Coast to Coast



Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Peter Taylor

Guest
My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the Coast
to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how many
days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student and most of
his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have well developed right arms).

Many thanks

Peter Taylor
 
On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 13:44:49 +0000 (UTC), in
<[email protected]>, "Peter Taylor"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the Coast
>to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how many
>days, severity and

www.cuddle.clara.net for my version of events. I took 3 days and stayed in YHAs at Alston and
Edmundbyers. One of the cyclists in my group lived not far from the finish which therefore provided
us with free accomodation at the end of the trip.

Love and hugs from Rich x

--
Due to a typing error on the Children's Hospital menu Saturday evening now offers "Beef burger in a
bum". Email: Put only the word "richard" before the @ sign.
 
Peter Taylor wrote:
> My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
> Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how
> many days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student and
> most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have well developed right arms).
>
> Many thanks
>
>
> Peter Taylor

I don't know the Whitehaven to Robin Hoods Bay route, I have done the C2C rotues Whitehaven to
Sunderland, Workington to Tynemouth and also Morecambe to Scarbrough. Took three days on the C2C
routes, 9 hours on the other.

read about it on http://www.mseries.freeserve.co.uk/
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
> Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how
> many days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student and
> most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have well developed right arms).

There's an excellent website http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk which has masses of information.

Juliette
--
nowt
 
Peter Taylor wrote:

> My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
> Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how
> many days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student and
> most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have well developed right arms).

A guy and gal at work did it in 1 day a couple of years ago. I think 2 days would be reasonable as a
"challenge".
 
>>My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
>>Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay.
>>

I think you might be confusing the Coast to Coast walking route from St Bees Head to Robin Hoods Bay
with the C2C cycle route from Whitehaven/Workington to Newcastle/Sunderland.

>>Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how many days, severity and logistics would be much
>>appreciated.
>>
I did it this summer in August. Did it on a cheapo second hand 12 speed racing cycle with a rack and
panniers and full camping gear. Started
13:00 on Friday in Whitehaven and finished it 11:00 Sunday morning in Sunderland. At 22 stone with
around a 35-40lb payload in the panniers and on the rack, I felt pretty proud of my achievement
in fact I still do. I then cycled home to Leeds.

The bits I found challenging were Winlatter Pass in the Lakes and Crawleyside Bank out of Stanhope.
I had to dismount and push. Everything else was a relative breeze, I camped at Langwathby on the far
side of Penrith and Beamish in County Durham.

The C2C map from Sustrans is worth having. The route is a little vague at the Sunderland end.

>> He is a 20 year old med student and most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means
>> they have well developed right arms).
>>
There's plenty of opportunity to imbibe on the way so their right arm exercise regimes can be
maintained.

>>There's an excellent website http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk which has masses of information.
>>
>>
>>
They should find it a doddle being young and presumably a damn site fitter than me. Hope the
weather's nice for them.

Vernon
 
vernon.levy wrote:
>>> My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
>>> Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay.
>>>
>
> I think you might be confusing the Coast to Coast walking route from St Bees Head to Robin Hoods
> Bay with the C2C cycle route from Whitehaven/Workington to Newcastle/Sunderland.
>> The bits I found challenging were Winlatter Pass in the Lakes and
> Crawleyside Bank out of Stanhope.

But not Hartside ? The climb out of Stanhope was not on the route when I did my first C2C. One had
to make a left hander in Rookhope up a lane onto an off road section, an old wagonway, perhaps you
chose to stay on the road, some other cyclists were standing in front of the sign so we missed the
turn and ended up in Stanhope !

> The C2C map from Sustrans is worth having. The route is a little vague at the Sunderland end.

Agreed, thankfully one of our party is from Sunderland and we called in at his Mums for tea, whilst
the rest of the party called in at someone elses Mum in Anfield Plain.

>
>>> He is a 20 year old med student and most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means
>>> they have well developed right arms).
>>>
> There's plenty of opportunity to imbibe on the way so their right arm exercise regimes can be
> maintained.

Ahh so thats why their right arm is well developed. ;-) We stayed at a pub with bunkhouse in
Nenthead so drinking was easy !

>
>>> There's an excellent website http://www.c2c-guide.co.uk which has masses of information.

My report is reproduced there too.

>>>
>>>
>>>
> They should find it a doddle being young and presumably a damn site fitter than me. Hope the
> weather's nice for them.

three days is doable for most cyclists.
 
vernon.levy wrote:
>
> I think you might be confusing the Coast to Coast walking route from St Bees Head to Robin Hoods
> Bay with the C2C cycle route from Whitehaven/Workington to Newcastle/Sunderland.
>

There are off-road versions of the C2C that go from St Bees to Robin Hood Bay. It seems to take
about 6 days and the Lake District section has been described as mountaineering with a bike.
http://mbruk.co.uk/mbruk_coast_test.html. Avoid the variant that goes down Rosset Ghyll - the
bridleway there is a fair old scramble even without a bike.

Tony
 
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------040809010602070008050802
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

MSeries wrote:

>vernon.levy wrote:
>
>
>>The bits I found challenging were Winlatter Pass in the Lakes and
>>
>>
>>Crawleyside Bank out of Stanhope.
>>
>>
>
>But not Hartside ?
>
I forgot about Hartside - the apparent shortcut isn't so don't even attempt to push your bike along
the rubble strewn rough track. Nice bacon butties though at the top.

>The climb out of Stanhope was not on the route when I did my first C2C. One had to make a left
>hander in Rookhope up a lane onto an off road section, an old wagonway, perhaps you chose to stay
>on the road, some other cyclists were standing in front of the sign so we missed the turn and ended
>up in Stanhope !
>
Strange place - twenty odd miles from my home town but might as well have been on a different
planet! Theres a nice fish and chip shop off Clifford Street.

>>The C2C map from Sustrans is worth having. The route is a little vague at the Sunderland end.
>>
>>
>My report is reproduced there too.
>
As is mine must get him to correct my name. Seemed to have lost weight retrospectively too :)

>three days is doable for most cyclists.
>

Three days would be a breeze with plenty of right arm exercises throughout the days and evenings :)

Mmmmm....must find a free weekend

>
>
>
>
>
>

--------------040809010602070008050802 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-
Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-
Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000"
bgcolor="#ffffff"> <br> <br> MSeries wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="[email protected]
berlin.de"> <pre wrap="">vernon.levy wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">The bits I
found challenging were Winlatter Pass in the Lakes and </pre> <pre wrap="">Crawleyside Bank out of
Stanhope. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> But not Hartside ? </pre> </blockquote> I forgot
about Hartside - the apparent shortcut isn't so don't even attempt to push your bike along the
rubble strewn rough track. Nice bacon butties though at the top.<br> <br> <blockquote
type="cite" cite="[email protected]"> <pre wrap="">The climb out of
Stanhope was not on the route when I did my first C2C. One had to make a left hander in Rookhope up
a lane onto an off road section, an old wagonway, perhaps you chose to stay on the road, some other
cyclists were standing in front of the sign so we missed the turn and ended up in Stanhope !</pre>
</blockquote> Strange place - twenty odd miles from my home town but might as well have been on a
different planet! Theres a nice fish and chip shop off Clifford Street.<br> <blockquote
type="cite" cite="[email protected]"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre
wrap="">The C2C map from Sustrans is worth having. The route is a little vague at the Sunderland
end. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> My report is reproduced there too.</pre> </blockquote> As is
mine must get him to correct my name. Seemed to have lost weight retrospectively too :-
)<br> <br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="[email protected]"> <pre
wrap="">three days is doable for most cyclists.</pre> </blockquote> <br> Three days would be a
breeze with plenty of right arm exercises throughout the days and evenings :)<br> <br>
Mmmmm....must find a free weekend<br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="[email protected]
berlin.de"> <pre wrap="">

</pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>

--------------040809010602070008050802--
 
Peter Taylor wrote:
> My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
> Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time - how
> many days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student and
> most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have well developed right arms).

I did it from the 2nd to 4th December this year. It might be a bit warmer in the summer.

Severity-wise, Hartside the Climb out of Garrigill (sp?), Allenheads and Crawleyside out of Stanhope
were hard work. I got badly lost in Newcastle due to a road accident having closed one of the routes
and not knowing the area. A Newcastle A-Z would be a good idea if doing the Tynemouth option.
Someone else mentioned Whinlatter Pass but I didn't really find that difficult.

They say do it W->E because of the prevailing wind but it was NE or E most of the time for me, so
don't count on that. It was bloody cold particularly at the top of Hartside and Black Hill (1998
feet) but presumably won't be quite so chilly in summer.

I didn't try the Old Coach Road option (between Keswick and Penrith) which is considerably harder
(and rocky).

One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
>Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and the
driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing. To avoid that, next year I think I'll train to
Newcastle, then do the Reivers route and the return route to Newcastle (a mate did that in 6-7 days,
though he found that "too much").

Accomodation wise, I didn't try to go cheap. I'd recommend the place I stayed in Whitehaven
(Glenfield House), the one in Penrith (Albany Guest House), the Allenheads Inn (despite the ceiling
outside my room collapsing not long after I'd arrived!), and the place I stayed in Newcastle. I
would NOT recommend the place in Newcastle that gave my room away after I'd phoned them 2 hours
earlier to book it (and then showed a seriously **** attitude when I turned up at the door).

Simon
 
> One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
> >Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and the
> driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
> minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing.

You got there a lot faster than I did from Leeds. I had to change at Preston and Carlisle and took
nigh on five hours.
 
Simon Proven wrote:
>
> One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
> >Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and the
> driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
> minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing.

The best way from Cambridge is, as usual, to go into Kings Cross and then catch the West Coast line
to Carlise from Euston and change to the Whitehaven train.

> To avoid that, next year I think I'll train to Newcastle, then do the Reivers route and the return
> route to Newcastle (a mate did that in 6-7 days, though he found that "too much").
>

Did the round trip with the CTC three years ago. Very easy from Newcastle station and took 6 days, 3
on the Reivers route and three back on the C2C

Tony
 
"vernon.levy" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> > One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
> > >Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and
> > the driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
> > minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing.
>
> You got there a lot faster than I did from Leeds. I had to change at Preston and Carlisle and took
> nigh on five hours.

I meant for the whole Newcastle->Whitehaven leg, sorry. The whole thing from Cambridge was 7.5
hours! The annoying thing is that Cambridge to Newcastle was only 3h45, then a 40 min wait and slow
train to Whitehaven. The WCML route might indeed be better, though generally that route isn't
offered by default from Cambridge.

Simon
 
"Simon Proven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Peter Taylor wrote:
> > My son and a few friends are planning a cycle trip in May / June. He is thinking of doing the
> > Coast to Coast from Whitehaven to Robin Hood Bay. Anyone done it recently? Any tips on time -
> > how many days, severity and logistics would be much appreciated. He is a 20 year old med student
and
> > most of his friends are doing related courses. (which means they have
well
> > developed right arms).
>
> I did it from the 2nd to 4th December this year. It might be a bit warmer in the summer.
>
> Severity-wise, Hartside the Climb out of Garrigill (sp?), Allenheads and Crawleyside out of
> Stanhope were hard work. I got badly lost in Newcastle due to a road accident having closed one of
> the routes and not knowing the area. A Newcastle A-Z would be a good idea if doing the Tynemouth
> option. Someone else mentioned Whinlatter Pass but I didn't really find that difficult.
>
> They say do it W->E because of the prevailing wind but it was NE or E most of the time for me, so
> don't count on that. It was bloody cold particularly at the top of Hartside and Black Hill (1998
> feet) but presumably won't be quite so chilly in summer.
>
> I didn't try the Old Coach Road option (between Keswick and Penrith) which is considerably harder
> (and rocky).
>
> One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
> >Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and the
> driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
> minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing. To avoid that, next year I think I'll train to
> Newcastle, then do the Reivers route and the return route to Newcastle (a mate did that in 6-7
> days, though he found that "too much").
>
> Accomodation wise, I didn't try to go cheap. I'd recommend the place I stayed in Whitehaven
> (Glenfield House), the one in Penrith (Albany Guest House), the Allenheads Inn (despite the
> ceiling outside my room collapsing not long after I'd arrived!), and the place I stayed in
> Newcastle. I would NOT recommend the place in Newcastle that gave my room away after I'd phoned
> them 2 hours earlier to book it (and then showed a seriously **** attitude when I turned up at
> the door).
>
> Simon
>
Has anyone done the Reivers route west to east? All the guide books seem to run east to west, as
does the offical map. A group of us did the C2C in July 2003 and our next group ride will be the
Reivers in July 04. As the majority of the group lives in or close to Tyneside it makes more sense
to us, to start at the west coast.

I hope to do the northern section of the pennine cycleway ( Appleby to Berwick ) in May most of
which will be on familiar roads/tracks since I live in Tynedale but has anyone got tips for the
northern section beyond Rothbury?

As for accommodation on the C2C, we stayed at the Caledonia Guest House in Penrith and the
Allenheads Inn, both highly recommended. Although I must confess I found the climb out of Allenheads
very hard work after the full english breakfast served at the inn.

George
 
"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> writes:

> Simon Proven wrote:
> >
> > One issue for me was getting there. I live in Cambridge; the route suggested was Cambridge->Peterborough->Newcastle-
> > >Whitehaven. All OK apart from the Newcastle->Whitehaven bit which seemed to take forever, and
> > the driver had to turf people off tip-up seats to get my bike on. I stood for about the first 90
> > minutes, it was almost 3 hours for the whole thing.
>
> The best way from Cambridge is, as usual, to go into Kings Cross and then catch the West Coast
> line to Carlise from Euston and change to the Whitehaven train.

If the West Coast Main Line is in it's usual state, you'd be quicker using the Trans Siberia
Express. Damn it, _cycling_ to Carlisle would almost certainly be quicker!

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads