I’m still staying up near Durham after the wedding of my eldest son and its my second trip out on my gravel bike following a route I selected at random from @ridewithgps
I spot an empty skate park and can’t resist taking the gravel bike onto the ramps
Check out the route on RWGPS https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37180775
[Music] Morning. Bit chilly today. So, uh, got the raincoat on. Just coming up up a fairly steep hill. Um, ridden 5ks from home along the Brandon Bishop Oakland Railway Path and I’ve just met up with another route that I’m going to be riding. I’ve just got to work out which way I’m going. But, uh, I think I’m probably going to Lester Valley. Yes, I guessed right. And I’m now on Lanchester Valley Walk. Uh it’s a it’s a nice looks like another old train track, but a nice uh proper gravel trail. And uh yeah, I’ll just follow this and see how we go. Morning Haven’t taken a lot of footage so far. I mean, the trail’s nice, but particularly scenic. Look at these signs. Please slow down for this gnarly bit of trail here. Bang. Oh, thank you for slowing. What is the point of that? And the uh trails have started to open out a bit now. So, uh still the same old trail, but just a bit more to look at look at. Ah, and this is the first and only climb of the day as well. Garmin’s just told [Music] me. Climb complete. There’s another one of these rather nice um way markers funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the creation of the National Cycle Network. Well, I’m a Barkclays man myself, but uh yeah, hats off to the RBS there. So, I’ve come from Manchester and Darham and I’m heading to Concet. Okay, we’re on to the Heritage Trail at Concet. Concert, famous for its steel works, of course, long since closed down. This looks like something to do with it. No idea what that is. Interesting. Nothing to say what it suggest what it might be. Do you know why it’s there? What what it is? Post down below. So, I was on uh National Cycle Route 14, but I’ve changed to 7, National Cycle Route 7, which is also the Coast to Coast route as well, which is interesting. I’ve not done that before. Maybe I should uh consider uh doing that at some stage in my cycling career. This is obviously the boring part of it, but it’s the first sign that I’ve seen, so that’s why I stopped. Okay, this is weird tarmac section here, which is uh it’s all right. It’s quite nice to ride. Back off road. a metal cow. I think that is [Music] Beish [Music] Museum. All right, I’m in Chester Street. I’m in Bon Bons and the very nice lady has let me uh bring my bike in cuz don’t have any uh bike lock with me and it’s flipping cold outside. So, uh, flat white and, um, a bit of what is that really shortbread guy look? I really don’t. I’m having the time of my life. But yeah, what a strange name for a town. All right, 62k. I’ve done quite a long section alongside busy a roads, which got a bit boring. And the uh sheep are noisy. Can you hear them? Right. And I’m back on the Lancaster Valley Walk Trail. Whether I’ve done this bit or not, I don’t know. I don’t recognize it yet. As I mentioned earlier, it all looks fairly similar, but um so not too far from home. Good ride. I did enjoy it. Um I think I enjoyed the one on uh Sunday better actually. Just the type of mix of terrain. I mean, this was this was perfect gravel. Uh, you know, if you want all terrain surface, you could ride this all through the year, right? I’m about 3k from the end and it’s finally warmed up enough to take my coat off. But there you go. Those are the brakes. I still really enjoyed the ride and uh obviously I’m grateful to whoever put them together because it started from pretty much where I was staying. So, I didn’t have a lot to do to find a group myself. Um, so that was good. And, uh, yeah, I wouldn’t have done anything otherwise. So, uh, yeah. Hey, give them a go yourself. That’s where I’m staying.
1 Comment
Gravel bike in skate park. That's a new one 😎