A short ride with Reg
Posted: Sun May 15, 2022 6:01 pm
Having survived last year's deluge when even Noah refused to leave the café Reg invited me for another wander. This time a bit further west and with a caving theme.
Everything was packed on Friday night, I'd get the train up to Dent (well the station) and meet Reg in Dent (the village), fortunately the former is significantly higher than the latter so it was mostly a roll downhill to the meeting point.
Rolling down to the station in Skipton my drive train began to make a right racket. It turned out that the guide jockey wheel had seized. The second bike that this has happened to me in three weeks! I nursed the bike to the station and while waiting for the train I loosened the bolt so that everything would turn. Hopefully it would last until I could get to a bike shop. I did consider hopping off at Settle and waiting for the bike shop there to open then get on the next service but decided to risk waiting until later in the day.
Of course once at the bottom of the steep hill down from the station as soon as I started pedalling the wheel seized again! So I loosened the bolt a bit more and it more or less behaved from then on but did produce a bit of drag.
Once in Dent (the village) it was time to search out Reg. Dent (the village) isn't a big place but I'd visited most of it before I found him. A cup of coffee and we were ready to roll. There were two options on getting over to Kingsdale: the road and Occupation Road. Now Reg being a perceptive chap had remembered my travails about the latter and decided that just going along the road was much, much preferable. Perhaps what he didn't know was that the road was White Moss and is given 7/10 in one of Simon Warren's 100 climbs books, it's a bitch!
Before the main meat of the climb though there's a pleasant waterfall right next to the road.
Reg near the top and looking for an alternative line of tarmac.
A roll down into Kingsdale and our first cave of the day, Yordas. This used to be a show cave but is now just open, Kingsdale isn't exactly a thoroughfare so presumably it didn't really make much money. Anyway Reg decided to go bikespelunking.
Having spelunked to Reg's content we were then confronted with the second big climb of the day which was actually a push up the field to reach an old turbary road (a road/track used to fetch peat) which traversed the hillside at about the same level as lots of cave entrances. There's quite a few classic caves in Kingsdale, some are down and back trips but others are so-called through trips where you start at the top, climb and abseil down then exit at a lower entrance. Many of the caves connect at the lower level in the Kingsdale master cave so there's some interesting trips to be had. The lower entrance is actually capped by a dustbin lid!
Reg wondering what sort of strange quill the writer of the book used...
The first cave was Bull Pot and there were a couple at the entrance rigging the ropes to descend. A bit of chat and we left them to it. A walk around Rowton Pot before continuing along the track and descending to Mason Gill.
There's a bike shop near here but it meant a short, hair raising ride along the A65. One set of jockey wheels later and the bike is much easier to pedal
We headed into Ingleton and Bernie's café for a bite to eat. Not been in here for years and, it's changed. I think one of the girls behind the counter managed to cancel out the day's takings with the number of cups and glasses she broke.
On to Clapham and another café stop, then it was up towards Crummackdale and the really nice BW down to Wharfe over the clapper bridge where Reg had left his gloves the other day and he wanted to see if they were still there. Of course they weren't.
It was getting on a bit now so we skipped the café at Feizor and headed down to the pub in Settle. On the way we passed a barn I'd seen many times but never checked out so after a quick once over we decided it was good enough to bivy.
A couple of pints and food later we rode back up the road to the barn and settled down for the night.
This morning Reg was thinking about hanging around for the cafés in Settle to open for breakfast but I decided to head home. Everything is really quiet at 0530 on a Sunday morning! Saw two hares and a deer on the trip home.
Everything was packed on Friday night, I'd get the train up to Dent (well the station) and meet Reg in Dent (the village), fortunately the former is significantly higher than the latter so it was mostly a roll downhill to the meeting point.
Rolling down to the station in Skipton my drive train began to make a right racket. It turned out that the guide jockey wheel had seized. The second bike that this has happened to me in three weeks! I nursed the bike to the station and while waiting for the train I loosened the bolt so that everything would turn. Hopefully it would last until I could get to a bike shop. I did consider hopping off at Settle and waiting for the bike shop there to open then get on the next service but decided to risk waiting until later in the day.
Of course once at the bottom of the steep hill down from the station as soon as I started pedalling the wheel seized again! So I loosened the bolt a bit more and it more or less behaved from then on but did produce a bit of drag.
Once in Dent (the village) it was time to search out Reg. Dent (the village) isn't a big place but I'd visited most of it before I found him. A cup of coffee and we were ready to roll. There were two options on getting over to Kingsdale: the road and Occupation Road. Now Reg being a perceptive chap had remembered my travails about the latter and decided that just going along the road was much, much preferable. Perhaps what he didn't know was that the road was White Moss and is given 7/10 in one of Simon Warren's 100 climbs books, it's a bitch!
Before the main meat of the climb though there's a pleasant waterfall right next to the road.
Reg near the top and looking for an alternative line of tarmac.
A roll down into Kingsdale and our first cave of the day, Yordas. This used to be a show cave but is now just open, Kingsdale isn't exactly a thoroughfare so presumably it didn't really make much money. Anyway Reg decided to go bikespelunking.
Having spelunked to Reg's content we were then confronted with the second big climb of the day which was actually a push up the field to reach an old turbary road (a road/track used to fetch peat) which traversed the hillside at about the same level as lots of cave entrances. There's quite a few classic caves in Kingsdale, some are down and back trips but others are so-called through trips where you start at the top, climb and abseil down then exit at a lower entrance. Many of the caves connect at the lower level in the Kingsdale master cave so there's some interesting trips to be had. The lower entrance is actually capped by a dustbin lid!
Reg wondering what sort of strange quill the writer of the book used...
The first cave was Bull Pot and there were a couple at the entrance rigging the ropes to descend. A bit of chat and we left them to it. A walk around Rowton Pot before continuing along the track and descending to Mason Gill.
There's a bike shop near here but it meant a short, hair raising ride along the A65. One set of jockey wheels later and the bike is much easier to pedal
We headed into Ingleton and Bernie's café for a bite to eat. Not been in here for years and, it's changed. I think one of the girls behind the counter managed to cancel out the day's takings with the number of cups and glasses she broke.On to Clapham and another café stop, then it was up towards Crummackdale and the really nice BW down to Wharfe over the clapper bridge where Reg had left his gloves the other day and he wanted to see if they were still there. Of course they weren't.
It was getting on a bit now so we skipped the café at Feizor and headed down to the pub in Settle. On the way we passed a barn I'd seen many times but never checked out so after a quick once over we decided it was good enough to bivy.
A couple of pints and food later we rode back up the road to the barn and settled down for the night.
This morning Reg was thinking about hanging around for the cafés in Settle to open for breakfast but I decided to head home. Everything is really quiet at 0530 on a Sunday morning! Saw two hares and a deer on the trip home.
.
top notch stuff chaps!
.