Date: 3rd - 7th May, 2025

Distance: 725km (450 miles)

The Source to Sea Trail is an adventure by gravel bike or mountain bike into the heart of Yorkshire. It is a circular route, 725kms long with 9,000 meters of climbing, that connects the network of old tracks in the folds of the hills and on the moors where 10 of Yorkshires finest rivers rise.

Along the way the trail connects bridleways across the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors, the northern edge of the Peak District and the South Pennines. The trail is 70% 'off-road' with farmers double track across millstone grit, singletrack across limestone and greenways on canal towpaths and reclaimed railway lines.

It is the only bikepacking trail in the world that traces the watershed - the ridge of high ground - of a single large scale basin where rivers such as the Aire, Calder, Derwent, Esk, Nidd, Swale, Wharf, Ure and Don have their source and follows their flow to the sea.

included in entry:

1. GPS File

A ‘field tested’ gpx file will be sent to your email address a week prior to the event. It will be in two parts: an ‘outward’ leg from Mytholmroyd to Scarborough and a ‘return’ leg from the East Coast back to the Calder Valley.

2. Starting line

The Event Hub is at Mytholmroyd Community Center where there’ll be refreshments (tea, coffee, juice), fresh fruit, porridge pots, toast and home made flapjacks. The Center has toilets, hot showers, a bag drop area and a large car park / easy access to the train station. There will be a group start at 7.30am.

3. GPS TRACKER

Trackers will be mandatory on the 2025 edition of the Source to Sea Trail. Hire of a tracker provided by Follow My Challenge is included in the sign on fee. There will be a ‘dot watching’ page on the FMC and YD website.

4. Badge

Every rider loves a patch and so on the Yorkshire Divide there is an embroidered cloth badge made in Leeds.

5. Environmental action

50% of funds raised by the the event will be donated to Forus Tree, a worker's co-operative who have a tree nursery above Mytholmroyd with 50,000 young trees.

Their target for tree planting in the Upper Calder Valley and beyond is 100,000 trees in winter/spring 2025. It costs approximately £15 to provide a single tree with a long term secure home. The 2024 event raised £500 for the group and in 2025 we hope to do the same.

Elevation Profile

The trail is 70% ‘off-road’