4 Drowned Rats (A Yorkshire Dales Trip Report)

The Yorkshire Dales? In November? It really shouldn't have come as a surprise that it was more than a touch damp.

The drive up from from Leicester was more than a little nervy with rediculous amounts of water on the motorway and floods on the roads leading into the Dales. The high winds chucked the van about a bit too.

However once we got to the Dales Bike Centre, got bikes tucked away in the Bike Lock Up with the crazy loud alarm, and had a beer we were feeling knackered.

On Saturday Morning the weather was looking up and the Dales were looking good in a golden glow.





After a fine bacony breakfast we got our shit together and heading out and up the side of the valley.
Our Saturday route took us around the Northern side of Swaledale.
Saturday Route 21.5 miles 3088ft of climbing.

There was enough wind to make you think about launching drop offs as you got blown 2 foot to the left or right as the wind caught you.
The climbs were all scenic enough to take your mind off the pain and the descents were grin inducing even though you had to keep pedaling hard to keep your speed up due to the wind.

The weather was fine in the Morning but got very wet in the afternoon.
A few mediocre photos:









The last road drag back to the centre was proper grim, with gloves being squeezed out every five minutes and a spontaneously cramping quad coming through Reeth.

Back at the centre, hot showers and coffee warmed us up though.

After a few beers the night before I was a little slower out of bed on Sunday morning, however another ace breakfast courtesy of Stu sorted me out though.

Today we were going to do a smaller loop around the Southern side of the valley.
Linky for Sunday route 13.4 miles 2100ft of climbing
We started out with a reasonably long, steep but scenic road climb up the valley.

The weather was much nicer today and we had sunshine and blue skies for lots of the ride. The route was similar in character as the day before just more sunny and shorter.

A few more mediocre photos:














After the ride we grabbed more coffee, food and some really excellent cake at the Cafe at the Centre.

If you are heading to the Dales for riding or even walking, to be perfectly frank, you'd be daft not to stay at Dales Bike Centre, they have everything you need sorted.
Great accomodation, awesome food and coffee, well stocked bikeshop, hire bikes, bike lock up. It's just really well sorted and run by great people.

We'll be back in the spring!