BIKEPACKING YORKSHIRE – THE DALES DIVIDE

Today we go on an adventure all around Yorkshire with the Dales Divide, a 375 miles double coast-to-coast taking in the Yorkshire dales and the north york moors. An adventure with ups and downs, and I’m not just talking about the terrain. Although this ride does have an Everest worth of elevation gain. Hope you enjoy the adventure.

The Ride – www.strava.com/activities/11034457919

The Route – www.keepsmilingadventures.com/challenging-routes/the-yorkshire-dales-divide
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The gear I am currently using

The tent – https://youtu.be/n9GKHSf805E
Framebag – https://youtu.be/6LM3UJKDOEk
Seatpost bag – https://youtu.be/W1E_iWY6Ajo
Jones Handlebars – https://youtu.be/dhPBSdRros8
Gravel bike – https://youtu.be/Gnd_4LgTyrg
plus bike mtb – https://youtu.be/COTUOzLPbGk
gps device – https://youtu.be/BWeMmx62A9M
mtb shoes – https://youtu.be/OYVEnfXwT0k
All the gear from GNT – https://youtu.be/e5oKSoPoMk0
Vest bag – https://youtu.be/01nzgd-t550
Ortleib bar roll https://youtu.be/Uk9fLgS1ioo
Dynamo setup – https://youtu.be/SL7MhjB6Lp0
Questions answered – https://youtu.be/u1q9AEs9flE
Gb divide bike/gear- https://youtu.be/epcZ81wqFCo
Sonder looped bar – https://youtu.be/BqWGTxd2VaQ
Tarpstar tent – https://youtu.be/RcQoBdZSAb8

The bike all packed up and a train ride later it’s time for another bike packing Adventure this time The Dales divide a 370m adventure across the Yorkshire Dales and a North York Ms with an Everest amount of elevation gain my journey will start in the city of York

Starting late afternoon I would start my adventure around the Dales divide taking in the Magnificent York Minster one of the world’s finest Cathedrals not before long I would be heading out into the countryside heading east an evening that felt almost summerlike with the trails drying and the last of the puddles would this be the time the trails finally dry or would that be wishful thinking a late start and a short start

To the Dale’s divide it wouldn’t be long before the moon would replace the Sun What a morning rising nice and early this morning get a good early start on the D’s divide got the sky sky over there Sun is going to rise any minute now Happy Days spent a nice night in the woods after a uh a little start to just

Get started the day I got to head over towards the east coast as I started in York this gu from York your fun Excited to get going and get my first proper day on the bike underway with a perfect cool morning Breeze pushing me in the direction I needed to go with the sun starting to rise in front of me it was feeling like a great day to be on

The bike with my body and mind feeling great across Ross the fields I would Pedal it’s so bright ah it’s so nice the sun is shining today is an absolutely beautiful morning yesterday it was like really calm it was almost like a summer’s evening if you can believe that today it’s beautiful there’s a bit of wind today though but luckily it’s behind me

And it’s pushing me in the right direction I’m currently heading over towards the east coast and then to scarra I think scabra from where I started was like 50 Mi so the idea is to get to scarra and then a little bit further into the North York malls today

But damn what a beautiful start to the D’s divide Nice With the sun shining and the muddy Trails under my tires and some nice flat windy Country Roads that would be how my morning would go until something unexpected would catch my eye a giant grav Stone apparently not but the Redstone monolith is the tallest prehistoric standing Stone in Britain measuring almost 8 m

High nearly 2 m wide a m thick and estimated to weigh somewhere in the region of a massive 26 tons the churchard of All Saints that it stands in is of course much younger and although the christianization of the site took place around 1100 ad the stone

Had already stood here for at least 3,000 years making good progress about 25 miles I’m now currently heading north along the east coast towards scabra and it was really sunny a minute ago but the clouds have rolled in I was going to say it looks like I might be

Getting wet and I was going to say I might be getting wet in a minute but that cloud it’s passing by nicely towards the uh East Coast so we might be okay for today we might get lucky tomorrow’s not looking so we are lucky looks like it’s going to be nice and

Wet but probably got another 25 miles to go until we get the scabra I started nice and early this morning to make good progress because I am on the bomb track this section of the route is quite flat pedal some uh nice Road slugs and uh so we’re going to need all

The daylight we can get Sunset is still quite early just after 6:00 p.m. but uh yeah hopefully we can stay dry for at least today all right let’s go Dodge some let’s go Dodge these puddles It would be an afternoon of dodging puddles trying my best to stay dry luckily the clouds were passing by over my head taking them rain clouds with them leaving me dry from above the same couldn’t be said from down below as them wet boggy Fields getting my feet wet

Along the way but the wind still pushing me along as I got ever closer to the east coast finally arriving in scabra with scabra Castle perched on the cliffs looking over the North Sea a busy little Seaside town and the third most visited place in the UK Wow steam rolling through some miles this morning just got to scabra I’ve done about 45 miles currently about 1: p.m I think the last time I came through scarra it definitely wasn’t as nice it was definitely more gray and definitely more wet day it just feels uh quite nice and uh

Enjoyable so I think for the rest of the uh rest of the day I can take it a bit easier kind of cuz from now I’m heading into the North York Ms where the hill the hills will begin and uh we’ll have some fun with some climbing I’m not

Planning to do too many more miles today maybe another 25 30 if possible mainly just to get into the North York malls for a good camp spot tonight hopefully yesterday when I checked the weather forecast it said it was most likely going to rain tomorrow for quite

Quite a bit of the day hopefully that’s not the case anymore cuz it’s absolutely stunning out here now this route doesn’t actually officially start in York it normally starts in a place called anide which is uh just below the Lake District West Coast so from now until there we

Got a little Coast to Coast normally you’d have a double coaster Coast but the way I’m doing it I’m not really doing a double coaster Coast kind of still doing the full route but I guess it doesn’t really count as a coast to coast to coast to Coast after a leisurely pedal around the coastline of scabra it would be time to head back Inland towards the North York mall starting out on the Old disused Railway line the cinder track it wouldn’t last long though before I would be back to get in wet and muddy Feet the further west I headed the Hillier terrain would become as it got nearer and nearer the North York Moors with the weather forecast looking to be wet tomorrow and daylight starting to fade I was hoping to find somewhere sheltered to set up camp for the night but instead I would be heading into the vast open landscape of the Moors hiking my way through the hard to follow boggy Morland trails [Applause]

Good morning you probably can’t see me it’s a bit dark in here sun is just Rising I managed to do 75 miles yesterday so pretty good going in the end was such a good day yesterday it was so much fun lots of great riding everything was pretty much ridable a

Couple little muddy sections of course but overall it was like a really good day just that last few miles of Boggy trails to get through was just the just not what you wanted I kind of expected that there was going to be some of that coming through the MS I’ve so could here

Before but just didn’t want it to uh appear at that time of day so I rode into the night a little bit last night um didn’t set up camp until like half 8 I found an a sort of wooded area um as you can probably hear right now it’s raining and this

Rain is forecast basically for the whole day until about 3:00 or 4 p.m. so uh it’s going to be a wet one but I’m going to pack up and uh just keep moving forward what else can we do right hopefully today we can reach the

Dals but that is about 70 mil so I’m not actually 100 100% sure if we’re going to make that but um let’s go face the rain first day of Spring righto time for day two in a little Bit me and Dan D liion are going to go and get wet today and first point of course is a nice little Ford Crossing oh it’s horrible oh it’s horrible Cobblestone Fords Nice It’s very Bleak out here today not many views to be had Silver Lining the rain isn’t too bad it’s only uh a little drizzly at the moment hopefully it just stays like that and uh the weather forecast says from about 300 p.m. maybe 400

P.m. you might see a bit of sun how nice would that be right now right now no sun no views but some pretty chill nice to ride double [Applause] track being a bit of a slow start this morning though leaving a bit later heading into the muddy trails

So uh I’ve only done about 10 miles so far so I don’t know if it’ll even be possible to get that 70ish to get across to the DS but we’ll get as close as possible we got 128 miles until the uh until we get to anide and

We completed our little Coast to Coast so it’ be nice to just get that under 100 miles today and now hopefully see some views all right let’s keep pedaling on into the clouds today was going to be one of them days where I just had to focus on the

One thing and that one thing just turning the pedals the views obscured by thick fog today it was about what was under my tires though as I would be making my way along some incredible gravel Trails an Old disused Railway winding its way through the incredible Moors just like the trains once would

Have many years Ago [Applause] He Wow I’ve done 25 miles and to be honest I’m so bored I’m so Bor of gray so bored of not being able to see anything I’m so bored of having no idea where I am and I’m so bored of the uh monotonous hiker bike key and I’m so

Bored of uh feeling like I’ve not gone through anywhere or made any progress at all today super slow going it’s really midday I mean hopefully in uh about 3 hours the sun should peek its head through one of these foggy clouds I doubt it but I don’t

Know I have no idea where I am just making my way through the endless brightways in the fog we not much to see ah now there’s two reasons why I really don’t want to go through here one of them you obviously already know cows and two clearly it’s just been like plowed

By a tractor or something so it’s incredibly Mudd I don’t normally go off Route when I’m following official bik packing routes but I’m going to um pass on that little uh rideway and uh we’re going to follow the road and uh find a way back onto it in a little bit all

Right back on track just came through this field instead of through them it was only slightly better down there well 50% better it was very boggy and muddy but no cows I’m really hoping we’re going to come through some little town or Village or something with a shop soon because I

Just want to stop find a bench and just eat something I don’t want to like stop here because it’s all like wet and cold as soon as you stop so let’s Go Wow I have found civilization and uh I’ve done 4 43 mil it’s been the slowest 43 Mi ever it’s currently 400 p.m. already um and I think I still got like 30 mil or so until 30 yeah about 30 mil until I actually get to the D so I don’t think I’m going

To quite make the dals today but this section until the dals is generally a bit flatter and should be a bit easier going although everything I’ve been off-road today has been a log water logged bog I’m I swear every time I’ve gone downhill it’s been like technical mountain biky scary

Boggy trails that um weren’t any fun but I’m going to have some food chill for a little bit and then uh just going to go and find somewhere to Camp I have no idea where that’s going to be everything’s wet it has stopped raining right now which is good news I double

Check the uh map it’s actually only about 20 M until we get to the dals like officially into the dals still not sure I’m going to quite make it before nightfall but it’s nice and know we’re a bit closer than I thought it’s currently about 90 Mi until the coast so I don’t

Think we’ll get there tomorrow cuz tomorrow is looking like it’s going to be another hilly day through the DS and uh but maybe we’ll get quite quite close and uh have a SE view Camp spot for tomorrow that would be epic because it’s just going to be cloudy tomorrow hopefully not

Foggy all right just going to keep pedaling on and find some way to camp wow good morning good morning I found the woods again last night luckily um just outside of Richmond and I think it was about 75 miles until we get to the coast which

Means we have like probably less than 10 miles until we’re actually in the Dal so we’re very very close to actually getting to the DS to day is very gray but it’s not raining and doesn’t look like it’s too cloudy hopefully that is the case because today we’re going to

Actually go up to the highest point on this ride it will be towards the end of today if we make it that far but um yeah we’re going to get up to that highest point today before descending down towards the coast but I’m just really looking forward today to get into the

Day D you know is the D’s divide after all we haven’t actually been to the dals yet but um yeah perfect little Camp spot there is a road there but it was pretty quiet in the night it was quite hard to actually find a spot it was Pitch Black when I got

Here and most of the ground isn’t that great but luckily stumbled across this nice flattish area and uh yeah ready to go I think this is day three in our four I don’t even know I don’t know where we are I don’t know what day it is don’t know what year it

Is right let’s head into the oire dals I’m looking forward to today let’s do it let’s go to the dals leaving the woods behind this morning with the Yorkshire Dales in my sights a day I was really looking forward to the sky gray as the day before but most importantly it wasn’t

Raining making my way up into the dals where the trails start to get a little rougher and a lot steeper with them long steep Farm tracks to get the heart pump in early in the Morning Oh it’s so good when you get a Tailwind to tell you oh it’s so good this is the best thing about the ores is these these fast rolling beautiful gravel Farm track double track rows they’re just pure Bliss they’re even better when you get a Tailwind like this not quite so fun this

Way though it’s going to be like this for most of the day I’ll probably get a few V of ta wind but the wind’s coming from the West that’s where I’m going oh no I’ll take this over yesterday though at least I could see look at the

Views a battle of man versus nature would be on the cards for the remainder of the day as I head further into the Yorkshire Dales making use of the shelter that them dry stone walls would provide me when that shelter would end it would be a battle of trying to stay

Upright on the bike as the wind today was trying to push me off the trails when it wasn’t trying to push me off the trails it would be trying to push me back the way I had come so any chance I would get to turn with the wind

Was truly a welcome break especially on these fast rolling Yorkshire dalees trails I have done about 25 mil just over 25 mil it’s currently about 50 Mi left just under 50 miles actually to get um to the coast I can’t believe it the sun has actually decided to shine I just think the Yorkshire Dales is the best place in England to go bike

Packing just to be able to like fly down the uh the long endless Farm tracks that you can just let go of the brakes and absolutely fly down the pedal climbs it is better when it’s not quite this windy but still wor that tree is going to fall

Down stay strong little buddy stay strong so from where I am I’m going to go down into Bane bridge I think it’s called and then we’re heading up to the highest point on this ride where we’re going to go up an old Roman Road um we’ve been up there before many times on

The channel uh not into this headwind though really not too hard of a climb it’s just very long just goes on and on and then it’s pretty much all downhill to the coast I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make 50 m it’s currently 1: p.m.

It’s taken so long to do this 25 miles this morning but we’ll see if not we’ll camp somewhere before um we get to the coast but I wouldn’t mind getting there today and then at least using this head wind which will be a Tailwind on our return leg hopefully if it stays it’ll

Probably be the other way by the time we turn around there right I’m going to have something to eat into Banbridge and then up to the highest point which is going to be one very windy climb let’s do it as I made my way into Banbridge ready to

Take on that epic old ancient Roman Road and get to the highest point on his Adventure I was optimistic but with the wind funneling down the ancient Roman Road riding would not be possible I would have to start my long lonely hiker bike making slow progress as I would get

Higher and higher the weather would only get worse and worse looking back at the ancient road now barely Visible wow night guys turned in to a mad one yesterday I don’t even know what happened to that Sun as I was climbing up that massive Hill I was like oh well the weather’s getting bad that’s normal when you get high I thought as I start

To descend it would get better but oh did it not get better it literally was ridiculously strong headwinds and then obviously the rain as well I literally could see about this far in front of me I just kept descending and descending I actually had I actually had to come off

The route a little bit because as I was heading up the pen on briway I was like this is ridiculous this is going to take way too long so I ended up having to go back down to the road and then just follow the road down but obviously by

This time it was like non-stop rain it was windy I’d been I’ve been in the constant rain and wind for like 3 or 4 hours nonstop everything’s completely wet my gloves soaking wet hands getting freezing by this point sun was set in there was nowhere to Camp because everywhere was just flooded

Every field was just like a bog Fest so that’s why I’m in a hotel tonight but the good news is I’m actually only around like 15 or 20 M away from anide and then we get to turn back it’s looking a bit better out there today um still very gray and miserable and

Apparently it’s still very windy out there but at least when we get to anide and we turn around towards back towards the DS it’s going to be in our favor hopefully so uh let’s get out of here it’s about half 6 let’s get back on the

Bike I’m a little bit off of the route um at a place called Lake Killington just a few miles off the route so let’s go get back on the route and let’s head down to the coast oh I’m so tired yesterday was just ridiculous it was so cold I couldn’t

Even get my camera out I couldn’t film anything it was just ridiculous where did that even come from it was beautiful on the other side Let’s uh head down to IR side let’s go nice view though and one more thing they must have known I was coming because

Uh I mean that was in there what a different A Day Makes last night had been a tough night so walking out of this hotel this morning feeling the sun on my face glistening on the lake with just a short way to go until I would complete the

Coast to coast section of this adventure was certainly a relief still battling into the wind but I knew I was getting close Now now we’ve made it to hand side that means there about 135 mil until we get to York so 135 mil left of the D’s divide the next 100 miles are a bit up and down hilly as we head back to the dals it’s currently quite sunny I should

Also be having a nice tear wind so hopefully make use of that this morning this morning has been very uh sluggish and slow easy and everything but just felt a bit With the Wind now finally in my favor the sun shining I would start my journey back towards the Yorkshire Dales

Pedaling my way through the anide and Silverdale National landscape along the coastline pedaling my way through the tree covered Bridleways Getting ever closer to returning back to the Yorkshire Dales for my final Crossing I could see them low clouds still lingering in the distance though just waiting for me to Return Pedaling my way back up to Higher Ground discovering Hidden Treasures along the Way Finding myself looking over these incredible Limestone formations but just as expected just like previous days the higher I was the more unpredictable the weather would [Applause] Become so I had to keep moving forward as the day was getting away from me I was in search of somewhere to set up camp for the night being stalked by the weather would be the last of my worries tonight though good morning last night last night turned into a massive

Disaster uh I found somewhere to camp but it was pretty windy and as I was setting up the tent the pole actually snapped and so I was pretty much screwed I tried taping the pole back together the tent pole but it wouldn’t hold because it was just so windy

So I basically had to like makeshift my own shelter I’ll show you what I’ve done you can sort of see be behind me here I’ve got one wheel over there another wheel then this is the broken pole which is just kind of like just sort of balancing keeping it up a little

Bit and I’m just sort of laid on a top in my sleeping bag and it’s crazy windy I can’t shut the door properly so the wind’s coming in so it’s quite cold but yeah that’s a disaster of a night now I’ve got about 90 miles to go until York

I either have to find a way to fix this pole or I have to do 90 mil and get to York and now it’s raining again this is spring I’m going to pack this up and I’m going to start making my way try and get out of the uh the dals if I

Can today at least hopefully find somewhere that sells some like Gorilla Tape or duct tape I have all I had is some electrical tape but it wasn’t quite enough with how strong the wind was it just kept popping off so uh we’ll see we’ll see what happens once I packed

Up rebuild the bike and uh started moving we’ll see uh what the plan will be for today I don’t know yet but this this is my Camp spot packed up we’re on the move again it’s just started hailing as well yesterday there was even a bit of

Snow I’m hoping the wind is still in my favor right now I’m sort of heading into it um honestly if I’ve got to go into a headwind i’ just so over this ride I’ve also lost a little rubber thing so the exposure light that’s great so that’s going to be rattling around

There all day anything else anything else When Everything feels like it’s going wrong it can be incredibly hard to keep going to not just throw in the towel so when the snow this morning started falling finding myself pushing through the Relentless Trails what seemed like an impossible task of covering 90 mil in

These conditions over the rugged Yorkshire Dale’s landscape you just have to find solace in anything you can so the short glimmer of sunshine reminding me it’s spring after all good old bus stop with a roof it’s nice today I’ve mostly just been racing the weather one minute it’s sunny like

Now and then in 5 10 minutes time it will be hail stones in your face it feels like glass is just like hitting your face it’s just um it’s just horrible so I haven’t gone through anywhere yet that I going to be able to pick up anything

To fix this um tent pole but I think I’m going to go through a place called bur Bridge or something but that’s like out of the D so I don’t know if I’m going to make it to York today I don’t know we’ll

See um if I can I will if not then we got to try and fix this tent or I’m just going to do exactly what I did last night and use the wheels to uh make it work it did actually work fairly well it was just bloody windy but um yeah 20 mil

Done I think I’ve got another 20 M of the yorkshi DS and then it’s pretty much downhill and flat all the way to York from there so it should be fast going once we get out of the out of the D so 20 mi to go and uh it’s going to be a

Windy one 20 miles I knew if I could just get through these 20 miles over the last few climbs I would be almost home free it wouldn’t be easy progress would be slow goinging but with the hail storms left behind and the blue skies appearing in the distance things were looking up

I am so done with this Trip we have now made it to burough Bridge it felt like it took forever to get here I did um do a couple detours to speed things up towards the end um just in case everything was going to be shut luckily I found a Morrison’s and uh we

Are stocked up on duct tapee now so hopefully we’re going to be able to fix the uh tent pole um fingers crossed because York is about 20 mi just over 20 mi from here I don’t think I’m going to make that and be able to make the last train um so I

Got to go find somewhere to camp now I’m going to hopefully find a wooded area there looks like a few little scattered areas um out of the wind so I don’t have to stress this pole too much but we got the uh duct tape I’ve done like 50 5 60

M or something I’m not even sure I have just been slogging it out and I just feel I feel sleepy I’m ready to sleep so uh going to go find somewhere to Camp hopefully a wooded area see her a camp fingers Crossed well good morning a good morning I have some good news and I have some bad news the good news is that I managed to find a nice little Woodlands out of the wind it was super calm it’s super peaceful and today is looking like it’s a beautiful day it’s blue

Skies the wind is still there I think you can still see the trees moving the bad news is I couldn’t fix the uh the tent pole so instead of a carbon tent pole we’ve gone back to the natural resource and we’ve got a good old wooden stick solid as a rock

Not quite as lightweight as the carbon pole but with that being said today is going to be the day we make it back to York and therefore completing the D’s divide I’ve got probably less than 20 mil it’s all flat I don’t know what the trails are like here

But let’s go find out we got 20 mil this one’s been a it’s been a testing ride a testing Adventure let’s go finish it seeing that sun rising this morning was one hell of a good feeling as I would pedal ever closer to the finish of this adventure through the quiet country

Villages on a Sunday morning with no one around finally making it back to where I had started 7 Days Later [Applause]