The Yorkshire Dales Divide

Farndale railway: An awesome gravel track winding itself across the North York moors.

Then dales divide is a 375mile 600 km bikepacking route with an Everest of elevation gain, a double coast-to-coast taking in the Yorkshire Dales and the north york moors. This route is a route that can be entered with the official organised route starting in Arnside just south of the lake district or can be done in your own time starting wherever you like. As this route is a loop it’s fairly easy to get on to in lots of different places, I ended up starting in york.

It’s a route with lots of challenges along the way and a lot of incredible trails and some not so incredible trails, I’m looking at you, all the boggy trails. At 375 miles 600km it’s not the shortest and depending on when you take this route on it could take you anywhere from 3 days on the fast side to 7 days. I took 7 days with filming in pretty bad conditions for reference. The route can be slow-going at times and with the north York moors and the Yorkshire dales both being exposed to the elements when the weather gets bad it can get bad fast. Most of the trails are ridable to be honest and a lot of them are quite nice and fun, wide open double track, some smoother than other though. With this route, you will pretty much hit everything through the dales and the North York moors. That included plenty of wet and boggy trails, though that does become a bit boring and tedious. The good news is with the north york moors and the dales being so exposed, if we ever get some consistent sun these trails do dry out quite nicely. That’s a big if, I know.

I took this route of with the Bombtrack MTB which was good for the conditions I had to endure, but I have ridden most of all these trails before on a gravel bike and although some of the trails can be quite rough at times if speed is what you are looking for than you can defiantly ride this on a gravel bike. I would still want 50mm tyres though and nice easy gearing. If you are not worried about speed then an MTB is a good choice, will help in the wetter months as some of the trails tend to be a bit sloppy. There is a fair amount of road slogs along this route too, although pretty quiet, so the gravel bike is useful for these sections.

Personally I think if you want to explore the Yorkshire dales or the north york moors then I think do them separately, I think its more fun that way my favourite Yorkshire bikepacking route still remains the Yorkshire dales 300 and if you want to explore the North york moors then consider the North York Moors Ramble (Still suffers from the boggy trails) But if you want to enter the official event and test yourself. Then I’m sure you will have lots of fun. More Info