Crossing England on the C2C

In this week's tale of bike-overnighting adventure, titled "The C2C is a Must to Cycle," Adventure Cycling life member Murray Fishel from Cleveland rides a famous route in England.

"The C2C is a 140-mile route that begins in the old coal mining area of West Cumbria," writes Murray, "and proceeds through the northern part of England?s Lakes Region, visiting Penrith and the Eden Valley before climbing the Pennine Mountain Range, best known as the 'roof of England.' After exiting the mountains the route goes up and down through historic lead-mining country until it descends to the Durham Dales and the old industrial area surrounding Newcastle, before ending at Tynemouth on the coast of the North Sea."

Murray is a retired political science professor (Kent State University) who, since leaving his day job in 1992, has "consulted with hundreds of candidates running for public office in 34 states." Given his background, it is perhaps not surprising that he employs a bullet-point method of storytelling.

"As I learned, there is much to recommend for this ride:

? The beautiful fells (hiking hills) such as the Buttermere Trio (Red Pike, High Stile, and High Crag);

? The namesake lakes of the Lakes Region;

? The descents on occasional grades of 20 to 30 percent, which I sometimes had to walk because of the smell of burning brake pads;

? Thousands of sheep, sometimes on the road and sometimes just looking silly in the fields and baaaaing as I rode past;

? The great pubs with all the good ale, beer, and pub food you could hope for;

? Excellent and reasonably priced B&Bs;

? Most importantly, the English people themselves.

Read the rest of Murray's story, which includes even more bulleted items to recommend the ride, at BikeOvernights.org; and, while you're there, take a look through our collections of past stories and Photos of the Week. This week's image, shown below, comes from the post Adventure Down Under, In My Own Backyard, by Louise Sensi.

BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 10.19.12.

Top 3 photos by Murray Fishel; bottom photo by Louis Sensi. 

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Tuesday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to nearly 47,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/10/crossing-england-on-c2c.html

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