Ebay Takes a Tumble

29th August

Journey Length 16.0ml

Click here for route

Our adventure this week was to take us towards Drinkwater Park to the mountain bike trails Graham’s son had told us about last week.

We set off as usual towards Nob End past the Meccano bridge and down the hill to the bottom basin, but as we descended over the bridge to the path at the edge of the basin disaster struck, Graham in the lead took the left turn and dropped down the dip past the edge of the tow path without incident as we have done over 30 times previously, but whether it was complacency or lack of concentration I misjudged the turn , hit the corner of the tow path and went over the handle bars landing on my face sustaining cuts and bruises, but thankfully wearing my helmet prevented serious injury, the helmet sustaining some damage. Upon hearing my fall Graham immediately stopped and returned in fits of laughter at my misfortune and to add insult to injury insisted on taking a photo of my injuries. The injuries though were not enough to cancel the adventure with us being extreme bikers.

We continued along the tow path of the canal, myself now taking it a bit gingerly due to my neck and shoulders giving me some pain. The path was very overgrown with nettles brushing against us as we rode along, yet unperturbed we pressed on and eventually emerged onto Ringley Rd, from here we rode down past the water treatment works and along Red Rock Lane past Giants Seat garden centre and followed the path until we came to the bridge over the M60 motorway. Crossing the motorway we took the path on the left down the steep hill and followed the path until its first junction here we went through the gates on the left and up the hill heading towards Philips Park. Once at the top we took a short break to get our breath back.

Following the directions given to us we continued along the road until we came to the play area on our left here we saw the sign for the mountain bike trail. Now filled with excitement we set off not knowing what lay ahead. Shortly into the trail it became obvious it was a proper mountain bike trail with some serious banked bends, hills, dips and jumps. As we became more confident ( or reckless ) we increased our speed and were soon hurtling down the trail. Whoops bit of a mistake, the trail was obviously designed for all levels of rider and we soon found ourselves going a bit too fast for some of the corners before we eventually nearly lost it and just avoided flying over the top of one of the banked corners. We continued along the trail now enjoying the exhilaration as we became accustomed to the surface. Soon we were at they end of the trail, the top of the hill we originally climbed to Philips Park.

Now with the light fading we decided that we probably not be able to ride the trail again this evening so set off back down the hill towards home.

At the base of the hill we took the path to the right but then missed our turning back across the motorway and found ourselves heading towards 13 arches, where we paused to snap a couple of photos. Here we took the route back over the river near the aqueduct and along the path passing Pilkington tile factory before going under the motorway and back through Clifton Country park. Exiting the park onto Red Rock Lane we crossed the bridge opposite the Horseshoe Pub and back up Ringley Road heading back to the canal at Nob End where I stopped to take a couple of photos of the scene of the accident to Graham’s amusement.

 I decided not to ride up the hill and went along the path around the back of the bridge, up the hill and back to Graham where he had taken great pleasure in informing Val of my injuries and who failed to keep her amusement hidden of my misfortune. On arrival back home my partner had already revived a text from Val warning her not to laugh at me when I came in, but once again even she could not hide her amusement at what had happened, good job I know she loves me and vice versa.