Shakedown Day 5 - Threshfield to Home

Still stormy, still stunning

Almost back - just 7 miles to go!

A bit sore this morning (to say the least!), we had to pedal hard yesterday to get over all those hills in all that wind!  Usually up early, pack up and a half full English before heading out, but no breakfast until 8:00!  It was a good one though!  Afterwards, back up the hill(s) out of Threshfield to Hetton.  Stopping in Gargrave to having the bike squeak looked at, as there’s something going on with the front wheel.

I hadn't wanted to go back through Hetton as the hills were so 'challenging' yesterday, but aside from going along a very busy, truck laden road there was no way around it so 'suck it up, Buttercup' and get on with it.  We did end up taking a slightly different route out of Hetton which was better.

Plenty of hills though!  Longer climbs and our friend the headwind was still with us.  After 5 days, we were ready to get home so we pushed on.  About 10 miles out, the hotel called to let us know we'd forgotten to return the room key - not pedalling back at that point!  By the time we got to Hellifield, we were about half way and familiar with the route from there - we know those hills.  Stopped for a second breakfast and a spot for me to lose my gloves.  Then did the route from Hellifield to Sawley, one of my all time favourite runs.

Then it was the dreaded up hill 7 mile slog from Whalley to home.  It's one I avoid because if I'm going to be peddalling up hills I'd rather have scenic than suburbia.  But, time to put the head down and twiddle up the hills until we got home.  

Much excitement when we got there - what a trip!  Now just a 

scenic drive in the country to return that key!

Shakedown Day 4- Kirkby Lonsdale to Threshfield

Need coffee, lots of coffee!

Very happy with his cup of tea!

Stayed at the Springfield Lodge B&B in Kirkby Lonsdale.  Nice place, quiet, all the necessary accoutrements and an easy walk to the village.

Heading off in the morning

Look at that profile!

First challenge of the day?  How to make the (Tassimo) coffee machine work!  Great B&B breakfast, of which we had half and, again, packed up the other half for a second breakfast later.  

Checking out the list of Yorkshire pubs

Off down the windy lanes, mostly very small, through Hornby, Wray, and then up onto the moors and down into the dales.  Had a little fall as we were coming up a hill when we couldn’t change down fast enough, no real damage to us or the bike though

Gorgeous views

Looking back at another steep one

Made a mistake at Clapham, veering off the Coast to Coast route for the ‘short’ route to Settle.  How can a route next to a railway have so many hills?!

Windy rest stop

Up on top of another hill

The other challenge, the 25-30mph headwind - all day long - thanks Storm Betty!  We averaged 9mph for the day.  So many of the wonderful descents ended rapidly due to a full in the face headwind stalling us to a complete stop at the bottom before we did our usual coast half way up the hill!  The wind made the whole day an ongoing slog.  I’m pretty patient about hills, but pedalling up with the wind pushing you back down is a bit of a character builder!

We had a tea stop in Wray and a soup stop in Giggleswick, along with various sausage, bacon and orange stops atop various hills.  And then another long slog to and after Hetton, area of hills before and after!!

Blackberries everywhere

Then 3-4 miles to Threshfield and we were SO happy to get to The Old Hall Inn where they put the tandem in their garage, had a hot shower, some restorative drinks and decent food - we were thrilled at the end of a very long and difficult day!

Almost over the Hetton hill and just a few miles from Threshfield

Shakedown Day 3 - Penrith (over Shap again) to Kirkby Lonsdale

When the road disappears behind you, it was a STEEP hill!

7 miles to go!

Such views along the way!

Interesting aquarium

An end of day treat for Steve

Another big hill climb today, just the other way round!  40 miles in all, first up back over Shap and then over the many short sharp steep hills between Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale - ‘where the hills of the Lake District meet the hills of the Yorkshire Dales’ according to Steve.

We left Penrith after half a Full English and a pack up of the other half for 2nd Breakfast.  10 miles of gentle climbing back to the village of Shap for another tea stop at the Abbey Kitchen.  I’m quite liking peppermint tea for my tea breaks.  Then it was on for another 6 miles up (and up and up) to the top of Shap.  Mostly not as steep as coming up the other way, but the very top was an effort!

At the top, we looked down at what we had climbed the day before - the road from the valley just climbed and climbed.  Amazing that we did it!  It was much more fun freewheeling down, which we did for most of the 10 miles!   As good as the epic descent from San Gimignano in Tuscany, which is the best so far.

Accidentally fell into a vegan cafe in Kendal - no omelettes for us!  Had tea and then headed off to climb the many hills between Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale.  Much huffing and puffing, but only had to push up one.  Overall it was a hard day, but regular injection of food and tea made a difference.

Made it to Kirkby Lonsdale by 2:30, really thought it would have taken longer with all those sneaky hills.  The Springfield Lodge B&B was just on the outskirts of the town, an easy third of a mile back in for next day food, beer and dinner.

No way am I getting blisters!

Night out in Kirkby Lonsdale

Booth’s market (this one in Kirkby Lonsdale) is perfect for cycling road food and right on the way to the Royal Barn, the local brewery. Steve managed to try a couple before hunger kicked in and we needed dinner.  The Orange Tree restaurant served much appreciated massive portions of steak with Brie and bacon!  Nice walk back and a long sleep!

The view on top of Shap

Shakedown Pedal Day 2 - Kendal to Penrith (over Shap)

At the top of Shap

 “In hindsight, maybe all that beer and all those pies weren’t such a ood idea,” said Steve, as we puffed our way up Shap.

Profile of the Shap climb

From Kendal - To Penrith

Mileage - 26

Altitude Gain - 1800

Perceived Difficulty - hard up to the top of Shap, down and undulating 

Weather - sunny / cloudy, low 60s

Kendal food stocking

Looking back from the top of Shap

Description of the day:

• How we felt in the morning - pretty good considering yesterday’s hills

• Breakfast, pack up, food - split a full English (no beans, no toast), sliced ham / baby bell cheese / 5 chicken thighs

• Morning, break - top of Shap snack

• Midday, break - chicken thighs, Abbey Kitchen tearoom in Shap

• Afternoon, break - none

• Arrival in the town - difficulty - easy, hotel was on the A6

• Where we stayed - The Lounge Bar and Hotel, Penrith

Kendal to Penrith over the rather big hill known as Shap - all 1400 feet of it.  Considering the climbs of the day before, we weren’t too sore or tired.  After a shared Full English from Booth’s cafe, a picnic supplies run from Booth’s and yet another hunt to fill my prescription (4th pharmacy no luck), we could delay the day no longer.  

The climb up Shap is well known as a long and difficult one, 1400 feet over 9 miles.  We left Kendal and headed up.  We had driven this earlier in the summer so I knew roughly what we were getting into. There was some undulation, but mostly climbing, fairly steep in sections and especially at the top.  The last mile or so was a long steep slope climb, but we did it without getting off!  Looking back down at our climb from the top to see how much up there was behind us pretty satisfying!

Then a lovely long descent into Penrith via the Abbey Kitchen tearoom in Shap.  The Lounge Hotel was right in the centre and right on the A6 so easily found.  After washing (us and our gear), we headed out for a ramble around the town centre.  Loads of pedestrian streets, plenty of interesting little shops, a couple pubs, not many restaurants. After heading back to the hotel for a glass of wine we went to Salsa for an excellent Mexican, and then off to bed!

We made it!

Shakedown Pedal - Day 1 of 5 - Home to Kendal

And we’re off!

 Shakedown Pedal - Day 1 of 5 - Home to Kendal

From Home to Kendal, Lake District

Mileage - 60.7

Altitude Gain - 2600 feet

Perceived Difficulty - easy first 40, hard last 20, really hard last 10

Weather - sunny cloudy

Description of the day:

• How we felt in the morning - Rested

• Breakfast - Coffee, homemade Chinese w/ an egg on top

• Pack up picnic supplies - Leftover bbq, fruit, nuts, chocolate

• Morning, break Ribchester

• Midday, break Scorton

• Afternoon, break Warton

• Arrival in the town - difficulty - easy to find hotel

• Where we stayed - Stonecross Manor, Milnthorpe Road, LA95HP, Kendal

• Where we stayed - description of the town

• What we did for dinner - hotel restaurant

• Highlights of the day - made 60 miles!

• Story of the day - 10 miles to Kendal sign, every few miles

5:30 - Up early having thought of a few last minute things to do and double check before heading out. One of which was setting up the posts for the Shakedown Pedal and making sure I could access the blog from my phone - which I can!

The weather looks like it's going to be chilly, high 50s / low 60s, and sunny / cloudy, but no rain in the forecast! Therefore, the gear will be shorts, leggings, turtleneck, cycling jersey, warm pullover jersey and windbreaker (or wind sheeter, as Steve says). He'll wear shorts, a tshirt, warm jersey and his cycling jersey.

Everything from the Packing List is packed. As we're going for 5 consecutive days, we're going to need all the gear, and this is the Shakedown Pedal - it's supposed to be the real thing.

The rough route today will be - leave home, make our way through / out of Blackburn, up over Salesbury (past the Bonny Inn), drop down into Ribchester, up to Longridge, out through Inglewhite to Scorton. Second breakfast / coffee break at The Barn at Scorton. Ride from there to Glasson Dock and pick up the path along the estuary which will take us around the traffic-y centre of Lancaster. It's a gravel path that we've been on before, slower, but blackberries are coming into season so there might be a sweet snack! The path ends by the bridge heading out of Lancaster and then we pick up the NCW Route 6 which we'll follow all the way to our overnight in Kendal.

First stop at Tayah’s Tearoom in Longridge after 12.5 miles, some ups, but mostly downs - great start to the day!  Some looming grey skies as we headed into the Ribble Valley.  Then a lovely, fast ride via Scorton (with a stop for picnic food in the park and a cup of tea at the garden centre) to Glasson Dock where we picked up the NCN 6 which at this point was a good fairly fast track along the estuary to Lancaster.  At the end of that section, we’d bypassed the Lancaster traffic and had done a fast 40 miles.  20 to go - woohoo!

Crossed the bridge over the river and saw the sign for Kendal - even better, 18 miles!  Went a couple hundred feet further and saw a sign for Kendal - 22 miles!  The day became more challenging from this point onward.  

The next section of Route 6 took us onto a towpath by a canal, which we were to follow until Carnforth.  Rutted, bumpy, broken tarmac and shale isn’t the best for a fully loaded tandem.  We got off at Hest Bank and got on the much busier Coastal Road.

Then it got hilly, really hilly.  Milthorp to Kendal was ridiculous.  Huff puff, huff puff, okay we’re getting off (before we fall off).  We’ll be avoiding that when we come back this way on LEJOG.  The last 20 miles took us as long as the first 40.

The Stonecross Hotel

About 10 miles to Kendal, we saw the 10 mile sign.  Went ant another couple miles and saw the 10 miles to Kendal sign.  Went another mile and saw the 10 miles to Kendal sign!  Steve thinks they had extra ones made…

Home to Kendal

Lots of steep little suckers at the end of the day!

Tea stop

View over the Lake District

Just like my bike, I am not getting older.  I'm becoming a classic!

Finally dropped down into Kendal with a last little climb to the Stonecross Manor, our hotel for the night.  Lovely receptionist checked us in and helped us store the bike in a function room whilst chatting with Steve about motorbiking and the moto she was planning on buying.  Lugged all of our stuff up to a nice room, big bed and a tub - big woohoo there!  Washed us and our gear from the day, changed into proper clothes and headed to the garden for a restorative.

We’d thought earlier about walking into Kendal for dinner, but after the day vetoed that idea.  Had a really nice halloumi, asparagus and hollandaise starter, salmon for Steve and sea bass for me.  Then an early night for both of us!

Notes:

- check wind speed and direction daily

- add to accommodation - check if hotel is on a hill

- avoid all towpaths in the future

LEJOG Day by Day

 LEJOG - Day by Day

Things that we would like to track on a daily basis throughout the journey:

From place - To place

Mileage

Altitude Gain

Perceived Difficulty

Weather

What we wore

Saw

Smelled

Heard

Ate

Description of the day:

• How we felt in the morning

• Breakfast, pack up, food

• Morning, break

• Midday, break

• Afternoon, break

• Arrival in the town - difficulty

• Where we stayed (hotel, b&b, etc.)

• Where we stayed - description of the town

• What we did for dinner

• Highlights of the day

• Story of the day

• Would go back for…

Getting There and Back Again - Transport

 Transport - Getting There and Back Again

We rented a van near our home and drove to Lands End, dropping myself and the bike at the Lands End Hotel in Sennan Cove

Food

 Food

In the main, there will be lots of food options on this trip - full English breakfasts are included or easily available in most accommodation and if you book either a hotel / pub with a restaurant or within easy walking distance to a town, dinners will be easily found.  Lunches will either be available or nowhere to be found.  A little bit of planning and sourcing of food will prevent a miserable afternoon.  

If you have special food requirements, you’ll need to do some additional research on where to eat.  We eat veg, meat, fish, dairy and a bit of fruit.  We avoid processed foods, breads and sugars.  As mentioned in the Charity section, full-blown diabetes is something we’re working to avoid.  Therefore, we are careful about foods that drive up blood sugar for both health and weight reasons.  I have seen many people who manage to cycle LEJOG and not lose or even gain weight during the trip.  LEJOG is not an opportunity to chow down on the food we wouldn’t eat normally.  Each to his or her own when it comes to food, but as we were working on building a healthy foundation for our later years, we weren’t going to build it on loads of processed foods.

In the main we could find what we wanted for food, not always, but mostly.  I did do some extra research to make sure when we were staying in a place with an onsite restaurant and had no other dining options there were a few things on the menu that met our needs. 

Here is how we handle the meals:

Breakfast - either at the hotel / B&B or we’re in a town where we can get some.  I don’t like to pedal on a full stomach, particularly up hills, so even though we usually have a full english breakfast included (eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes plus the continental yogurt and fruit), I tend to eat half and pack up the other half for a mid-morning snack.

Mid-Morning - stop for a coffee and that breakfast snack

Lunch - tends to be picnics purchased from a supermarket or shop along the way.  Chicken drumsticks, sliced meats / cheeses, hunks of cheese, sliced veggies, fruit.  We carry sporks (foldable spoons, forks, knives) in the top box so even things like greek yogurt or cold soup (gazpacho is a great thing on a hot day!).  Note: take care that liquid things cannot leak all over your gear, we bring ziploc bags for this.

Afternoon - stop for a cup of tea and a snack.  We always (ALWAYS) travel with fruit, nuts and dark chocolate in the bag so if we are surprised by an anticipated lunch place being closed, we still have a good amount to eat.  That’s also what we have for our afternoon high energy snack.  It is amazing how much better you feel on a tough day after an orange, as we found on a grueling up hill day in Tuscany.  Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!

Dinner - at the hotel or in the town.  As mentioned our food approach is eat ‘On Plan’ - meat, fish, lots of veg, dairy and some fruit.  Brazilian churrascaria restaurants offer an all you can eat meat and salad feast, and Mexican restaurants offer fajitas without wraps, burritos without buns and salsa / guacamole can be scooped up with peppers or even a spoon - we found several of those along the way.  Mixed grills can be found in many places.  Sides of veg are abundant.  Splitting a cheese plate is a nice alternative to a sweet dessert.

Emergency Stuff

 Emergency Stuff

Weather

 Weather

The Shakedown Pedal

 The Shakedown Pedal

Thinking that you’re ready to go and knowing that you’re ready to go are two different things.  When we were sailing, we used to do all the fixing of the boat, put all the food on, pack all the things we thought we’d need and then go on what we called a ‘Shakedown Cruise’, taking a trip out in similar conditions to test that all was in working condition and that we had all the right gear for the trip.  Many gaps and missed things were discovered on our shakedown cruises.  We decided to apply the same approach to prepping for LEJOG.

The Sustrans book was helpful for planning this as it gave us a view of the daily altitude gain and the specifics in terms of daily ups and downs.  Knowing that, we created a shorter 5-day route replicating what some of the LEJOG days might be like so we could experience the things that we would experience on the trip.

The criteria for the Shakedown Pedal were:

• Distance - up to 50 miles

• Hills - gentle rolling up to big steeper hills

• Big Hill - one long climb similar to Exmoor, Drumochter

• Consecutive Days - 5

Luckily we live in Lancashire, land of climbing.  We also live at the top of a hill so when pedalling from the house, the day always ends with a final climb - according to the blogs, that end of the day hill is the bane of many LEJOG cyclists!  All of this has been an asset in training for a trip with many hills!  In choosing the trip, Steve kept these four things in mind and selected the following route:

• Home to Kendal - this is the part of LEJOG route that we’ve changed to have the rest stop at home.  Through the Ribble Valley, Ribchester, Longridge, out to Scorton, towards Glasson Dock, pick up the Route 6 through Lancaster and on out to Kendal.  Gentle rolling hills, 50 miles

• Kendal to Penrith - Again part of the route that we’ve changed for our midway rest stop, this day is the 9-mile climb over Shap

• Penrith to Kirby Lonsdale - Back over Shap (!)

• Kirby Lonsdale to Grassington - Hilly

• Grassington back Home