Sedbergh to Clapham

August 5, 2025

We only had a 35 km ride scheduled but it turned out a little more complicated than we expected. The weather forecast was for a drastic change calling for significant pouring rain until noon and then clearing but with high winds all afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather forecasts have proven to be pretty accurate, and today's was no exception.

Because the inn only hosted two rooms it had a set breakfast time of 8:30 am, which was a bit early for us and too late for our trekking hotel mates, Belinda and Bart from Maastricht, NL. They had a long hike ahead of them and so would have preferred an earlier time, accordingly they were already at the breakfast table with their gear all packed and ready to go when we came down at 8:30 am. We had another fun visit and felt sympathy for them as Bart helped Belinda load up her pack and assemble her rain gear. It was raining hard as they departed at 9:15 — ugh. We have been there, and it’s no fun. (We later found out they finally arrived that evening at their destination at 7 pm.)

Because we had a short day ahead of us we decided to hang out a bit and plan to leave at noon when clearing was predicted. Checkout was at 10:00 but the staffer, Alina, said we could stay in the room until 10:30 and then sit in the bar as long as we wanted. The time actually went pretty quickly and the downpour had stopped by noon, but then the wind whipped up in a serious way: 26 mph was predicted which the weather described as a “moderate gale force warning.” Not great when you're on a bike.

We got a pretty good sense of how bad the storm while leaving Sedbergh. We came to this tree that had just come down from the winds that blew hard this morning. Dave showed his flexibility by scooching both our bikes under the tree which otherwise blocked our route.

The wind was so strong we couldn’t hear ourselves but fortunately the route the entire morning was on small country lanes with no traffic. We were back on the Pennines Cycleway again (cycle route 68). We had some lanes with high hedges (a la Ireland) which helped blocked the wind at times. Nonetheless it was very challenging and required a lot of focus to manage the terrible cross winds.

The streams were running very full thanks to the morning's deluge.

This got worse as we started a significant climb, the Deepdale Climb. We then had the aggravation of a gate to open right at a steep pitch of the climb. Because of having to stop to open it we lost all our momentum and wound up having to use our walk function to push our bikes up 100 yards or so until we reached a slightly flatter section. The view was stunning though and after weathering a steep ascent and descent it flattened out so we had a wonderful rolling descent. It was right on the edge of what I enjoy without being freaked out: Komoot reported the winds were topping 39 km per hour.

We got a hint of the pending steepness of our climb when we came across the Gastack Beck Waterfall which was surging after the rains.

Nowhere to go but up, and up and up . . . (And that vehicle in top left of the photo? Someone had had a very bad day.)

Jill schlepping her bike up part of the ascent thanks to an unfortunately placed gate which forced us to dismount at a really steep bit making it impossible to remount.

Descending to the valley. What this photo cannot show were the 40 km per hour crosswinds that buffeted us as we went down.

We reached Ingleton and our lunch stop, Country Harvest, a large gift shop and tea room where we had a late lunch and marveled at how varied and fun and challenging our ride had been that morning. Cycle touring is never boring: something always happens, or there is always some new scenery. Dave bought a small gift for Nick, our grandson (it was small enough we could slide it into a pannier pocket) and we kind of wished we had more space to pick up a few things, but we don’t.

The Country Harvest boasted an excellent little gourmet grocery store.

We passed the Ingleton Viaduct - which is quite famous for having been built in the 1850’s as part of a planned main line but then abandoned a few years later due to disputes between numerous railway companies. It was only ever used as a rural train line until it was totally abandoned in the 1950’s.

The afternoon ride of 9 km went quickly because we changed direction and got some tail wind all the way to Clapham and our hotel, the New Inn. Clapham is small but cute and the New Inn is shabby but fine. Quite miraculously we have a ground floor room and our bikes are parked just outside our room in a little courtyard.

It's a real convenience when we get to park our bikes outside our room.

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 3,258 km (2,023 miles)

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