After a very busy Easter weekend and some tired legs from the Monsal trail ride it was clear that 100-mile biking in a week was a bigger challenge that first anticipated. A more reasonable challenge for the kids is 100-mile over the Easter holidays.

We decided Day 2 should be a trip to Rother Valley, South Yorkshire to bike around the lake. When we woke it looked like we weren’t going to be able to get out for Easter Monday as unbelievably it had snowed overnight. Luckily after a couple of coffees the sun had appeared and the snow had gone. It was cool day but now sunny. Actually, ideal for biking.

We've been to Rother Valley before, and the journey felt further than first expected. It seemed to take ages to get to from the motorway and when we arrived the car park was so full. I could only imagine it would be the same or worse on a bank holiday. So, I looked at some alternative options. The Trans Pennine way passes by Rother Valley and I know a local club take kids biking from Poolsbrook. I got the Garmin app open and started planning. The Poolsbrook side looked a really good option, and not far from home. However, there looked a couple of tricky roads to negotiate that I didn't fancy trying first time with the kids. A bit further along the trail is a car park in Renishaw just off the A6135. Literally straight onto the trail from parking. It looked ideal so I opted for that.

We arrived at the car park just after lunchtime. It’s only a small car park and was full. Luckily, a couple of bikers had just pulled up and were packing away their bikes, so we waited a few minutes and grabbed the spot they left. Like most of the small trail car parks it is free to park, and an additional bonus was a little trailer selling coffee, if you fancy a drink after the ride. I unpacked the bikes, checked tyres and brakes, got helmets on, and filled my trail pack with spares, water, some food, and jackets. We took the obligatory 100-mile challenge photo and set off.

We exited out of the car park on the opposite side we had entered. It was straight onto the Trans Pennine trail and a short climb of about 50 metres before hitting the flat. Like most of these amazing trails that span the country this section is an old railway line. There is so much more to explore along this trail. The north-south route connects Leeds and Chesterfield, a spur to York and a spur to Kirkburton means there are approximately 370 miles (595km) of Trans Pennine Trail available to explore. That is for another adventure, we were just jumping on it to get to Rother Valley.

It’s just short of three miles along this section before making the turn to the lake. It is ideal for families with young kids as it’s all traffic free, right from the car park, and is a lovely surface that is surprisingly flat to say it is so close to Sheffield. We cruised along at a really nice pace, it wasn’t busy, and we covered the 3 miles relatively quickly. I would highly recommend this section for families wanting to start biking.

Then we turned onto the path around the Rother Valley lake and hit the crowds. It was teeming with people enjoying the bank holiday Monday. We headed to the most southerly tip of the lake from the west side and the pace really slowed down. We were having to slow down for walkers, get round them and then speed up again. We went up the east side which was a bit easier as the path widens on the east side. We reached the café and had a well-earned break. Outside the café it was extremely busy even in the current climate of Covid. I made a real schoolboy error and forgot to put a face mask in my bag so couldn’t order the kids anything from the café as I couldn’t go in. Luckily, there was a small store outside the café area, so I got drinks and we settled on the food from my trail pack. My son kept reminding me of the missed opportunity of hot food for lunch, but he soon forgot about it. We finished up and continued to head North on the East side of the lake. As, soon as we had passed the built-up section where the café resides, the wind hit us right in the face. It only seemed to affect us on the North East side of the lake. We continued up and round the second lake and the crowds died down a little. When we had passed the most northerly point and the wind died off. We hit the crowds again going south along the west side of the lake and at the point we entered the lakeside path we had a stop to assess how we were all feeling. We had done just over 5.5 miles. If we headed back now, we would complete at approximately 8.5 miles. The kids were desperate to do more than 8 miles and they felt good, so we opted for another lap around the lakes. Still as busy we did a straight loop without stopping. Another 3 miles added to the day.

After the second loop we left the lake on the west side and headed back to the Trans Pennine trail. It’s a steep hill to get to the trail with a couple of gates to negotiate, so we jumped off the bikes walked up the hill and grabbed a drink at the top. Then it was the lovely flat, level Trans Pennine trail back to the starting point. Just short of the last mile the kids started to flag, legs were starting to hurt, but remarkedly no sore backsides. We limped through the last mile and got back to the car park just over 2 hours after setting out. I packed the van up as quickly as possible, and the kids got comfy to relax on the way home.

I would highly recommend this ride to any families, but not so much for the hardcore biker, as it is flat, straight, traffic free, nice scenery, and relatively peaceful if you can avoid the crowded days around Rother Valley. With the Trans Pennine trail and one lap of Rother Valley it totals about 8.5 miles. The bonus is the café is pretty much halfway which is ideal for a stop, some food, and a look around.

For us, that is day 2 completed of the challenge and another 11.5 miles added to the total.

For more information on the Trans Pennine Trail and Rother Valley check out these websites:

www.rothervalleycountrypark.co.uk

Trans Pennine Trail - Official Website