Lost In Worsley Woods

27th May 2021

Journey Length 13.27ml

After a traumatic week it was good to meet up with Graham at the old Jag garage for a little adventure. I arrived first and awaited Graham’s arrival, I didn’t have to wait long. I noticed that even though the weather was dry and mild he had a fleece on. Upon quizzing him over this fact it became apparent he had literally just got in from work and jumped straight on his bike to meet me, proper extreme biker.

We set off through Farnworth Park heading up Albert Road passing Longcauseway to join the Linnyshaw loopline through Blackleach Country Park. A quick detour from the line to take in the early evening view over the reservoir. We rejoined the line until we came to the A6 Manchester Rd. We crossed over the road to follow a path that split into 3. We road down a steep hill, as we pondered which way to go Graham had a brilliant thought of speeding down the hill we had just descended like a stuntman while I filmed him, so that’s exactly what we did (Video link below)

Now after the crash and Graham noticing the damage to his bike “my handle bars are bent and chains jammed”, “not moaning just saying” he said. Then he noticed he’d got mud on his AA pants, “oh bugger”. After attempting to fix his bike we set off down the path on the right, shortly we crossed a small wooden bridge over a stream, Graham taking extreme care not to fall off again. We came to a point on the path that was extremely muddy. Managing to negotiate this we emerged through a very rusty iron gate onto a playing field which unfortunately for us only exited back onto the A6. So a u-turn was executed. Back at the crash scene we decided to venture down the left path, not before graham once again attempted to fix his bike with minimal success , stating ” I used to be a mechanic you know.”

After following the path for some distance we arrived at a very large, deep puddle with a plank laid across it. We successfully crossed this obstacle, until we came to a fork, strangely there were a number of electrical cables across the path which we couldn’t determine where they went and why . Since Graham had made the last decision on our direction and we’d ended up struggling through deep mud and to a dead end I made the choice to turn right, once again the right choice. It led us along parallel to the East Lancs Rd, eventually exiting onto the same, but not before we both got stuck in deep mud. Graham had lost traction and had come to a stop and I’d followed in his tracks and wasn’t able to pass, so there we were both stuck in ankle deep mud arghh!!! After rescuing ourselves we headed down to Row Green where we sat on a bench for our usual catch up. Graham told me about his new job with the AA. It hadn’t particularly grown on him, but he said “I’m not moaning, just saying”, ah yet again.

While we were chatting, we pondered why the place was called Roe Green, Graham suggesting it may be because of Roe deer. As we did a gentleman with his dog passed by saying hello as he passed. Being quite a chatty person I asked him the question we had been pondering, unfortunately he didn’t know, but chatted to us anyway, as he continued his walk he turned to us “You can get a pint up the road lads, look like you deserve it”. He must have noticed all the mud on us and our bikes. We thanked him but as extreme bikers we decided we needed to get on with the adventure.

Due to our extended chat we had to head back up the Roe Green loopline towards home as time was now against us. It was nice to be off the muddy paths. Sometimes it’s not all about the length of the adventure but about quality time with your buddy.

We exited the loopline onto Cleggs Lane and headed back through Farnworth along Piggott St. At the junction near the Shakespeare pub I could hear Graham calling out behind me, thinking he was in trouble I immediately pulled over. I needn’t have worried he was just trying to let me know he was going to head home down Gladstone Rd rather than following me down Egerton St. After a few fist bumps and strange handshake rituals we set off home after a very enjoyable if short and relatively uneventful adventure. Not forgetting the obligatory request to message when I got home and of course I did.

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