The Lands End to John O'Groats thread

I did it in 2010 a week after finishing six months of chemo.

Possibly wouldn't recommend.

Joking aside, it wasn't all that bad. As has already been mentioned, breaking it up into daily rides makes it far more mentally appealing that one big monster of a ride. Scheduled breaks during the day also help.

Write-up is probably still on STW somewhere.

I did LEJOG in 2014 and then three weeks after finishing went on a trip to the alps. Three weeks was absolutely fine to recover and I felt great on the alps trip so I'm sure you'll be fine.

Considering this in spring...what hearing have people tackled this on fixed?

Cornwall/Devon are murder on your knees riding fixed, and I think the gear you'd need to get up the hills generally would be frustratingly spinny when you're on the flat. Plus there are some beautiful descents in Yorkshire and Scotland that wouldn't be so much fun fixed.

But I'm sure someone has done it and loved it, I just can't really get my head around it. (I did consider doing it fixed when I did it, and was very glad I didn't in the end)

http://lejogononegear.blogspot.co.uk/

^ single speed makes more sense than fixed IMHO - you can at least enjoy the descents...

I felt far stronger after I finished and would happily have kept cycling. First few days seem hardest (particularly because they are the hardest in Devon and Cornwall) and I got stronger as it progressed. I've found this with all multi-day trips. I think the only exception would be if you were really smashing it up to your total limit, in which case you might need recovery time...

^This.

I did LEJOG in 2016 and It was my first multi day ride. I only got stronger as it went on.
I did it in 11 days taking in about 1050 miles.
You'll smash it.
In my opinion you'll only need a rest if you get an injury.
Good luck and enjoy it.

I did 1000 miles in 9 days Glasgow to Portsmouth a couple years ago fixed. It was hard and the last couple of days was very painful with achilles tendon issues which I'd never had before. It's not the uphills which were the problem it was the long spinny downhills that killed me.

I think the last 40 miles from the Scottish border to Newcastle was all downhill at least that how it felt.

Resurrecting this thread because I think I've talked MsPub into doing this. Yay! We're both running London Marathon in April next year, then planning to loosen off by doing LEJOG over a couple of weeks in May. Initial rough plan is just to follow the Cicerone route, staying at campsites most of the way with the odd B&B stop. We did a fully loaded tour of the US Pacific Coast last year, 850 miles over 12/13 days, so I guess this should be similar effort level, even if the climbs are generally shorter and sharper. Maybe more rain?

Plenty of time for further research but there's far more info out there than I can take in. Any obvious tips gratefully received! (Anyone done the Cicerone route?)

US Pacific Coast last year

how was that? been thinking about this for next year. got a route / strava or rwgps?

Fantastic. My bro lives in Vancouver, so we stopped off there, Seattle and Portland before starting the tour on the Oregon Coast (Tillamook), and then down to San Francisco. I don't have a recorded route (only upgraded computer tech to Garmin from Cateye this year!) but we pretty much exactly followed the ACA route (Hwy 101 and Hwy 1 with sensible bike route detours including the magnificent Avenue of the Giants). Pretty lucky with the weather; plenty of mist but barely any real rain whilst cycling. This was late August/early September.

I know there's been all sorts of problems with landslides causing major road closures, so routes would need to be considered carefully, but it's very well served for reasonably comfortable cycle touring, with frequent small towns en route and hiker/biker campsites. Also reasonable variation in landscape, with the rugged Oregon coast before heading inland in California and going through the redwoods. You meet loads of cyclists along the way, many of whom have enviable amount of time on their hands and often going from Alaska to Mexico, if not even further.

Some photos!

There's a couple of audax routes for this you might be able to use. Join AUK! Think of all the points!! :)

http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH01/
http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH02/
http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH03/

http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH99/

Great photos!
Thanks for the info, good luck with your end to end plans

Cheers!

@hippy - Maybe when I've given up running! Will check out the routes though, ta.

A quick pre-tour update. We're heading off at the weekend, largely following the Cicerone 14 day route. The overall route outline is non-negotiable since we've pre-booked all accommodation along the way. (With just a couple of minor detours to stay with relatives in Somerset and Liverpool.) BUT in checking on the details of the Cicerone route from Carlisle to Gretna Green, I couldn't help thinking that the Google recommended cycle route, besides being a couple of miles shorter, seems a little more pleasant. Cicerone has you going straight up the A7 and into Gretna via Longtown, whereas Google sends you further West along what looks like a more minor country lane, then alongside the M6. So a couple of queries, one specific, one more general:

• A7 or Google route?
  
• If anyone has followed/knows the Cicerone route, would you recommend any particular alternative routes along the way? Is it worth comparing Google alternatives each morning? I've got Google Maps on the phone, but also have the Cicerone route as daily GPX routes on the Ride with GPS app (plus the paperback book as back-up), so navigation won't be an issue.
  
  

n.b. W.r.t. preferred routing, I've definitely got a higher tolerance than my girlfriend for cycling on busy roads and being blown around by lorries. For the sake of harmony, "we" would prefer to stick to quieter roads if they're going in roughly the right direction! :-)

Ta!

I did the Google route and I think it's the best of the two really. Going up the A7 just looks long and unnecessary.

Cool, thanks. I'm a bit wary of Google cycle routes since it's taken me up all sorts of non-rideable terrain before but this looks OK.

I hadn't used Google for the route but it is the same as the way I went through there.

14-day unsupported LEJOG completed on schedule. Unbelievable luck with weather, Scotland unbelievably beautiful. Staying overnight in Inverness before train home tomorrow. Report to follow.

Will read your report with interest. My friend is doing JOGLE soon as a sponsored ride for charity (unashamed link here) and it would be good to see if you have any tips I can pass on!

Made it! All went according to schedule, despite slight worries about missing trains at either end. (Mudguard exploding two minutes after leaving Blackheath, and a puncture/misbehaving mini-pump in John o'Groats.) We followed the Cicerone route almost turn-for-turn 90% of the time, other than planned diversions to stay with relatives in Somerset and Merseyside. I can thoroughly recommend the Cicerone guide with some minor caveats but more on that later.

We stayed in a mix of campsites, B&Bs, hotels and relatives' homes; a couple more hotels/inns than planned due to either longer days than intended or getting on the beers too quickly at Jo'G and not being arsed to set up a tent! Camping involved carrying a lot of stuff but I'd happily do a similar mix again as it's nice to have the variety, and camping keeps costs down (a bit).

Some highlights:

• The weather! Absolutely lucked out here. Besides a freak 5 minute downpour (with hailstones?) right near the end of day 3, the only really bad day was a rainy slog out of the urban North West through Lancashire. Travelling through Wales, the Lake District and literally the length of Scotland without a spot of rain must be some kind of record. 30 degrees in Glasgow!
  
• People are really friendly, even in cars! :-) I didn't hear a horn beep, or anyone give another stranger verbal abuse, for two weeks. Then we cycled home from King's Cross... :-(
  
• I thought my geography of the British Isles was OK, but I learnt a lot. Forest of Bowland? Never heard of it. Absolutely beautiful! And the Shropshire countryside... and...
  
• Scotland! Wow! I've seen a few bits of it, but generally from a car and looking a bit grey. The further North we got the more breath-taking the scenery. And great roads with very little traffic (other than bits of the A82!)
  
  

Some lowlights:

• Trying to work out whether we could get to Rainhill (east of Liverpool) via the old Runcorn Bridge, and then negotiating Runcorn's maze of cycle routes. Ugh!
  
• My only major navigational error, adding 7 miles to an already hard (and wet) day. That didn't go down too well. Oops! Nutella cheesecake and Theakston's Old Peculier make it all better...
  
• Bleedin' midges. Aaargh! Camping by a river in Glencoe not the greatest idea. Small children were dressed like bee keepers.
  
  

I guess you can access the route we took from my Strava link. Since the first diversion from the Cicerone route involved going 20-odd miles East of Somerton on day 3, we decided to get a head start by making a round trip to Land's End from Penzance after the day's train journey.

I'll make some notes on the Cicerone route in a separate post, but here are some photos:

More here!

Cool . For your info runcorn old bridge is closed during the week for refurbishment and all the old routes are now obsolete . Until 2019

Ah... in fact the bridge IS open to pedestrians and cyclists on weekdays, after 4pm. We found this out after giving up on a Google search, asking locals, and finally calling up a local Runcorn cycling club. Here we are just about to cross it. A woman living about 400 metres away wasn't even aware it was open. It was.

Cicerone End to End route review

TL;DR : Would thoroughly recommend. The practicalities of having a potted turn-by-turn manual with back-up GPS files
to keep the little blue dot on the little red line make this a very practical way of not getting lost.

I thought the guide did a very good job of keeping us on largely pleasant roads whilst keeping us going in the right direction. Where we intersected with National Cycle Network or Sustrans routes, rather than sticking rigidly to these, it took us along main roads if not too busy. (There's a Sustrans route which is 1,200 miles but I think this would be a lot of hours in the saddle to cover in two weeks.)

I've also got no regrets about going straight over/through Dartmoor and the Lake District. On the CTC forum there appears to be a lot of opinion about going North of Dartmoor because why would you want to do all that climbing? Personally, after the exhaustingly lumpy terrain of Cornwall, one big climb to get onto Dartmoor was relatively easy, and absolutely worth the effort for the stunning scenery on the top. The Lake District was pretty easy going, with one long gradual climb on the way to Keswick, with the hardest section being just North of Keswick to get out towards Carlisle. If you're particularly averse to hills you wouldn't be doing LEJOG!

I've only got a handful of amendments to suggest, one major and some minor ones:

• Day 12, between Fort William and Fort Augustus
  . "You will find that the NCN78 has a reasonably good, shale-type surface, ideally suited for hybrid and touring bicycles, although road bicycles can navigate the track but will need to use extra care to avoid punctures." Hahaaa! Sorry but I refuse to believe that since the book was updated in 2014 that the surface could have deteriorated to such an extent that large portions of it are completely unridable on anything but an MTB with suspension. One hour to travel 7 miles on a day of 83 miles was NOT fun. In lieu of doing more extensive research I think I'd prefer to put up with one of the busier sections of the A82 to get from Gairlochy to Laggan. (When we got to Thurso we bumped into another couple of LEJOGers whose only major gripe was exactly this stretch of the route.)
  
• Carlisle to Gretna. (As discussed above.) Official route is straight up the A7 but you can travel on quieter roads and knock 3 miles off a less-than stunning section of the route by turning off the A7 a mile or so North of Carlisle and following the minor roads closely following the line of the M6.
  
• Forest of Bowland. Another chance to knock 3/4 miles, and some unnecessary climbing, off the route. Instead of heading into High Bentham, turn left off Slaidburn Road marked "Wray: 4 miles". (We didn't actually take this route but it's a marked cycle route so presumably just as nice as the longer, official, route we took.)