Reivers Cycle Trip Report! – August 2008
Friday, August 22nd, 200811th of August – Whitehaven to Carlisle
Me(left) Alex (right) on the train
The day started out with a train ride, or two to be more accurate. Firstly from Newcastle to Carlisle and then from Carlisle to Whitehaven, there were no problems with the bikes on the first train and we were able to have a hassle free journey. However upon boarding the second, smaller train which had very little space for bikes we found that they were protruding into the walkway. This did not seem like a problem as people could still easily get past and there was always the other door on the train! One of the conductors decided to rant at us for a while about fire hazards and how the bikes shouldn’t have been there. Whilst he was probably correct it seemed a little pointless for him to hassle us after he’d let us get on the train and sit through more than half the journey.
The start point of the Reivers (and C2C) is just a short ride from the train station and can be found by following the C2C signs from the corner of the carpark at whitehaven station.
Alex (left), Ray (centre) and myself (right) at the start point.
A nice sailor man who perhaps didn’t grasp the concept of digital camera’s took the pictures for us and then we rode out. The route follows along the C2C up to Workington where we encoutered the point at which we had found the C2C route on our first ever ride 2 years previously:
Old memories of the C2C
At this point the route is mainly small asphalt cycle paths which winds gently through park land.
An example of the cycle track
After riding through Cockermouth, eating a sausage and bean melt and taking some rather amusing pictures which cant be shown here for fear of violating my hosting providers terms of service the route seems to erupt out into the hills. Giving you some leg burning climbs and spectacular views.
Up into the hills
This all continues for some miles until you drop back down onto the less arduous and slightly less interesting Solway Plain and ride into Carlisle. That night we stayed in the Carlisle youth hostal, it cost £17 per person (for under 18’s) and provided us with spacious single rooms, a bike shed and a good hot shower – although one of the showers was clogged with the pubic hair of a less considerate visitor :/
That day Alex had noticed that Ray and myself were able to travel much faster than him with our slick tires and that it was a strain for him to keep up with his 2.5 inch wide tracked mountain tires so we decided that the next morning we would go and outfit his bike with some more road friendly wheels.
From our experience the route is easily achievable with touring tires (slick and about an inch and a half thick), obviously we were avoiding the “offroad alternatives” but for the enforced offroad sections we encountered no problems with our wheel selection despite the 3 days of torrential rain.
12th of August – Carlisle to Bellingham
The next morning we took Alex’s bike to “Scotby Cycles” which is just down the road from the Youth Hostal, they helped Alex select some new tires and then were kind enough to allow us to fit them in the middle of the shop. If you have any technical difficulties on that section of the route I’d recommend these guys to you. They couldn’t have been more helpful.
We then rode to Longtown and stopped at “The Sycamore Tree” for lunch and excess saturated fats:
....Moobs.
after filling up on all the things our bodies had been attempting to flush out, we took an alternate route to Newcastleton which I believe is only displayed on the 1997 map. Along the way we tried our hand at amateur film making:
Much to my infuriation Ray and Alex continued to sing as we travelled along the totally unsignposted route to Newcastleton, it wasn’t too bad as the road was predominantly straight with few turns although the scale of the map showing the alternate route was atrocious (worse than that of the Reivers map). Road surfacing was adequate although mustn’t see much cycle traffic on more than one occasion cars pulled blindly out in front of us.
Alternative Route to Newcastleton and Alex
We’d been apprehensive about Kielder for some time, especially Kielder on our ‘road’ bikes, expecting to be riding (or pushing hehe) along rough firebreaks for a few miles in the rain it was possibly one of the areas of the route I was looking least forward to riding. It turns out that only one part of our prediction was correct:
... the rain
Much to my surprise the entire road around Kielder was well surfaced tarmac and once the downpour had ceased actually made for a pleasant ride with gentle climbs and sharp descents as the route winds its way around the edges of the resivoir. Much to my surprise, after cycling out of Falstone we saw some of the only other cyclists we would meet on our trip. Whilst seeing cyclists is a fairly mundane thing in itself, seeing cyclists who you actually know whilst 100 miles from home is something a little special:
Meeting Harry... near falstone?!?!
From falstone the route is simple and well signposted although there are small sections on a slightly busier road. We found the last few miles into Bellingham relatively unchallenging aside from one or two steep climbs as the road drops down onto flood plains then back up again.
We stayed at the YHA in Bellingham, the room was nothing special, possibly the size of my single room from the night before except this time it was sleeping 3 people. What really set the Bellingham YHA apart from anywhere else I’ve stayed is relaxing by the ROARING wood burning stove. If you’ve had a long rainy day’s ride then perching yourself up next to that stove is truly an unmissable experience. 
Us at Bellingham youth hostal
13th of August – Bellingham to Newcastle
Surprisingly I found the last day to be the most difficult, weather it was the 10 mile detour or the poorly surfaced bridleways and diversions in Newcastle is hard to say.
The initial ride out of Bellingham along a B road isn’t too bad spare some leg burning climbs and a little bit of a rough riding surface. It then turns off onto some gated farm roads which provide some incredibly ‘interesting’ and possibly terrifying downhills (if you so happpened to realize that even pulling both brakes isn’t slowing you down in the slightest) The gated roads are tedious to say the least and tend to be placed in awkward positions like round sharp bends at the bottom of hills, or half way up hills.
Ray adjusting himself along one of the many small tracks or gated roads.
These small tracks and gated roads go on for miles and miles and are often very poorly signposted, all of the roads mesh into a spaghetti of farm lanes which can be very confusing and was one of the main reasons behind why we were able to cycle completely off the map without realizing. I’d suggest being very careful and taking things as slow as possible to avoid getting lost along this section of route.
After we managed to (somehow) rejoin the route we encountered some fiendishly difficult climbs which most certainly require you to have a granny/crawler gear unless your some kind of Lance Armstrong. From the top it all seemed worth it for the spectacular view:
View from the top
Not too far beyond this the route becomes a lot more gentle in terms of altitude changes, rewarding you for all the tough climbing with a fast sloping downhill toward Darrass Hall and Ponteland
Fast gentle downhills
Sadly the ride just isn’t over yet and before getting to Darrass Hall you will find yourself getting your first taste for Newcastle’s bridleway’s and in our case a bridleway under construction:
Riding along a path that was being constructed at the time.
The paths continue in a muddy and uneven fashion for some miles which we found to be incredibly taxing especially in the final stages but at least the signposting is good.
More nasty bridleway.
I should also mention that this section is also heavily gated which can become frustrating.
Finally you will erupt onto the quayside which is only a short ride from the finishing point. Thankfully, there are no more poorly surfaced bridleways.
Harbor on the final stretch of the Reivers.
C2C Milemarker near the Priory
Photo with the last sign post
Victory!
Upon reaching the end I was filled with the feeling the C2C had given me; we had really accomplished something, we’d accomplished something together and we’d done it without the safety net of some kind of organized group expedition. We’d done it ourselves. For some reason I find cycling cross country routes far more rewarding than the likes of the Coast and Castles route which whilst longer does not share the same sense of loneliness out on the hills.
Final GPS readings (for while I had remembered to turn it on)
To anybody planning to ride the Reivers; you will need a map as the signposting is far from perfect, expect bad weather and most of all be compromising and select the route according to your abilities and bike (Dont ride extreme downhill forest tracks on a road bike)
Best of luck to anybody attempting this ride.
/The 3 Amigos x.
Written by Chris, because I’m not lazy like everyone else. xxx.
This view - 171 miles, the satisfaction of knowing my ass doesn't have to sit on a bike seat tomorrow - priceless.
