No biking yesterday as I spent nearly all the day at Chester Le Street & Bishop Auckland sorting out banking stuff and buying odd n sods. So today I was up and out early in the van for a spin up to St Johns Chapel. From there I set away on a road loop that I have had planned for a while. I dropped down to Daddry Shield to pick up the back country lane towards Brotherlee. Not far along that road there is a right hand turning. There is no signs where it leads to etc. It is in the book Cycling Climbs of the NE - Swinhope Head, 8/10 and I can understand why! it is steep right at the bottom then eases off before a dip in the climb then its back on again. The lane is only one car wide but is lovely fresh smooth tarmac. Once you reach the gate then it changes to older patched tarmac with a lot of loose gravel etc. Once you reach the top the view over Middleton Tessdale is fantastic. The descent down to Teesdale side is very rough, pot holes, loose gravel, grass in the middle etc. It is still rideable but you have to take it steady. This brings you out at Newbiggin village where you pick up the main road past High Force, Forest in Teesdale, Langden Beck. Once through Langden there is a right turn which climbs all the way to the top of Chapel Fell. The climb is much easier on the Tessdale side than coming up from the Weardale side as you have already done a lot of climbing on the main road. The descent back down to St Johns Chapel is very fast indeed. The sheep were out so I was on the brakes. All in only 18.5 miles and climbed 2700ft by the time I reached 15 miles!
Once back to St Johns I had some spare time so went out and did another steady 7 mile loop up to Cowshill via the back road then come back down on the main road.
The weather was very mixed but mainly cloudy / overcast with some sunny spells. The wind was strong again making it hard going in places. The temperature was from 3.5 degrees to around 5 degrees. Bloody nippy in the wind! Below are some snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon -
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