Pennine Cycleway Tour - Maps & Tips

[Mal]

Hello everyone,

My first post... also my first tour, so any route tips most welcome.

I'm trying to find a set of Sustrans Pennine cycleway maps.

I appreciate all but the northern section are out of print.

Does anyone have either NN68B, NN68C or a set of 3 for sale?

Best regards,

Mal

 

[ColinJ]

Hi Mal. I don't, but I do have some good advice for you - when you ride through Hebden Bridge, don't attempt to ride up or down The Buttress!

Instead, use the Heptonstall Road and the turning circle on the Todmorden side of Hebden Bridge.

 

[middleagecyclist]

...when you ride through Hebden Bridge, don't attempt to ride up or down The Buttress! Instead, use the Heptonstall Road and the turning circle on the Todmorden side of Hebden Bridge.

I can heartily second that advice.

Did the route last year and had a great time. Still in the process of writing it up on my blog but any specific advice feel free to contact me. I've just sent an email to someone else with tips and camp sites. I'll paste it below.

With regard to maps, I too had trouble finding them to cover the whole route. It is signposted but the maps are very useful sometimes and save carrying lots of OS maps. I borrowed mine from a guy called Andrew Sykes who has also ridden the PCW. He may be willing to lend them out again. He's certainly worth contacting for advice.

Here are my campsite recommendations and general tips

Campsites

Obviously depends how far you intend to cover each day but the camp site at Crowden (Woodhead valley) is pretty good (but watch out for midgies). The tel no is: 01457 866057. You need to go past the reservoirs and back track a few miles or you can cross the Woodhead reservoirs at certain points from the trail. Good place to end a day if you can because there is a lot of climbing after here!

There is a nice quiet site on the Widdup Moor road a few miles through Hebden Bridge (the route does have two choices here but the moor road is my favorite) This is the Google Map link. Cannot remember the tel no. I'm afraid but the old lady who runs is very easy going and the site is never busy (basic but great views). I'm sure you could just turn up and ask for a pitch.

Next campsite was at Dent. A few to choose from and all very good and within easy walking distance of local hostelries. You will be glad of a rest here after the climb over Deepdale.

Had a B&B at Gamblesby before the climb (quite easy) over Hartside pass the next day.

Met my wife for a night next and stayed off route but I know there is a camp site at Once Brewed near Hadrian's wall (noisy by the road though). I went past a nice one through Wark Forest at Stonehaugh which is in a great location. This is the website.

I stayed in the YHA at Wooler and finished the next day.

General Tips

Depends on how much cycle touring you have done and what your aims are but things I would say to anyone doing the Pennine Cycleway are:

Take time to stop and get some pictures/video and make notes. I wish I'd done more but was quite focused on covering the miles each day as I had family to meet at the end. Looking back there were bits I whizzed past that were lovely but now, regrettably, are fading memories only.

Unless you are camping remotely and plan to cook every night don't bother with a stove. There are plenty of cafes/pubs/shops along the way to stop for brekkie, lunch and tea and to pick cold things up for when you are camping.

Take midgie repellent. You might not need it but will be glad of it if you do!

Spares wise, at the very least take a tube or two, pump, puncture kit, selected allen keys/multi tool, cable ties, electrical tape, small penknife, length of paracord and small tube/bottle chain lube

Use water resistant panniers or line them well.

Fill your water bottles before a big climb. Knock on a door or two. Most people are more than happy to help (they will always tell you how steep the hill is though!).

Don't feel you have to follow the route slavishly. I started doing this but got fed up backtracking, taking crap little paths and climbing short little hills for 10-15 mins just to avoid a short 3-5 min section of A road. Look at the maps and decide your route yourself. It is not set in stone.

A bar bag is very handy for camera/wallet/ipod/map/sunglasses/sunblock.

Take sunblock and use it.

Use cycling gloves and consider fitting Ergon grips. They are great.

I used multi activity shoes and flat pedals. I can use SPDs quite happily but would not want them on this ride. There are lots of rough, steep sections you may need to dismount quickly on and several sections to walk and push the bike.

Hope that helps a little...

 

[ColinJ]

Super reply, middleagedcyclist!

If the route goes up Kingsdale and Deepdale to Dent, then I'd add be extremely careful on the descent! We did it on a forum ride a couple of weeks ago and it is severe!

The views are very spectacular if visibility is good. A warning though - the only other time I rode that Dale, it was shrouded in heavy mist. The road has at least 3 sets of gates across it (maybe more, I forget) and I came very close to crashing into one of them in the murk!

If the route heads east out of Dentdale then one or other of 2 steep climbs awaits you! We did the climb past Dent station and found that pretty hard. The descent to Garsdale is another scary one! (I just checked - it doesn't!)

 

[middleagecyclist]

If the route goes up Kingsdale and Deepdale to Dent, then I'd add be extremely careful on the descent! We did it on a forum ride a couple of weeks ago and it is severe! ...the road has at least 3 sets of gates across it (maybe more, I forget) and I came very close to crashing into one...

Yes it does and it certainly is severe.

I came down fully loaded on a wet road and saw the first gate just in time to stop. I was doing about 40mph before that! Doesn't bear thinking about. It was late as well. I might not have been found (dead or alive) until the next day.

Great views though and still an exhilarating descent.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Super reply, middleagedcyclist!

Oh I didn't clock this before. Thanks. *blushes*

 

[P.H]

The maps are scarce, those I used a couple of years ago have changed hands several times since. The first part of the route as far as Holmfirth is marked on the Goldeneye Peak District Cycling Routes map, though it's not as easy to follow as Sustrans mapping;

http://www.goldeneyemaps.com/product.asp?ID=20

I'd echo middleagedcyclist's advice to not rush it. I did it in March and found it surprisingly tough, I was B&Bing and did it over five days. I expected to be finished each day by mid afternoon but never got in before dark! Don't underestimate it. I didn't stick to the route, there were a few intended diversions and due to the weather I skipped some of the less well surfaced tracks. I enjoyed it as I'm sure you will. A few photos here;

http://www.derbyctc.org.uk/pictures/PCW/

 

[apsykes]

Hi Mal
I am Andrew Sykes, the person mentioned above by Darrell (Middleagecyclist). As he says, I cycled the route back in 2009 and I do have a couple of maps that I am more than happy to lend you. I think you already have the NN68 however so the one you would be interested in would be the NN68B. I never managed to get the C map covering the southern part of the route through Derbyshire but I did find a free map called 'Cycle Derbyshire' which again I'm willing to lend. They are well travelled maps as they accompanied both myself and Darrell! I wrote a blog as I cycled and you can find the entries via the following link: http://apsykes.com/pennine-cycleway-2009/
The following summer - last year - I moved on and cycled from Reading in Berkshire to Brindisi in the south of Italy... and I have plans to cycle from Athens to Cadiz in Spain in 2014. This cycling thing can be very addictive. I am in the process of writing a book about my cycle to Italy last year and again, there are details on the website about that too.
Hope you enjoy your trip along the Pennine Cycleroute. It's a crying shame that the maps are out of print! It was an excellent ride and allowed me to rediscover the north of England where I was brought up (in Calderdale - just down the valley from that cobbled hill at the top of this chat thread). Hope you enjoy it!
Best wishes
Andrew

 

[middleagecyclist]

Hi Andrew.

Didn't know you had a cycle chat account.

I see the maps might be getting another outing. They will be able to do it by themselves soon!

Darrell

 

[Mal]

Thanks Guys,

ColinJ: Thanks for the heads-up. Wet cobbles on a hill, not a good move.

middleagedcyclist: Wonderful info/post. I'll print and stick on the wall. Will print and take your own tour post with me.

apsykes: Thanks for the maps offer, greatly appreciated, i'll be in touch. Also read your tour some months ago, helped me choose this tour. I'll get some milage in the UK first, LEJOG would be fantastic, but I do fancy a big, warm, EuroTour.

p.h: I have the Goldeneye and find it hard to read - eyes not what they were but their map colours dont help.

I'm leaving Derby on 31st July and hope to be in Berwick by 6th or 7th August. So not a rushed tour. I want to take my time and enjoy the route, as others have said, i'll probably not go that way again... and I really don't want to put myself off doing more. Just a few mods left to make on the bike and I think i'm as ready as i'm going to be. Ergon grips on order!

From what I've read, I'm more worried about finding the route out of Derby than the rest of the tour.

Best regards,
Mal

 

[shirokazan]

Mal

I see that Andrew might be able to lend you the maps, but there are two alternatives:

1) You can use the mapping on the Sustrans website to find out the route e.g. here's a link to a page which has links for the three sections of the Pennine Cycleway: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/national-cycle-network/long-distance-rides/england. Each of the sections pages has an online map that you can zoom to see the precise route. You could then perhaps use a highlighter pen to mark these onto your own hardcopy maps (road atlas, OS maps, etc). You might wish to do this for the out-of-print NN68C map.

2) If you have a GPS, you could download a copy of the OpenStreetMap which will have the cycle routes on it. This is what I do for my Garmin GPS: here's a link which should set you off in the right direction, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin.