to the Pennine Bridleway, off across Cam High Road to Bainbridge, over Stake Moss to Buckden, down the Road to Kilnsey, Over Mastiles Lane and back on the PBW to Settle, train back to Leeds.
Quite a stunning day, but a bit more difficult than I expected... The bike is pretty damn nice too.
The road above Garsdale station -- didn't see a car, obviously
Leaving the road for the PBW, above Dent station -- hard to tell which is which
Climbing the PBW up to Cam High Road
Top of Cam High Road, stuck
Over the wonderful desolation of Stake Moss
Ditto, with a fascinating sky
Starting the big climb up Mastiles Lane -- less snow, more ice
Quite an epic day and absolutely beautiful.
But what those pics don't tell you is that 50 yards down the first descent I hit a rock under the snow with my front wheel and the tyre dropped probably under 10 psi, and this didn't seal for 30mins so I was pumping it up every 10 mins, and much of that beautiful snow was a ****er to ride through leaving me hiking for miles, miles which also left me digging ice out of my cleats with my house keys every 10 mins at some point, sometimes just so I could actually stand on the pedals never mind clip in. And my favorite cafe was shut, so I was eating cake at a bus stop in Kettlewell...
That said, I arrived in Settle 10 mins before the 5.50 train, which is always nice after a full days ride but especially nice given the next one was at 8pm. And the bus stop cake was still great 🙂
One of those epics days I crave now and then, but certainly not every ride 🙂
p.s. the route and the bike
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1936147523
Brilliant!
Wow, I'm very very jealous !
great stuff, although if you can ride through it it ain't that much snow
Nice 🙂
The Coal Road is right b****r to start off with isn't it?
Looks like a decent amount of snow on the higher ground, we're on the south of the Dales at 200 metres altitude and there's just a dusting. A couple of weekends ago there was snow but it was on top of unfrozen ground so it was really hard work - bottom gear pedalling down slopes we usually blast down - we took four hours for 20km!
Thanks 🙂
Yep, The Coal Road was damn steep, and the steep bit basically unridable with all that snow.
I certainly did a lot of pushing, mostly around pics 3 and 4 (climbing up to and traversing Cam High Road). Some of the other very deep bits were short enough that if you got your speed up you could plough through it, given a bit of luck.
I was hiking up there a couple of weeks back and was certainly glad not to be biking through the slushy boggy mess...
Very cool great pictures, keep the updates going on the stooge interested to hear how it goes.
😎😎😎
What handle bar is that?
It's a Soma Odin bar, 15deg sweep, 720mm wide, I think.
With the massive Wolftooth grips that make ESI Extra Chunky look feeble