2013 Solstice 150 Mile Lightweight Raid, June 22/23.

[Ray Young]

OK, I know the true solstice is the 21st but that's a friday.

The Plan. A non stop, overnight, 150 mile coast to coast lightweight ride starting midday'ish on Sat 22 June on The Solway Firth near Gretna and finishing at Berwick upon Tweed sort of following the Scottish/English border. 1/3 b-roads, 1/3 forest roads, 1/3 off road taking in Kielder Forest, traversing the Cheviot Hills ridgeline, St Cuthberts cave and passing close to Holy Island.

Interested? I have done this ride before over 2 days so know the route. It is all rideable and the scenery is great but if your looking for a lot of technical riding then look elswhere. Saturday is the day after the longest day and one day before a full moon so hopefully lots of light. As I'm planning to do this non stop there will be no need for a lot of gear, food, waterproofs and emergency kit basically.

I have never done anything like this before so my own pace will be steady/slow, anyone else coming along is free to set their own pace.

So, anyone interested?

[slarge]

Mmmmmhhhh - very interested. How would you get back to the start point? Could fit in as a great training ride for PBW double or something like that. Just laying out my calendar for next year so I'll stay in touch......

[Ray Young]

When I did this over 2 days I got a train to the start/from the finish which is what i will probably do this time unless I can persuade the wife to pick me up in Berwick. Shortest route between the two by car according to Google is 82 miles and takes 2 hours so maybe leave a car at each end if you can find some other people willing to do this which I also might consider. Train between the two is 3-3 1/2 hours and the cheapest fare is £42 at the moment.

[Ray Young]

Route map.

2005_0101solstice20130003 by youngray50, on Flickr
Climbs.

2005_0101solstice20130005 by youngray50, on Flickr
Ignore the dip between The Hearts Toe and Chew Green. Sorry about the retro presentation. I'll post a closer mileage once i've checked it properly.

[restlessshawn]

Route looks really interesting Ray, I think the mileage is beyond me though without a kip!

[paul78]

Sounds good ..

I got a race a few weeks after this that this would be a great warm up ride for.

What sort of time you got in your head to complete ???

I would look to either ride out to start or home from Berwick or potentially both.

[Chew]

Interested in this Ray, and should be a good build up to other things next year.

One thing to note is on the section between Newcastleton and Kielder, that path is closed for foresty work (you can still get through though )

[Ray Young]

One thing to note is on the section between Newcastleton and Kielder, that path is closed for foresty work (you can still get through though )

Any idea until when, remember this is not until June.

What sort of time you got in your head to complete ???

Not sure how long this will take me but this is a fast route and I think quick riders could easily average 10mph.

Route looks really interesting Ray, I think the mileage is beyond me though without a kip!

The mileage on the route shown above is 120 miles. I am currently working on adding some extra miles to bring it closer to 150, these extra miles include a circuit of Kielder reservoir and an offroad route to Wooler from Ingram valley which also throws in a few more climbs.

I'll provide the map coordinates for both routes. What you do with them is up to you, you can choose to race it (but you will need some way of timing youself (Spottrack, GPS), choose to ride with mates at a slower pace and even have a kip if you want.
I personally want to try and do it in one go albeit at a slowish pace. It's early days yet so there is time for things to gel. Tell others what route you want to ride and at what pace then maybe get together :) .

[Ray Young]

Right then people. After checking the route properly I have decided there will be only ONE route. It is 130 miles long, has 10,521 feet of climbing with a high point of 2008 feet.
10am start, the fast boys can try to finish the same day, the rest of us mortals can either kip out or finish sometime through the night/morning.
(Can anyone tell me how I can let other people access the route which i have saved on bikehike.co.uk?)

[paul78]

Sounds good.

Will be looking for someone to ride across with at a steady pace but looking for a same day finish.

Thanks Ray for putting this together

[restlessshawn]

Ray, Can you create a gpx of the route and email it to me please? smcfarlane at gmail dot com

I should be able to upload that to memory map and look at the route properly

It would be a 2 day camp and atleast 1 pub ride for me, will have to see how next year pans out...can't be worse than this year

[slarge]

Other half permitting I am up for this. Need to convince her that the 300 mile drive each way is worth it, so if anyone wants to share transport - pick up anywhere north of Warwick I may well be able to help.

[Ray Young]

If anyone wants to add in Holy Island on Sunday 23 the causeway is safe to cross from 6.40am until 1pm. This detour adds 15 miles to the route.
I will post map references for the full route soon.

[FLV]

I really like the sound of this but wont know if I can make it until a little nearer the time (like a month from now I suppose) when I get my act together and write down the things I've already committed to on a calender.

If its ok with you, could I say I'm a maybe but wont say for sure till later,

Ta. oh, and lovely work!

[Ray Young]

OK guys, this is the final format with map reference points.
A 130 mile (unless you do Holy Island adding another 15 miles but this is not compulsory) coast to coast ride with 10,500 feet of climbing sort of following the Scottish/English border starting on The Solway Firth near Gretna and ending at Spittal near Berwick upon Tweed on Sat/Sun 22/23 of June. The saturday is the day after the longest day and one day before a full moon so there should be lots of light for evening/night riding. It is a 10am start giving you 14 hours if you want to race it and try to complete it on the same day you start. I believe that this is possible as it is a fast route, approximatley 1/3 b-roads, 1/3 forest roads, 1/3 off road and near enough all rideable. You do not have to do it all in one go, it is your ride, ride with your mates at the pace you want and bivi out under the stars if that's your thing.
If you are going to race it then you will need to be able to verify your time/adherence to the route with a spot tracker or something similar. This is down to you.
There are two main re fueling points if you don't wish to carry food, Kielder village has a pub serving food and a small general store. Wooler has everything, shops, cafes, take away's and pubs.
There is very little water on The Cheviot Hills ridgeline so fill up at Spithope Burn on the climb up to the ridge.
Bike shops can be found in Longtown, Kielder and Berwick.
A word on Holy Island.
If you decide to add in Holy Island it will add 15 miles to the route. The causeway is safe to cross on Saturday 22 between 18.10 hrs and 00.35 and Sunday 23 between 06.40 and 13.00. Under no circumstances should you attempt to cross the causeway if the tide is coming in, it comes in very, very fast. Secondly, do not, and I repeat, do not camp/bivi on Holy Island. The locals will spot you and will have no hesitation in calling the police to shift you. Lastly, they do have cafes and bars on Holy Island but they tend to be expensive due to the tourist trade.
St Cuthberts Cave is worth the 100 metre detour and is a great spot to bivi, albeit near the end, it's more of a large rock overhang than a cave.
There is no parking near to the start due to the narrow lanes. Park in Gretna and cycle to the start. The finish is at a car park in Spittal on the seafront. If you want to celebrate with a pint at the end I recomend The Barrels Pub in Berwick which is just over the old bridge. They don't sell food but do keep good beers.
Revised route (includes around Kielder reservoir and the off road section between Ingram valley and Wooler).

2005_0110RevisedSolstice0001 by youngray50, on Flickr

I have not included every junction, route from one point to another should be fairly obvious.

NY 316660, 311665, 323672, 330669, 378687, 411740, 438765, 447762, 480825, 504832, 501834, 512843, cross bridge, 560883, cross bridge, 569885, 600899, 630887, 645903, follow The Lakeside Way anti-clockwise around Kielder reservoir to 632935, forest drive, 650959, 712983.

NT784002, 783010, 769024, trees cleared for 1/2K, annoying rather than difficult, make the best way you can to 768056 Spithope (the bridleway becomes overgrown, go to) 767056, 763068, beware of bogs, follow sheep tracks to 776077, 776080, 791083, 788105, 810133 Lamb Hill (bothy just before this), 821143 Beefstand Hill, 828150 Mozie Law, 855152 Windy Gill, 871160 (halfway between Windy Gill and this point the bridleway becomes a footpath for 50 yards for no good reason, use your common sense), 874157, 920162, 934153, 976162, 965162, 999195, 974204, 963232, 955226, 941248, 973265, 986278, Wooler, 994282.

NU024291, 069310, 056332, 058351, St Cuthberts cave 100 metres to the right, 074361, 086365, 063393, 066400, 063401, 053420, 071425, for Holy Island carry straight on, 064449, 031464, 039469, 009510, 005519, The End except for NT997527 The Barrels Pub.

Hope all this makes sense.

[restlessshawn]

Top work Ray!

I looked at bikehike just now, seems to be a 'save route' button and if you click that you can save as a GPX Track. Anyone should be able to just load that onto their GPS or into most other mapping software.

[Ray Young]

Hi Restless, I saved the route on bikehike as a gpx route under SolsticeRaid13.gpx but I only seem to be able to access it from the computer I saved it on. I did try to access from another computer but no joy, can you see if you can get it? I sent an email a few days ago to bikehike asking how others can access a saved route but I haven't heard back yet.

For those of you wanting to use paper maps I'll let you know soon what ones you need, the route in parts uses very small areas of certain maps so it might be better/cheaper to print these sections off from OSgetamap or something similar.

[restlessshawn]

I can't see a way to look at anyone elses routes on there. It must have just saved it on your computer, have you tried searching for the file name?

[Ray Young]

How do I do that?

[Ray Young]

Me again Restless, better idea, i'm pretty computer iliterate :? , how about I come to your workplace one lunchtime with my laptop?

[restlessshawn]

You can't share routes on that website anymore due to him being worried about legal repercussions

Try this first and I'll try and upload it somewhere we can share it if you can email it to me -

http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt34 ... lane/1.jpg
http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt34 ... lane/2.jpg
http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt34 ... lane/3.jpg
http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt34 ... lane/4.jpg


It is just saving the gpx file on your pc somewhere. GPX track would be better than route I think as per pics above.

[Ray Young]

Shawn, what's your email. I resaved it as gpx track as suggested and can find it in my download files so should be able to send it to you.

[restlessshawn]

smcfarlane at gmail dot com

obviously with @ and . instead!

[restlessshawn]

Ok anyone should be able to view this and export as a GPX or KML so can someone try it?

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162995170

[restlessshawn]

Just looking at it in memory map, looks good