Well, I thought I would put together a brief trip report of my Wessex Way adventure that unfortunately did not complete and the lessons I learnt on my first ever bikepacking adventure.
The route that I had planned was 250 miles and can be viewed here.
http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/MTk5MzM=This route was painstakingly created by extracting the waypoint data from the route cards of the route guide titled 'The Wessex Way' and creating the GPS route using OS Getamap.
Having got to the stage of being able to ride back to back 80 / 90 mile road rides in under 6 hours, and being able to cycle a local 35 mile route fully loaded in just over 3 hours, I (wrongly) concluded that I could do this route in 3 days. I mean come one, how hard can it be to ride 80 miles a day when you have all day to do it :-O
My progress along with tagged photos can be seen on the track below
http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/NDIxMjk4The garmin recording indicates that I was riding for around 8 hours / day and the average for day one was 9.4 mph. That is odd as I left Weston at 930am and finished the day just after 2000hrs. Not sure where the other time went. Maybe refilling camelbak, stopping to open / close gates ... takes more time than you think.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/341199140Day 1I arrived at Weston Super Mare just after 920am on Wednesday 10th July having spent 2 hours on the train from Salisbury. Once I disembarked off the train it was a short cycle ride to the seafront where the route starts. A quick couple of photos and I was off. The ride at first was pretty gentle and I was confident of being able to make it to the first overnight stop 82 miles away (This was the first mistake and I will explain later). After all, the sun was shining and England was experiencing some long overdue summer weather having considered 2012!
The first few miles were quite gentle and I was enjoying being on the bike, away from the office and that feeling of being abstracted away from the worries and stresses of every day life. It was not long though before the climbs started to appear. In hindsight a good look at the elevation profile before deciding 3 days was ample would have been a sensible option (mistake number 2). By the time I had hit the Mendips I soon realised that the elevation profile of the route was seriously going to hamper my average speed and that this route was going to hard going (for me anyway). This unfortunately played on my mind and I was constantly glancing down at the GPS and saying to myself "I have been riding x hours and I have only covered .. miles, I still have 40 to go before the campsite"
Concious of the lack of miles and how far I had still to go, lunch was a sarnie from the fuel station and then it was back on the bike.
After 6 hours, my oh so usually comfortable saddle was not so comfortable and I was having to stand out the saddle on the descents to try and ease the pressure (I am on a mission to find a saddle that works!), this was made difficult, as my full suspension rear Fox RP23 shock whilst great, bobs like a pogo stick when you try and climb out of the saddle at low cadence on steep climbs. So much so, that if you cannot climb seated you are better off pushing the bike up the climb as you waste so much energy compressing the shock with each peddle stroke.
After a few easy miles around Frome, it was then on to Warminster, where I caught a glimpse of the red flags blowing in the breeze on the hills nearby. Red flags near Warminster means only one thing, Salisbury Plain and that meant more hills to climb. By now I was feeling tired and I hate to admit it I was feeling rather hacked off and was not really sure I was enjoying it. The pain of my saddle had a lot to do with this. The hills kept coming and I started to get frustrated and found myself muttering to myself 'why did the route take me up to the top of the ridge, back down later on and back up!'. I was missing the point of it all now and once I hit the 70 mile mark I just ground the last 10 miles out at a very slow rate. Looking at the GPS a sense of relief flowed over me when I descended Salisbury Plain for the last time at about 2000hrs. The pub at the bottom of the trail was a very welcome sight and that meant 2 things. Food, and an ice cold beer (or two)!!
Having refuelled it was just under a mile to the campsite for the night.
http://thebellcampsite.org.uk/I paid my £8, got the tent erected and then grabbed a hot shower. Having a hot shower and changing into some comfortable clothes was sooo nice, and I cannot imagine having to crash out unwashed. That does not appeal!
Now this was the part I knew was going to be tricky. I knew long before that me + tent = no sleep, but I had to do it anyway, as I was hoping that being totally wacked from the ride would help me sleep, but it was to no avail (mistake 3. Learn to sleep in tent before going on trip)
Day 2I was just about to start this section 'I woke up at 0730 hrs ..', but then realised that I didn't sleep so it wasn't waking up, but getting up. I dragged myself out of my tent feeling tired from the ride before and the fact I hadn't sleep and packed everything up. I was hoping to put the jetboil into action that I had packed and lugged around with me, but could not get any milk, so it stayed unused (mistake 4. Only take Jetboil if you are going to use it)
A quick glance at the route pointed me in the direction of Pewsey Vale so I knew those nice hills in the distance had my name written all over them. Sure enough some 5-6 miles after setting off and I found myself battling my way through a very overgrown bridleway up a long climb to the top and onto the 'White Horse Trail'. The trails of day 2 were very different to those of day one. Many of the bridleways / byways were overgrown and heavily rutted from constant use by 4*4 vehicles and enduro bikes. This made the going slow as you could not see how deep the rut was and as a result I found my crank arms constantly hitting the sides of the ruts and knocking your foot out of the pedal.
Some 2.5 hours after setting off from camp I took a short detour into Pewsey to get some food as I had not eaten breakfast and was craving food and a coffee. A strong coffee and scrambled eggs on toast at a village cafe was very welcome and I felt ready to continue on.
Once again, it was another day of lots of ups and downs and I soon realised that the day before had taken it's toll and I would be lucky to cover 70 miles today. So much for the 'if I push on today I should be able to cover 100 miles' thought I had the night before!
As late afternoon came around, I knew in the back of my mind that the route took me very close to a train station that would get me home, and I think from that moment on I knew that I was done. At 1830 hrs I came to the junction. GPS telling me to go left, but the lure of the train station 1 mile down the right turning was just too much and that is where I headed.
I had covered 143 miles of a 250 mile route in 2 days, and have decided that I will be going back to complete the last 110 miles very shortly.
So after 2 days of the hardest and longest time spent riding I have ever, here it was I concluded.
1. Forcing yourself to strict a daily mileage is a bad idea. Riding and stopping when you feel like you have had enough is a better strategy
2. Only take your Jetboil stove if you are going to use it
3. Make sure your saddle is comfortable for long days riding as this really does spoil it if you get sore
All in all, it might have been a brief adventure, but I am glad that I can now officially declare myself a 'Bikepacker'
