13th Jan 2019
Journey Length 14.24 ml
During the winter months Graham & myself do not go on any adventures due to the dark nights, but on Sunday mornings I do get out and about on my bike with Lucie my Parsons Jack Russell, who loves nothing better than to run with me , more often than not far in front and covering a lot more mileage than myself.
This Sunday 13th Jan, I was due to go on our little solo adventure but I was invited to tag along with AJ and Mr Carl as they are both avid readers of my blog and wanted to retrace one on Graham’s and my adventures, 13 Arches, being rather flattered and not wanting to disappoint I duly agreed.
I met AJ at his and we waited for Mr Carl, after a couple of minutes he arrived wearing no protection other than a cap, AJ and myself where fully equipped, as he regularly rides on his road bike and myself as an extreme biker. Sadly due to the spontaneously of the ride Graham did not accompany us but hopefully he will be able to come and play when I can plan a future adventure.
The weather was awful it was drizzling with rain and blowing a gale but this was not to put us off. I led the way along the canal at Radcliffe Rd where some not rights had knocked over the wooden sculpture of the frog, hopefully the council will be able to repair it. From here it was a quite easy ride across Hall Ln and down through Moses Gate country park to Nob End. Here I pointed out the place that I had crashed off my bike in the adventure “Ebay Takes A Tumble” way back in August 2013.
We headed along the Manchester arm of the canal towards Ringley and down the hill passed the “Horseshoe “ pub and along Red Rock Ln passing a cyclist coming in the opposite direction “ you look clean” he shouted as he want passed ( i think AJs wife might contradict him there) We soon got to the bridge over the M60 motorway. Across the bridge we carried straight on, onto the top of the 13 Arches viaduct where we had a little mooch around.
We had to wait a while as AJ again had to fix his bike yet again with the help of Mr Carls extensive toolkit, this time it was his front wheel that was falling off, after earlier fixing his seat. Once fixed we went down the hill and around some of the tracks in the park before heading home up along the Outward Trail leaving it at its junction with Ringley Rd where we headed back towards Ringley to once again pick up the canal towards home. It was here that Mr Carl began to struggle a little, lagging a little behind. AJ and myself stopped and i suggested (tongue in cheek) that we should do a Top Gear and just leave him behind, him being Captain Slow, but we didn’t and we were all soon back at home somewhat tired and very very dirty and wet. I think they both liked the little adventure and seeing some of the areas that Graham and myself have visited over the years. Once i left them I proceeded to take Lucie for a run around the park so she did not feel left out.
