Ideas for a father/son ride?

Toothsmith

Hi All,

I'm looking for some suggestions for a ride with my 12yr old son.

Last year we did the Hadrian's Cycleway. Took the train from Skipton (where we live) to Ravenglass, and over the next 5 days worked our way over to South Shields, carrying all our stuff in panniers, and staying at B&Bs along the way. (An excellent route - thank you Sustrans)

Longest day was 45 miles, but reasonably flat.

I'm quite a keen cyclist, entering 2-3 sportives a year. He pedals around the village, but we do small afternoon rides occasionally.

I want something similar to Hadrians, a good point to point over a few days. Quiet roads or cycleways.

Preferabley somewhere we can get a train to/from or both, so that my wife isn't troubled too much by taking or collecting us.

Any ideas/recommendations?

Cheers

Toothsmith

So that's a 'no' then is it??

Got info today on the Cheshire Cycleway. A 176 ml circuit of Cheshire. Anyone had any experience of that??

Cunobelin

I have actually been doing the Hadrians Cycleway last week, but extended to Durham on NCN 14 (got back today)

One "concept" - Why not ""continue" your previous trip..... and make a circuit over the next few trips?

The "Coast and Castles" runs from Newcastle to to Edinburgh, followed b ythe "Clyde to Forth" to Glasgow, followed by the (tougher) southern part of the "Inverness - Carlisle" from Glasgow to Carlisle completing the loop. All are accessible by rail.

All are "Sustrans" routes and similar in quality to the "Hadrians Cycleway".

A useful site for investigating these and whole host of similar routes for you to think about is:
http://www.cycle-n-sleep.com

Contains details, photos and route profiles.

Toothsmith

Thanks for that. That site looks very good, and I shall enjoy looking round it.

It's a .co.uk though, not a .com.

How did you find Hadrian's? We really enjoyed it, although it probably helped that we had one of the nicest weeks of the awful last summer to do it!

Did you stay at the B&B/bunkhouse at Bowness on Solway? That was one of the nicest we stayed in, although they were all pretty good.

Cunobelin

Toothsmith wrote:

Thanks for that. That site looks very good, and I shall enjoy looking round it.

It's a .co.uk though, not a .com.

How did you find Hadrian's? We really enjoyed it, although it probably helped that we had one of the nicest weeks of the awful last summer to do it!

Did you stay at the B&B/bunkhouse at Bowness on Solway? That was one of the nicest we stayed in, although they were all pretty good.

Sorry about that - I did it from memory, hence the "com"

The Hadrians Wall was superb, I had done the Cumbrian cycleway before so knew the coast, and had done the Newcastle end as part of the C2C and Coast and CAstles, butthe central part was superb.

A very poor weather forecast (and a love for stopping off at churches and interesting sites) meant I limited myself to a lower mileage with escape routes.

Hence I stayed at Holmrook, Allonby,Carlisle, Haydon Bridge, South Shields and Durham - mainly B&Bs as I am now of an age where I lkie my luxuries. I averaged about 50 miles a day with detours (eg Holmrook - Maryport, Aspatria, Allonby)

goodson

for a great day out the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride will be hard to beat.

June 14th

72 miles Wetherby to Filey excellent refreshment stops transport back to start,

quiet roads very well organised.

company of 100's of cyclist's all will encourage a youngster.

http://www.gybr.co.uk/

Did it with my son aged 12 and 13 2006/7 we both had a great time.