Some wafflings on Dales Divide mostly to remind myself what to do next time
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| 90% of the time I was having a wonderful time |
Mindset
Mindset is a funny thing, I arrived at the start straight from the funeral of another colleague gone too soon. Grief makes me very tired and was feeling bit overwhelmed with so many people around, but it was also a good reminder to Live Every Day. I like to process stuff on the bike anyway, but that means riding on my own. So sorry if I was a bit anti-social to anyone I met on the trail.
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| Arnside at the start don't be fooled by the sun it was cold |
I knew the first day was supposed to be the hardest so mentally prepared myself to take it steady, not worry about getting off to push, and make peace with the bog. So while I didn’t make fast progress on day 1, I was pretty ok about that.
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| Day 1 hike a bike (& bacon sandwich) |
Some time after it got dark, I bumped into a group on the side of a hill, I thought I’d try being social and ride with them for a bit. One chap kept telling me about the times I’d have to make if I was going to get around the long course. I pointed out that I have time off work so I don’t actually need to make any of his perceived cut off times. I slightly wish I’d done the long course just to prove the point. Leaving Bolton Abbey I was informed that there wasn’t much between there and Summerbridge to bivi and if I kept up this pace I wouldn’t get there til 2am. A few years ago this might have really got to me. These days I’m comfortable I can look after myself on the hill, so I headed on and found a level spot to bivi on the side of the hill a few hours later. I’m sure he was trying to be helpful with all the advice, but it wasn’t asked for or needed.
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| slipping and sliding out of Summerbridge |
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| Ribblehead viaduct. Iconic |
After Summerbridge the route is supposed to be easier, unfortunately the ground conditions this year were so awful, I found myself pushing my bike through fields on the flat, thinking ‘this part isn’t supposed to be hard’. At this point I had a sense of humour failure, cursing Lynne and Jade for talking up the event (sorry!). Stopping at Morissions cafĂ© in Boroughbridge perked me up again and eventually I got on the fast roads to York.
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| The never ending mud fields |
Decided in York to commit to the short route, so switched over Garmin files, I hadn’t marked any course points on the file and couldn’t even see how far I had to go before I rejoined the long route in Osmothersly. I always like to know how far I am from the next ‘thing’ so found this quite hard to deal with – lesson learned.
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| York - ended up pushing my bike too many people. |
Throwing up my dinner after Crakye was another low point, so went for an early sleep stop and set alarm for 4am. Had totally forgotten about the clocks changing so was a bit confused about why sunrise took so long to come. By the time I’d pushed up onto the North York Moors it was just getting light, and the frost was sparkling on the ground (pleased I’d chosen to bivi at a lower elevation!). I enjoyed a glorious sunrise brightening up the open landscape, skipping across the high moor I wouldn’t be anywhere else right now. Made a mental note to thank Lynne and Jade for encouraging me to sign up.
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| North York Moors at Sunrise, what a place. |
In Northallerton I checked the forecast it was due to get wet and windy overnight, I didn’t fancy a rainy bivi, so committed to riding through the night to finish. I’d forgotten there’s a lot of tarmac at the end so estimated I’d get in about 3 or 4 am.
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| Black Diamond waterproofs fully road tested |
Back into the Dales in the sunshine, I was having a wonderful time riding on a high, and loving the tailwind. I had a bit too much fun on one of the descents and wound up with a flat tyre. Found a spot out of the wind to deal with it, trying not to get annoyed and figure out how to fix it. Couldn’t find a puncture so assumed it the tyre must have burped out all the air, re inflated and carried on.
I’m sure someone told me the cam high road climb was a push, so delighted to find it a nice steady gravel climb, popping out on to the tarmac along the top felt like flying.
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| Sunset over the Dales - beautiful |
Busy watching a spectacular sunset over the Dales, I missed a turn on the Garmin, accidentally sailed about 2 km downhill before realising my mistake. Hoping no-one was looking at the tracker site at that moment, I sighed, turned around and started grinding back up the hill. Back on the Pennine bridleway the light was fading fast, but mood was high and definitely wanted to return and ride the section again.
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| My 'went the wrong way' face |
One of the guys I met on the cam high road climb mentioned it was mostly tarmac from Dent. I didn’t pay much attention to the ‘mostly’ part. The final off road section to through the wind farm had a gate guarded by a deep bog. So my feet, which had pretty much dried out, were soaked through again. Annoying. But so close to the end, and there were dry socks in the van.
The final stretch into Arnside felt like it took forever,
but eventually I found the sea in front of me and made my way to the pier somewhere
between midnight and 1am. I set a timer
for 10 mins to make sure the tracker caught a ping at the end, and welcomed home
another rider who arrived a few mins later having complete the long course. massive
respect.
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| Arnside pier c.1am |
Back next year to ride the full 600? Definitely.
Gear
New gear for this trip – Senchi fleece leggings and hoodie, and some down socks for sleeping in. all good choices I was pretty cosy in my bivi. I also took the down skirt - don’t mock me it’s a useful picece of kit!
Dead pleased with my homemade frame bag – I was expecting everything in it to get wet but it didn’t notice any water ingress at all. Plenty of easy access space in the bag for food, and other useful stuff.
Did not carry a poo shovel. Ther are enough toilet opportunities on the route.
Bike
The trusty XTC made it all the way round with basically no mechanical issues. There were a lot of worrying sounds after some of the bog incidents, but nothing worse happened other than a few incidences of chain falling off. Brake pads were pretty much down to the metal by the end, but they’d also done Strathpuffer and Kenya before the Dales so pretty good innings!
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| One flat tyre |
Electrics
Carried 1 mega battery pack, next time I’d take a smaller one. It wasn’t really needed except to charge headphones on the last night. Otherwise I managed to get enough charge by plugging things in when stopped at cafes.
Lights were Exposure Joystick and Six Pack. Mainly used in 36hr mode, unless descending off road. Both had load of charge left at the end.
Water
Caried 1.75 litres on the bike plus my 1 ltr filter bottle if needed. That was probably about the right amount, I found I was usually pretty close to an option to fill up when I was running low. Used the filter bottle twice – once in Bolton abbey at the ‘not drinking water’ tap and once on the return leg through the dales to filter some stream water.
Sleep
Slept about 4 hours on night 1, and 5 hours on night two. Didn’t feel particularly sleep deprived, other than the awfulness of getting up in the dark. I reckon I could have got away with less sleep
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| saturday night bivi - excellent spot had a great sleep |
Body
Held itself together surprisingly well. No ulnar issues, no ligament drama, no keen problems. Finished
with sore feet and hands is all.
Weirdly on day 2 I could barely get my heart rate out of zone 1, even though I felt like I was trying as hard as could. By day 3 I felt like I had all the energy to chase up cam high road in Zone 4. After finishing, I had my lowest Resting HR and highest overnight HRV in ages. None of that makes any sense.
I set off chamois free, although after about 250km put some dhb shorts on as there was noticeable chafing. I reckon this could be fixed with a bit of adjustment to saddle angle.
Food
I really wanted to get one hot meal each day. Failed at this on day 1 – since the course was running slow I didn’t get to Appletreewick in time for a pub meal, so ate my posh wrap from Tebay and kept riding.
On Saturday I had a good old sit down in Morissions café in Boroughbridge 2 toasted cheese sandwiches (the second felt a bit much, had to force it down!).
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| Hangin my bivi to dry while I went to the cafe |
In the evening I found a charming gastro pub in Crayke, hovering on the door step covered in mud I awkwardly enquired about food. They pointed to the ‘dog walkers bar’ around the back as maybe ‘the menu would be more appropriate for you’. Ordered a burger and chips – mistake. It was far too oily and did not sit at all well. I made it a few kms out of the village before chundering by the side of the road.
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| That fateful burger and chip, what waste of money |
Sunday – set off still feeling queasy, peanut M&Ms seemed to be going down the best, so kept popping those in. Northallerton Costa provided a late breakfast – of Granola and halloumi and roast veg toastie (I was really missing vegetables!). Not sure what the locals though at the state of my mud caked shoes but unfortunately the plug sockets were all in the carpeted bit in the back, so I embarrassedly shuffled my way through the whole cafĂ©.
I’d planned to stock up at the Aldi in Catterick before heading back into the dales. So locked up my bike emptied all the wrappers into the bin and went into the store, reciting my mental list of things to buy. Except the doors wouldn’t open. I stood there confused, walking up to the sensor to get the doors to open. Then I saw the sign ‘closed on Easter Sunday’ £%$£. At this point I could have back tracked to get more food, but I was so annoyed about the time I’d wasted faffing about I just wanted to get going. Did a quick food inventory and reckoned I probably had just enough to keep going to the end. If things got really desperate the Strepsils and Dioralite in my first aid kit could double as emergency calories, right?
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| All the food for the last 90k |
I didn’t realise there were also pubs in Dent so picked up a couple of bouns packets of crisps on the way past that saw me to the end.
I think this is everything I ate and approx. calories from some googling… Surprised at how few calories there were in the fizzy drinks (is that the effect of the sugar tax??) I was trying quite hard to keep eating and Garmin reckons I burned 18,000 Kcal over the three days so a 2000 calorie deficit, not too bad?
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item |
Kcal |
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trail mix (nuts cranberries rasins crystalised ginger) |
1700 |
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9 x stykr bars |
2250 |
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1 x Tebay beef wrap |
490 |
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1x bacon sandwich |
342 |
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9x single twix |
891 |
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Apple tango |
33 |
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1 slice tea cake |
290 |
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9x hot cross buns |
1350 |
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2 boxes peanut brunch bars |
1430 |
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2 x peanut mnms 125g |
1310 |
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1 morission chicken ceasar wrap |
490 |
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1 x box eat natural salted caramel and peanut bar |
669 |
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1x Starbucks can200ml |
148 |
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4x porridge bars |
896 |
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2 x morission ham n cheese toastie |
1410 |
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1x cup Fanta |
57 |
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1 x chocolate milk carton small |
131 |
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2x bananas |
180 |
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1 pint lemonade |
60 |
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1 burger and chips rejected |
- |
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1xlatte med costa |
135 |
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1x hallomi n veg toastie |
425 |
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1x granola with milk |
289 |
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1x tuna bun/sandwich |
317 |
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1 x large chocolate milk |
325 |
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total |
15618 |
