First Run out for Helen in a while.

We had a reasonable 210 mile ride yesterday around the Dales and up to the outskirts of County Durham. We mainly went out to test Helen’s ankle after her recent ankle operation. Everything seemed to go well and she was able to do the distance without to many issues, the new Daytona boots seemed to help.

We left home and headed to Hawes via our usual route to Clitheroe and then via Sawley and Wigglesworth to Settle. Then we headed over to Hawes via Ribblehead Viaduct. The corner between Horton-in-Ribblesdale and the viaduct is still terribly potholed. There was quite a few cars about around Clitheroe but once we turned off the main road at Sawley the traffic reduced. Due to the Appleby horse show the usual spots were full of travellers and horses. We left Hawes and headed on the A684 for Sedbergh but turned onto the B6259 at The Moorcock Inn and headed to Kirkby Stephen. I like this road as it follows the Settle to Carlisle railway line for quite a while. In Kirkby Stephen we joined the A685 and head over to Brough. We then took the stunning and empty B6276 to Middleton-in-Teesdale and stopped at our usual haunt Café 1618 for lunch.

We left Middleton-in-Teesdale and headed back to Kirkby Stephen and continued on the A685 and even saw a steam engine running at Stainmore Railway as we passed by. We then turned onto the A683 and headed for Sedbergh, we passed several more traveller camps on our way. You really need to take car at this time of year as they really don’t seem to realise that this is a 60mph road. We also passed several horse and carts holding traffic up in the other direction. Thankfully we didn’t see any cars doing stupid overtakes to get passed them. From Sedbergh we continued on the A683 down to Kirkby Lonsdale and stopped at Devil’s Bridge for an ice cream. We also met one of our biker friends CJ while we were stopped there.

We left Devil’s Bridge on the A65 towards Skipton and then stopped briefly in Ingleton for fuel. From Ingleton we continued on the A65 before turning off before Clapham and heading over Burn Moor and past Stocks Reservoir. We then turned right onto the B6478 and headed through Slaidburn and then over Waddington Fell and down into Clitheroe. From Clitheroe we followed the A59, A671 and then the A56/M66 back home.