Dales Divide – The Inuagaral Ride

The Dales Divide, but more just some words about the slightly weird world of Bike-Packing

It’s always with some relief when the wheels start rolling at the start of any big bike-pack event, the start of the Dales Divide, the inaugural ride, the brain-child of Chris Ellison, its proud creator is just like any other bike-packing event – a small wave-off at best from something not much more than a car-park. But soon it is super-sweet as you hit lovely wooded trails straight away, you then know that this is going to be a good adventure (a really good adventure!), a coast-to-coast and all the way back. All the build-up and anticipation and time spent in preparation is going to pay off. You are going to be presented with a succession of mini-challenges and goals non-stop all the way through, one after the other for many hours to come. Days will merge into nights and nights will merge into days, a succession of sunsets and sunrises and even a full moon if you are lucky. The line that you are following on your GPS screen is YOUR world, nothing much else matters – you just have to keep making progress! You will be presented with an ever changing landscape and terrain, you will be totally buzzing as you whizz along new found trails. Eating will become a chore and keeping a regular check on your health and wellbeing is critical, likewise for your trusty stead on which you sit. The clock will always keep ticking, you sleep for as long or little as you wish. You will be a ‘dot’ being watched by another world. You will meet many people and have those random moments and encounters. You will forget chunks of the ride and hallucinate others; everything becomes a fragmented kaleidoscope like experience*. You may take stock of your life while riding and sometimes remember those ‘special ones’ that are no longer with us. You will experience highs and lows like being on drugs. You will share the journey and talk to fellow riders, making new friends, but you will more likely just talk to yourself. You will be feral, being tracked or tracking someone else and in tune with the wild life up close and personal. Your values will change while you are journeying, the world on the outside will continue as normal and you will not be really be noticed as you pass through. Things will hurt and then stop hurting when they can hurt no more and then new things will hurt, and then when it’s all over you will forget the all the ‘hurting’ that took place and recall just the pleasures – often too many of them. There will be no one to hug you when times get tough. At times you will want to be back at home with your ‘loved’ ones, you will miss that cosiness. You will be constantly peering into other people’s cosy lives as you ride by at night, you may knock on a door and ask for a refill of water, but sometime get a cake, a meal or more – those small acts of kindliness can be so gratifying. What you put in is what you get out and you will always have the memories for evermore. Each rider’s race is personal to them and any rider that finishes is a winner …and if you didn’t finish then bank that learning for next time when you will. Luck will always play a part – we are all so lucky and should be ever thankful to be able to do this sort of thing, because this IS living…

Alex Pilkington – April 2019

* Having done a fair bit of AR racing over the years you learn to manage on as little sleep as possible in each race, but there are limits. It is the lack of sleep and rest for the brain that creates the weird effects that one may experience in multi-day racing when pushing hard – also known as ‘sleepmonsters’

This stuff may not be everyone’s cup of tea and some folk don’t relate to it at all, but for those that like exploring, adventure and the thrill of a challenge then there is no better way to do it than the grass roots, no-frills bike-packing. You can pay hundreds or even thousands to undertake some over hyped and commercialised mtb adventures, but bike-packs are usually free and as a result are friendly and non-elitist and quite often a lot harder as you have no support and have to totally look after yourself.

Arnside 7am, after coming off the night shift and 47:07hrs after the GD. Happy to be first rider back and a little tired – not sure if I needed beer or breakfast (I settled for both!) And thank you to the family for being here for me – its always nice to have someone greet you after a ride like this.

Heard of this place…?

Scarborough, early morning – just me, the street cleaners and this beautiful sunrise.

North Yorkshire Moors – Hot ‘n’ Hard!

Feed Station / Water Hole outside Chris Ellison’s house at 80km.