Pennine Cycleway – Day 3: Holmfirth to Gargrave

This was a hard day – not long or high or rough – it was the number of deep and steep valleys which made it exhausting and (at my low climbing speed) ate up the time. Another problem today was hunger – my body constantly felt like it needed calories and when I did eat, the energy I gained was gone in no time. I guess I had taken my energy reserves for granted yesterday and now they were depleted.

If you look at a small scale map of this area it is hard to believe that there could be any green countryside to cycle through. This area is peppered with industrial towns tangled together with roads, canals, railways and a motorway. I assumed it was something to do with the lower height of the hills, but I am more inclined now to blame the valleys. I was interested in the geology which turned this area into a maze of valleys unlike the Dark Peak which is characterized by massive moorland plateaus.

Whatever the cause, for me the benefit of this landscape and its industrial history of water powered mills, canals and railways, is that “civilization” is concentrated in the valleys leaving the tops relatively undeveloped.  The penalty, at least until I reached Widdop Moor, was the need to drop down into each valley and then climb out – the valleys are predominantly E-W orientated and I was travelling North!

The canals are a feature of this part of the route. The deep valleys facilitated building canals between 2 great centres of the industrial revolution in Manchester and Leeds. I passed the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and rode along part of both the Rochdale Canal and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal which each took a different approach to surmounting the Pennine barrier.

My ride? Well, this one went according to plan. I selected my campsite before I set off, and planned my GPS route to take me there but I had other Alternatives in mind too.

I said I would explain about the Yacht on the hillside near Sowerby Bridge: it is the same type (and colour) as one I used to sail on with my friend Rob. There is a video of a little cruise which I published on an old YouTube channel (that I can no longer control) but I have put a link to it in a playlist on this channel, if you’re interested.

My cheat via NCN 66 seemed perfectly justified. I was happy (well, happy-ish) to keep going up and down from one valley to the next to make progress northwards, but to climb up and down the same valley side seemed a waste of effort. Some maps don’t even show that route! I wonder if the canal path was unavailable when NCN68 was first developed? I know the canal was derelict for quite a long time. Anyway, the canal path was a nice change as well as being less taxing!

That packhorse road (The Buttress) out of Hebden Bridge is a killer! There is a much gentler section after that and before Heptonstall but I didn’t have enough energy left to press the button on the top of my camera! I notice that the gentler road can be climbed right from the valley floor by going a bit further along the main road – but if you do that have you really suffered enough to claim to have done route 68?

The packhorse route over Widdop Moor was lovely, as was the valley above Thursden – a lovely green surprise that just appeared as I came over the brow. 

Colne… I was glad I had the GPS to follow. I saw quite a few cycle path signs but which ones were the RIGHT cyclepath? When I get lost in a town my instinct is to get out of it as quickly as I can. Then there were the cobbles! 

I wish I had known more about the Foulridge canal tunnel before I got there – I will take a better look next time if there is one! By that point I was already anxious about the time.

If you look carefully at the “Scene 3” map you will see “I fell off here” marked. I did fall off and it was stupidity that caused it – I was trying to check the time and distance to go on my Garmin and I ran off the road.  I was lucky not to be badly hurt – just a cut on my hand from the brake levers similar to the one I acquired a few days before when a cyclist on a cycle path knocked me off.  2 lessons: look where I’m going and put my gloves on my hands, not in my bag!

The campsite at Gargrave was good. I’d happily go there again, but I was woken up by a lorry warming its engine up at about 3 am – from the sound of it I think it was in my tent vestibule! The company that runs the site also has a transport business.

Day 4 coming up next… The best scenery in the world, but my camera lens was dirty – that’s a spoiler in more ways than one!