17th May 2018
Journey Length 13.5ml
Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS
I awoke to a beautiful morning and straight away my thoughts turned to this evenings adventure. Whilst out walking Lucie I text Graham “ Morning pal what a beautiful day, see you at Meccano bridge”, that was it we were set.
The previous evening I had spent sometime repairing a puncture and I was hopeful it had been successful. Getting the bike out from the garage I was pleased to see the tyre still inflated, so it was off to meet Graham.
The towpath along the canal was wonderful and dry and I made good time, but as Graham has only a few 100m to go to meet me he was there first. The previous week he had commented on a little light on the front of my bike and how he would like one, so when the opportunity arose to get one I did and presented it to him before we set off, he was truly made up, best £1 I’ve spent.
After giving Graham a quick outline of our route we set off along the canal our first point of call was to be Ladyshore. As we rode along I noticed that the path had been resurfaced and gone were all the dips and ruts in the mud, replaced with a smooth hard gravel path which makes our journey a pleasant one.
We soon reach the turn down to Ladyshore which has also been improved and make steady progress to the bottom, where we spot our first wildlife of the evening a couple of rabbits scurrying around. From here we proceed down to the river bank where strangely we spot someone metal detecting near the weir, not our cup of tea so we’re content with skimming pebbles across the river to a small island, trying to see who could land one on the island first, sadly it wasn’t me. It was here we spotted our second wildlife sighting, that of a heron fishing, sadly I missed getting a photo (this wouldn’t be the last either) .When I had managed to successfully skim a pebble to the island we set off back up the hill to the canal, here we had our third nature sighting, a lovely sight of some ducklings happily swimming along watched closely by their parents.
The canal has been improved considerably over the years but sadly some areas are in a sorry state, one part in particular we use as a landmark for a turning, its an old sofa that has been in the canal as long as I can remember, slowly rotting away. At this point we turn and drop down onto Sion St until we cross the bridge over the river. Now normally we would bear left but earlier I had been looking at our route on Google maps and had spotted what looked like a path to the right, indeed it was a path that led us over two bridges before entering a large field. It was at this point it all started to go wrong. We now came to a stile, I lifted my bike over and then climbed over, not Graham though he thought he was a “He Man” and proceeded to carry his bike on his shoulder whilst climbing over , Bang!! Crash!! Boom!! It was like something out of Batman. Graham was on the floor with his bike, he’d hurt his ankle in the fall but he wasn’t going to let that stop him!
We were unsure which way to proceed so we trekked around the field looking for “the path”, but to no avail. The only way was across the field to the top of the hill, this was easier said than done. We had to push our bikes, the ground was so rutted and the grass so long it was impossible to ride at one point the front wheels nearly disappeared, it like a quagmire .
After about 20mins of trudging through the treacherous terrain we got to the base of a steep incline at a clump of trees, here Graham noticed a burrow of some kind at on of the bases, on inspection I couldn’t see if was inhabited or not. After a quick look around we exited the the field after securely closing the gate behind us (followers of the countryside code and having a friend who’s a farmer we understand the importance of such things). The path led us to a farm where we had no choice but to follow a track to the left. This was obviously a track used by the farmers and was not the easiest of routes to navigate. It eventually led us to a very large locked gate at yet another farmyard. Unsure if would continue we paused contemplating the agony of having to trace our path back. Just then a young lady in a car passed by and Graham asked if it was okay for us to continue. She replied “ yes that’s fine, but I don’t know how you’ll get your bikes over the gate”. Obviously she wasn’t aware she was addressing a couple of extreme bikers. Graham lifted his bike over and carefully lent it against the gate and offered to help me with mine, as we lifted mine over I accidentally pushed the gate slightly, but enough to send Grahams bike crashing to the ground, whoops.
We soon found ourselves at Giants Seat campsite and after a scout around we left down a very steep path which took some nifty manoeuvrers to get us through and then onto Red Rock Ln. We followed our usual route towards the Water Treatment works but as we neared it I noticed a little path to the right, Graham insisted it was a private path leading to a house, I was convinced otherwise. It actually led to part of the old canal that ran behind the treatment works, a totally new area we hadn’t yet discovered and one we will return to in the future.
We headed back along the canal to the basin at Nob End, it was here Graham’s bike got another shock, it was attacked by a fierce and ferocious dog (well that’s what he saw) .In fact is wasn’t as serious has he made out, the dog wasn’t big or ferocious but he wasn’t happy and continued to rant on about it all the way up the hill. Not only that, he tried to pull a wheelie on the way up and nearly took me out in the process, still chunering on about the damn dog.
After a quick stop off at the top of the hill where the swans are nesting, we set off once again along the canal towards Bolton on our way home. Now you’re probably wondering where the title of this blog comes from, well read on. As we rode along the canal we saw the setting sun glistening off the surface of the canal, “what a beautiful photo opportunity” I said, but unfortunately my phone had died earlier on. Graham then offered to take the photo. Getting his phone out ,“urrm memories full” he stated. After some messing around trying to sort it out he tried again “urgh that’s not worked”.”Come on Graham the suns nearly gone” I moaned .Some more scratching of his head “I’ll have to restart it”. Tick tock tick tock “its almost gone now mate” I stated. Graham now showing me his phone, still starting. One photo, that’s all I asked. Now still waiting for his phone to start I gave up, the sun was going and the opportunity was lost, so in frustration I set with Graham close behind also frustrated in missing his photo opportunity. This was soon forgotten about, knowing how much of a good time we had had on our adventure this evening and looking forward to our future ones.
We parted company at the basin at Hall Ln. We headed home looking forward to our next adventure, but not forgetting to text one another when we got home.
