Ride report by Simeon Orme High Bentham is about 12 and half miles away from Halton which is important fact when you weighing up ride like this on deciding on weather to put the bike in the back of the car or not, a few years ago when I was doing a lot more miles on day ride, I would not having this conversation with my self and would think nothing about riding the bike to High Bentham but when got around 30 miles in you for ride and getting a bit older and maybe a bit wiser you have these conversations with your self. The important fact for most folk 25 miles take most folk who are not super cyclists about 2 half hours to do, so I decided it was well worth the effort of spending about 30 minutes driving the car to High Bentham. For cyclist’s High Bentham got quite a few things going for it, its in cycling distance of two national parks and at the two car parks in the town, you can park up to 23 hours for free and for me I don’t have to do that boring bit of the ride back into North Lancashire. Once I got bike unloaded out of the car, the front wheel back on the bike and tripod strapped on to the back of the saddlebag. There were no pigs flying over High Bentham and no one had text me or e-mail to say they were coming on the ride, so ready for interesting ride and visit a few places that I had not been to in the last view years. Its quite a climb up Robin Lane out of High Bentham, I was soon heading towards Ingleton for the next mile before turning on to Dumb Tom Lane (Which is the only lane in Great Britain with that name), its quite beautiful lane but being out both national parks but there is darker side to it which farming community don’t want the general public looking at in age of cheap food and think a few folk would put off eating meat for life if they realize where there food came from. At end of Dumb Tom Lane, I followed Nutgill Lane up to the B6480 which is a bit of up and down road, has I followed it across Newby Moor and down to the A65. After crossing over the A65, I headed into Clapham and stop at The Lake House (Which use to be known as the Reading Room Cafe but change owners last September) which take its name from above the village. The menu at The Lake House fairly limited and think they do a lot of their shopping at Aldi, I think that where the Muffin came from and you buy two filled Muffins at Aldi on 31st July for £1.09 and not £2.50 paid for one at ‘The Lake House’ they do have a lot to learn about catering for cyclists (hint home made cakes) but next time I in Clapham I am going try the village store which I notice had outdoor seating area. After my brew stop, I headed up Church Avenue, I notice that the Yorkshire Flag was flying above St James Church and it sort of click that it was Yorkshire Day, for someone like me who was born in the County town of Lancashire it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth but fear not for all you Yorkshire men and women who laughing at this Lancashire Day is on 27th November. Any way once I got pass the church the next few hours were going be on tracks, the first part of route out of Clapham, you need to have very low gears and maybe on mountain bike to ride up through the tunnels, then the climb up to junction of Thwaite and Long Lanes. Has I was not on mountain bike and don’t have very low gears, I push my bike up the climb. I then followed Long Lane up Clapdale, I had get off a few times to push the bike up a few of the climb but this a good excuse to look at the views which get better has you climb further up the valley. I did stop before gate on to the open moorland at head of valley to take a panorama view looking down Clapdale its not most dramatic view of the day. There was a bit more climbing to do and if following the Pennine Bridleway out of Clapdale, I would recommend taking small detour on the bridleway that go pass the Cairn and spend a few minutes looking at the view, its breath taking but not most dramatic as you can see from the panorama view that I took. Once get pass the Cairn the bridleway starts to level out and its easier to ride you bike along and taking in the landscape, has you slowly head towards Sulber Gate, you start to see views looking over dry stone that runs along side the Pennine Bridleway up to Sulber Gate of what think is one of seven wonders of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is the view looking across Thieves Moss which is one of most dramatic in the national park. One tip, once you get to Sulber Gate before you open the gate, stop and open the small gate in drystone wall and go look at the view across Thieves Moss, I spend good 20 minutes eating my lunch and taking a panorama photo of the view. After the highlight of the ride, the views at each side of the Pennine Bridleway are interesting but as its headed through the Ingleborough Nature Reserve it got more interesting for me, has I spend a bit time taking photos of the wild flowers and maybe that reason I miss out another tearoom stop. It was still interesting ride down to B 6479 and after crossing it, the main reason for doing next stage of the Pennine Bridleway is go and see the Pennine Bridleway Bridge across the River Ribble which made mostly out of wood. The nothing else special about this stage of the bridleway but its as open up some interesting routes for rides. I was soon back on the tarmac again, I did have to do much pedaling has heading down to Horton-in- Ribblesdale. The Pen-y-ghent Cafe had big close sign on it and don’t what the problem is there but I delisting from this website Cyclist’s Cafe Guide. There is more interesting tearoom a bit further down the B6479 at Middle Studfold Farm that open up but I was just a bit to late to go and try it out and had do with sitting at picnic table next to free car park in Helwith Bridge and having a eat up of my pack lunch. The three cars in the background of the eatup photos belong to members of the Rough-Stuff Fellowship, who when out on the South Lakes Group ride led by Ian Moss from the photos that I have seen of ride, headed over into the Littondale, the three members on the ride were on mountain bikes. Mountain bikes do have there uses if most of ride is off-road but in England this can be a rare event where quite a lot of what I would class off-road routes are around 25 percent to 40 percent off-road and rest of the route being on road, so I don’t feel there any great benefit from using a mountain bike on sort of cycling I like to do and thing a lot folk who use mountain bikes are better off using a gravel bike and cover greater distances on gravel bike than would on mountain bike and one reasons why I left the South Lakes Group as it turn into mountain biking group. On the rare events when they have ride on the same day that I have ride on, I shall be poking fun at them showing the views that they miss, by going out on South Lakes Group ride, why you may ask, I am still interest in the South Lakes Group, well it was my ideal to start the RSF group at the beginning of the nineties and believe or not it was off-shoot of the local CTC section for members who want to do a bit Rough-Stuff cycling. Anyway that the history lesson over and back to ride, again after leaving Helwith Bridge there was a little bit of climbing to do over Swarth Moor but after that it was fairly easy ride down to Austwick where it’s look like the local village store as set up a tearoom. From Austwick again there was a bit climbing to do before following the bridleway along side the A65 and then picking up the B6480 which I follow through Clapham, across the A65, then over Newby Moor and on to High Bentham where my car was waiting for me drive it home. If going to follow my route, depending on how fit you are its was good ride which I enjoy, you can add things on to the route and take things off but end of the day I hope it give you some ideals for your own ride and if never been up see the view across Thieves Moss, you should do it near future. You can click here to see the photos of 8th August ride to St. John Church in parish of Helsington or you can click here to download the 28.5 mile route or you can checkout the What’s New Page to see what’s new on the site.