It's Grim Up North By Jim Sutherland

The Second City Divide is a 380 mile gravel route between Manchester, England and Glasgow, Scotland.  The route traverses urban roads, backroads, doubletrack and singletrack as well as a few sections of footpath where most riders will be pushing.  In 2022 I rode my own version of the UK end to end known as ‘Lands End to John O’ Groats.  I had hoped to include the Second City Divide but had to reroute to avoid dangerously high temperatures inland as well as meet some folk further west.  So it was with some excitement that I headed down on the train to Manchester in March this year with a view to riding north to Glasgow.  This short piece is entitled 'It's grim up North.' because due to some extreme conditions I had to end my ride not having even covered 100 miles.  It is about failing, bailing, DNFing or whatever you want to call it as this is something that is always a possibility when we embark on an adventure, big or small.

Thursday morning

Safely on the train to York with perhaps not as clean a plate as I would have liked.  I couldn’t resist sending my pal in Spain a photo of how easy it was to have my loaded bike stored onboard the train!  Since turning 60 last year I have firmly embraced free bus travel and discounted train fares.  The seven hours or so on the train passed pleasantly with some reading, writing and of course, watching the scenery change as we headed south.

After a couple of changes in York and Leeds I was warmly greeted at Manchester Victoria station by some ticket staff.  They sorted out my fare for the short final part of my journey to Littleborough where I had booked a spot in the campsite there.  By the time I had cycled from the station, around the lake and got my Lunar Orbiter pitched it had clouded over and started to drizzle.  I had taken some of last night’s pasta dinner with me in my Klean Kanteen and washed it down with some packet soup and a small can of Margarita! It was already 7pm so there was no way I was going to be getting a train back into Manchester that night to listen to a friend of mine give a talk about bikepacking in Morocco.  I dropped him a quick WhatsApp message and settled in for a rather cool night.

Friday

The morning was as expected ‘Mizzle’.  Lots of standing water on the bridleways too.  Some tricky terrain with paving slabs, ruts, loose rocks and of course mud. When I got to Rawtenstall Tesco superstore I was already in full dirtbag mode. Getting everything recharged, dried at the front door and second breakfast.

At least the afternoon gave me a better PBW experience as I could actually see further than a few hundred yards in front of me!  The climbs and descents were fun but the route still had an urban feel whenever I hit the small towns at the bottom of the hills.

The campsite was super exposed to the wind and even the campervans and caravans were struggling.  The driest part of the camping field was right in the windiest part of the site so I quickly relocated to a more sheltered but muddy spot behind a hedge. I took ages to get set up as I could not afford to have anything blow away, or get wet in the frequent squalls. The lady warden was kind and opened the heated disabled toilet so I could hand up my wet things to dry overnight.

I enjoyed a dinner of pasta, soup and custard.  But it was not really enough.  However I knew that I had no choice and had to just get on with it. Early to bed and felt secure in my Lunar Orbiter although throughout the night the ferocity of the gusts did make me consider the wisdom of what I wanted to do the next day.

 

Saturday

I didn’t leave until the forecast squalls had come through.  This did give me enough time to figure out a plan to leave the route.  Ride to Settle.  Catch a train to Glasgow to stay with family.

I had not eaten a proper meal since Wednesday night at home so my next priority was go have a Full English Breakfast (FEB).  I rode towards what I thought was the centre of the village, Bolton by Bowland.  Luckily for me some local road cyclists noticed my lost look and kindly pointed me in the direction of a garden centre where I could get good food.

I ate like a king in ‘The Reading Room’ and was well looked after by the manager and servers as I enjoyed cups of Americano and a delicious FEB.

Time to get moving ahead of the worsening weather.  On paper this 20 mile route looked simple but this backroad climbed up to 1400 feet right into the teeth of an approaching ‘Storm Dave.’  On the climb I had to be careful not to get blown into the path of approaching cars in front and even worse behind.

At the summit I stopped to enjoy stopping.  I then started the descent which proved to be even more sketchy than the climb.  Without warning, squalls would try to grab my bike and throw it across the road.  I am not sure if a loaded bike was a help or not.  My frame bag and rear pack definitely caught the wind but I do wonder if their combined weight helped keep my bike on the road.

What it did know was that my decision to leave the route was a wise one.  These squalls were perhaps only 30-40mph but the forecast for later today and the next day was for the windspeed to crank itself up to 50-70mph.  I would not go out on foot in the mountains with speeds like that so I certainly was not prepared to continue north to Greg’s Hut or High Nick Cup which were much higher in altitude than where I had just crawled to.

Sunday morning

Played it very safe with getting to Settle train station. Soaking wet.  Dried out at fire whilst having my ‘usual’ this time a vegetarian variation! Two Way of The Roses riders who had a much more complex escape to execute. By the time I got to Glasgow the sun was shining and I had a lot of fun riding from the train station to the south side of Glasgow where I spent the night.

 

Review:

Burst original Thermarest which makes me sad.

Get a proper compression sack for my Enlightened Equipment down quilt or it’s toast!

I need a strap for my SixMoonDesigns 50L drybag so it closes more neatly.

Stow tent poles here too or they are going to get left behind!

Modify #myog pannier with some plastic reinforcers and tighter closure strap.

Do NOT take so much food unless you know it is going to be perfect conditions for preparation and cooking outside.

Keep getting good at doing absolutely everything that you can from inside your Lunar Orbiter in order to keep it all dry.

Keep getting good at doing this in reverse in the morning.

Keep taking the ‘free miles’ on the downs without worrying about what is next.

Keep enjoying the climbs as that is how you reduce the elevation count.