Gary820
Well-Known Member
Just spent the weekend laning in the Dales with a few friends. The trip has been planned for a while now. Everyone travelled up on Friday in the rain, from London, Birmingham and south Wales. I joined them after finishing work.
We had a very wet start and tents got pitched in the rain, opted for a pub meal to dry off and have a chat.
Sat morning all dry and sun shining so we set out on the lanes...
First lane just 4 miles from the campsite
80 leading the way with a pair of landies and a jeep bringing up the rear
Through to stalling busk and down the Ford.
After a couple of hours and some long rocky lanes we stopped for a short break, these guys aren't used to lanes this long and rocky so were feeling it a bit.
Continued along the lanes, now getting more rocky
We Did a few more lanes and dropped back down the valley into Hawes for a lunch stop, the wives met up with us all at the wensleydale creamery at the arranged time, we were pretty much there at the time I said (local knowledge pays off) spent about an hour and a half there, everyone stocked up on cheese, local beers and ate ice creams. It's their holidays so wanted to show them some tourist stuff.
I spent a bit of time re plotting the afternoons route as had an email from the row officer and a couple of lanes were confirmed as open.
Back to the lanes and past 'the water cut'
The farmer was sat chilling enjoying his views.
Tinted screen adds a nice colour to the sky
There's that shiny 80 rearing its head
Back to camp after just over 10 hours on the lanes, site is a bit of a slope so cooking on my fold down table was a no go, adapt and over come.
One of the guys forgot the stove and cool box!! They were in his daughters car as his frontera is unwell and were rushing. They just chucked some stuff in my fridge and my set up was their set up.
Day 2 was a bit more chilled, later start and only 4 to 5 hours planned.
In the distance is the lane we'll be driving up and over the top, high fremington and it's a steep rocky lane.
The track to get to it is erm tight (I hope someone got a photo tbh) the 80 has about 1/4 inch either side of stone walls at times!!! It's not a lane I can do solo as need a spotter for the walls!!!
Well before we got that far
We had some electrical issues to find and fix.
This is near the top, pic doesn't do it justice at all, one of the lads got some pics of us coming up so I'll wait for them, it's steep, tight and rocky. Not one for wet weather. 80 walked up it and there was a bit of wheel so I from the disco.
We dropped down to a few more small lanes which I didn't get any pics tbh, lots of single track roads. Tight and twisty with steep climbs, the rangie was over heating so had to drop into low box and drop speed, the disco had some more electrical issues too.
We dropped onto the last lane which is the first lane from sat but in reverse. It's the only lane we drove twice.
Over the 2 days we covered around 150 miles with a lot of that on lanes.
The 80 and the jeep didn't miss a beat, the jeep did get stuck though
The guys haven't been to the Dales before and are already talking about the next trip.
We had a very wet start and tents got pitched in the rain, opted for a pub meal to dry off and have a chat.
Sat morning all dry and sun shining so we set out on the lanes...
First lane just 4 miles from the campsite
80 leading the way with a pair of landies and a jeep bringing up the rear
Through to stalling busk and down the Ford.
After a couple of hours and some long rocky lanes we stopped for a short break, these guys aren't used to lanes this long and rocky so were feeling it a bit.
Continued along the lanes, now getting more rocky
We Did a few more lanes and dropped back down the valley into Hawes for a lunch stop, the wives met up with us all at the wensleydale creamery at the arranged time, we were pretty much there at the time I said (local knowledge pays off) spent about an hour and a half there, everyone stocked up on cheese, local beers and ate ice creams. It's their holidays so wanted to show them some tourist stuff.
I spent a bit of time re plotting the afternoons route as had an email from the row officer and a couple of lanes were confirmed as open.
Back to the lanes and past 'the water cut'
The farmer was sat chilling enjoying his views.
Tinted screen adds a nice colour to the sky
There's that shiny 80 rearing its head
Back to camp after just over 10 hours on the lanes, site is a bit of a slope so cooking on my fold down table was a no go, adapt and over come.
One of the guys forgot the stove and cool box!! They were in his daughters car as his frontera is unwell and were rushing. They just chucked some stuff in my fridge and my set up was their set up.
Day 2 was a bit more chilled, later start and only 4 to 5 hours planned.
In the distance is the lane we'll be driving up and over the top, high fremington and it's a steep rocky lane.
The track to get to it is erm tight (I hope someone got a photo tbh) the 80 has about 1/4 inch either side of stone walls at times!!! It's not a lane I can do solo as need a spotter for the walls!!!
Well before we got that far
We had some electrical issues to find and fix.
This is near the top, pic doesn't do it justice at all, one of the lads got some pics of us coming up so I'll wait for them, it's steep, tight and rocky. Not one for wet weather. 80 walked up it and there was a bit of wheel so I from the disco.
We dropped down to a few more small lanes which I didn't get any pics tbh, lots of single track roads. Tight and twisty with steep climbs, the rangie was over heating so had to drop into low box and drop speed, the disco had some more electrical issues too.
We dropped onto the last lane which is the first lane from sat but in reverse. It's the only lane we drove twice.
Over the 2 days we covered around 150 miles with a lot of that on lanes.
The 80 and the jeep didn't miss a beat, the jeep did get stuck though
The guys haven't been to the Dales before and are already talking about the next trip.
I was reminiscing only the other day about the whole green laning thing, ( I’m thinking predominantly 2 wheel laning here), comparing how it is now back to how it was in the 1980’s. Can’t really speak for the Dales area but many lanes in the Peak District are now out of bounds and many that are left have been sanitised to the point that they’re little more than gravel tracks. No doubt there’ll be lots of nimbys out today so I’m going out on the bike this afternoon to give them a wave.
