The Trails Around The Dales

“You are not here for long so go out there and ride”

A ride out with Stadium Riders always spells adventure.. Saul’s meticulous route planning and his knowledge of mixing things up is second to none.

It was an early start from Halifax as Saul would be kind enough to give me and Andrew a lift to Appletreewick which would be our start point.

Myself, Saul, Andrew, Stephen, Clare and Ed would meet at 9am and from here we would mountain bike our way around the trails in the Dales..

The road climbs out of Appletreewick and very quickly joins a Bridleway which is a fab bit of trail to ride.

The sky was blue the sun shining and the ground was frosty with some ice but all rideable.

I love days like this when you have the weather and fantastic company who love riding bikes.

Saul Muldoon the brainchild behind all route planning certainly knows how to put a great trail together and this had a mix of all sorts.

I was cursing slightly when the climb out of Pateley Bridge to Toft Gate Barn Cafe was a 2 mile 16% Gradient road climb but never mind you can’t have everything in life.

The much needed stop at the cafe was worth the effort as the soup and cake hit the spot even though the service was a bit slow.

From here we had another 11 miles of up and down along some fabulous trails.

I was feeling the effort towards the end as riding a fatbike singlespeed (30-18t) is never going to be easy but loving it nevertheless.

Ed had set off from Huddersfield at 6.30am so his round trip would be over 100 miles with over 10,000 feet of climbing which considering the temperature only just rose above 1c – that was a mighty fine effort (Kudos).

The rest of us would ride 31 miles and 4,600 feet of climbing.

I would recommend this route to my fellow mountain bikers who like the mix of trail with some ‘hike a bike’ as the reward of the fast descents and amazing Yorkshire Dales scenery is spot on.

We had the trails to ourselves and I was surprised not to see anyone else out there on the frost laden trails of the dales.

We laughed most of the way round we even fell off but most of all we had fun.

Many thanks to Saul and the rest of the crew for a memorable days riding.