[LEL17] Brampton to Moffatt - Two Options

[Brakeless]

So pros and cons for the routes if anyone has done them both. The non hilly is the 2013 route that is very straightforward but I remember a very monotonous road for miles with a really horrible rough surface. Is the Hilly route only really suitable in the day for the views or is it still an OK option at night?

[frillipippi]

Currently the official website shows just one option, if I'm right it's the very straightforward etc., while the hilly one has been removed from the webpage. You can still find the hilly option in the zipped download of the gpx tracks and of the routesheet, though.

Something more definite has happened with the first leg, Loughton - St Ives, where there was a route suggested for the morning and another for the afternoon: now there's just one route, I think the afternoon won.

On the way back, the "to Cambridge or not to Cambridge" question has currently the same status as Brampton-Moffat: no visibility on the webpage, but (still?) present in the zipped downloads.

[grams]

If you're on the LEL Facebook group there's a good post about the route choice here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/392520757598601/permalink/698902686960405/

"The problem is that are just too many potholes. Worryingly, there are potholes on descents which makes it too risky to send you all that way. So the 2013 route it is."

I rode the 2013 route from Lockerbie to Moffat last month and can confirm it is incredibly boring and has a horrible knobbly energy sapping surface.

[frillipippi]

Thank you very much, grahamparks. So, let's HTFU and try and be in Brampton many hours before sunset...

[Brakeless]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll put them both in my garmin and if I'm in daylight with good weather will probably opt for the Hilly option.

[phil d]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll put them both in my garmin and if I'm in daylight with good weather will probably opt for the Hilly option.

Make sure you label them carefully.  When you get there you are likely to be tired, and a mistake could cause problems.

[Brakeless]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll put them both in my garmin and if I'm in daylight with good weather will probably opt for the Hilly option.

Make sure you label them carefully.  When you get there you are likely to be tired, and a mistake could cause problems.

Thanks for the concern. I'm not sure a mistake will really lead to 'problems' I'll end up in Moffat either way.

[Fidgetbuzz]

The "mistake" is not your routing ... but the problems generated in the dark by a very badly pot holed route.

[Somnolent]

ISTRC alwyn mentioning timber lorries as being the cause.  Those have a tendency to make BIG bike-eating pot holes.
Much as I'd like to find an alternative to the tedium and the shite surface of the NCN it's almost certainly too much of a risk at any time of day.

[Wobbly]

Oh, I remember the timber lorries. I was riding with the Very Loud Texan recumbent rider Vicky Tyer. She actually screamed a few times we encountered timber lorries on the Scottish lanes 

Lord knows why, we were riding two abreast and I was on her right...

[Bunker22]

Oh, I remember the timber lorries. I was riding with the Very Loud Texan recumbent rider Vicky Tyer. She actually screamed a few times we encountered timber lorries on the Scottish lanes 

Lord knows why, we were riding two abreast and I was on her right...

question asked and answered 

[Wobbly]

er.. what?

[Bunker22]

Glance right....Wobbly present!....scream!

[Wobbly]