Appropriate Footwear

25th  February 2021

Journey Length 17.27ml

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Adventure day had arrived and I had made arrangements to meet Graham near my house. He arrived bang on time at 9.30am so we could have an early start for a leisurely Thursday adventure. As we chatted I pointed out the work that had been carried out in the old railway cutting behind my house. A large digger had ploughed down and knocked a lot of trees over even though there were TPOs on some of them, and therefore they had been told to stop by council officials. I told him that we didn’t know what was actually going on but had heard a rumour it may be for the tramway from Radcliffe to Bolton, but it was only speculation.
A circular route had been chosen for today which took us through Seven Acres park and up the road which led past Huws Grey building supplies. I pointed out to Graham we needed to be more cautious than normal due to the fact we were riding during the day compared to our usual evening adventures and there were a lot more vehicles on the road. No sooner had I said it we encountered a number of vehicles in a matter of yards.

We ignored the path through Longsight Park and decided to ride up through the field , Graham found this hard going, he slipped and eventually became bogged down nearly toppling off into the mud, much to my amusement. We pushed our bikes up a set wooden steps that were long past their best. Once at the top we were greeted by another muddy field, “Glad we have the appropriate footwear pal” Graham exclaimed. This field was considerably worse than the previous one and we both struggled on through the gloopy mud and waterlogged grass but being extreme bikers we didn’t give up. At one point we had to stop, I was immediately approached by a dog with a ball in its mouth wanting to play fetch, with the owner’s permission I duly obliged.
Over on our left we saw what looked like archeich floodlights, so off we went to explore. The area was overgrown and accompanied by a derelict car park. Unsure of what it used to be we continued around the outskirts but it remained unclear what it had been. During our investigation we found ourselves in a boggy area and with wet feet, even though Graham pointed out we had the appropriate footwear on.
We had headed in the wrong direction, although be it, it was through a very nice avenue of small trees. We found the path we required and spotted a brand new sign warning that there was a golf course, not that we’d seen any sign of it. Shortly we came upon a man walking towards us , I asked what he knew about the golf course. He told us he thought there used to be one here. He’d lived around the area for 30 years and had thought it was about time he himself explored the area, so he couldn’t really give us any more information. Graham remarked to me as we continued along that the man wasn’t wearing the appropriate footwear.

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Millennium woods entrance appeared on our right, so we thought we’d have a ride through and explore, it took us all of 30 seconds, it was no more than just a little loop. As we exited the wood we spotted an absolutely huge puddle in a car park. We assessed the situation then Graham said “dare me to ride through it ?” , “ go for it” I replied. He rode right through the deep water, turned around and rode back through it . “Took some balls that” he shouted to me. “Took some balls “ I said, “it was nearly up to your balls ” I called back, both of us now laughing.

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Hardy Mill Rd proved a challenge for us. It is a very steep and long climb so we stopped off outside the Baci restaurant to get our breath back. Soon we found ourselves riding up another steep hill Reading Brook Rd which went through Harwood Golf Club. We had stopped on the country lane to listen to the lovely sounds of the birds in the trees when up ahead I noticed a sign SLOW GOLFERS CROSSING, “well they should speed up a bit “ I joked.
Now we got to the highest point of our adventure on Bentley Hall Rd. Here we looked over to Manchester on our right and left to Peel Tower. Now it was all downhill as we headed towards Elton reservoir but we took the long way round. At the bottom of Elton Vale Rd we wanted to turn left down the road using the cycle lane, but Graham watched each car go by, followed by “another one coming, wait a minute.” This went on for some time and I was becoming more and more frustrated. “ we don’t have to wait, it’s a cycle lane !!” now becoming even more annoyed. Eventually after Graham had become bored with his little game we continued. I spotted a man on his own who was trimming some small trees, I asked Graham “where the other 2 men where, shouldn’t there be tree fellas” oh dear.
We made another turn this time into Elton Vale Park, a nice park with a large fishing lake along one edge. We left the park behind and needed to turn off the main road and after checking the map I informed Graham we were looking for Kitchener Street on our left, “Kitchener Street ?” “Yeah Kitchener Street “ I answered. “So that’s Kitchener Street then is it?” he enquired . “Kitchener Street is the street we’re looking for, yes” I informed him. This conversation actually carried on for some length until we eventually came upon Kitchener Street, even then it continued for some time after, much to our amusement.
We looked for our next reference point, Daisyfield Greenway which I told Graham should lead us to the main area of our adventure, the Bolton Bury cycleway. After a few more wrong turns we headed in the right direction as Graham pecked my head “Is this it?”, “ Are we there yet? ” like an annoying kid going on holiday.

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I had looked on Google maps and the interesting thing about this path, was it looked like it was a dead end. We rode on for some distance then I spotted some horses in a field and I stopped to take a quick snap, as I did I heard Graham behind me “ oh look Gee Gees” obviously to antagonise Peggy Lou when she read about our adventure . Indeed it turned out almost to be a dead end for us, the pathway just ended. We had no alternative to lift our bikes over a large fence as we could see this led us onto a very narrow and muddy footpath. At the fence on the opposite side there was a gap and I pushed my bike through and returned back through the rence to take a photo of an old iron founders building Blacklane Works. As I returned Graham was stood at the fence “ didn’t lift your bike over did ya? As he felt quite chuffed that he’d found the gap.

As we arrived at Elton Reservoir I told Graham that we’d stop and have a coffee, “Oh and I’ve brought a couple of biscuits” I told him. I had never seen someone so excited over a biscuit. After our coffee and biscuits I sensed Graham was up to something, I turned to see him with his finger sticking out of a hole in the polystyrene cup which he was holding in front of himself, making out that it was his winky sticking out of the cup, give me strength I thought.

The reservoir water level had been lowered quite considerably (See our adventure “In Memory of Our Mate Phil”) and sat there on the bottom of the reservoir were the remains of an old car. We discussed which model it could have been , and concluded it was either a Mini or a Morris Minor……….. What do you think ? Please leave your answer in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

We left Elton Reservoir behind us and took a detour to take a look at the new level crossing on Warth Rd, I had told Graham that the barriers had been removed and it was now just a give way. We assessed the crossing just as a tram approached. Graham obviously remembered our conversation earlier about the possibilities of trams running behind my house “ shhh, listen that’s not too noisy is it” I agreed , as we both listened to the tram pass by.
As we returned back up towards the canal we noticed a SOS sign. It was about the plans for a huge housing development on the greenbelt on either side of the canal, this would be disastrous for this area, it is the only area of canal that’s in water for miles around. No wonder the residents were up in arms.

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The canal towpath around here is very smooth which allows many people access to the canal. In our path ahead, coming towards us we saw a person pushing a wheelchair. We slowed right down to give way to the people, it was at this point I noticed something looked a little unusual. The person in the wheelchair was quite a young person and the woman pushing was a very elderly women indeed, it just looked the wrong way round. I caught up with Graham and asked him if he had noticed anything odd, indeed he’d had the same thoughts , we rode on both smiling at the unusual sight.
We enjoyed the last leg of our adventure riding along the canal. As we went under the bridges I gave Graham another history lesson about the bridges along the canal. I pointed out the metal bands on the sides of the bridges which were put on to protect the brickwork from the ropes which were used to pull the coal barges by the horses. I was pleasantly surprised that he was impressed with my knowledge of the canal history.
In Radcliffe we stopped at Water Street for a rest and Graham saw a large bird feeder which was fastened to the wall of the canal, he pointed out it was the first time in all the years he had rode past he had noticed it.

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I parted company with Graham at Nob End after a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. He left me saying he was heading home for a Big Wash !! I rode on to the end of the towpath to be confronted with a very boggy looking route ahead, without hesitation I gunned it, good job I did, it was very difficult and only just managed to get through the thick mud without getting stuck. Shortly I was back home and texted Graham to let him know I was home as is customary before I washed my bike ready for our next adventure.