Once again Thursday was upon us and we were off on another adventure. Meeting Graham at my house we set out towards Bolton Town Centre via Gorses Rd where Graham remarked that somebody had knocked my sign over, bloody yobs I thought to myself, cant leave nothing alone. This took us to the old railway viaduct over the valley in Darcy Lever. It was here we had our first bit of what I’ll call a Grahamism. The viaduct is divided into two lanes and Graham took the one on the right , stating “ we’ll go on this side, we’re going continental” (meaning riding on the right) . I retorted “ they make tyres don’t they” . Knowing of Graham’s hearing difficulties I wasn’t surprised when he asked “ who’s tired , you tired already pal ? ”. I then went on and explained what I actually said unfortunately this seems to happen pretty frequently on our adventures.
As we entered Bolton via Blackhorse St we had to stop at a Zebra crossing to let someone cross as they’d just stepped out onto the crossing right in front of us. As they crossed Graham said sarcastically “ Thank you “ , obviously irritated by this person’s attitude. Sometimes even extreme bikers get annoyed
Now onto Spa Rd where we stopped to see the remains of the old Spa Mill that had been demolished last week after a huge blaze. Onward now passed Queens Park and through the traffic lights we came to the subway under the railway. Through the subway we picked up the start of the Middlebrook trail. It was then I realised I had brought us the wrong way, my intention was to go through Heaton cemetery to get to Overdale Crematorium but nevertheless we could still get there via a little detour. The detour meant us climbing some steep hills which didn’t make Graham very happy.
I hadn’t told Graham what my reason was for today’s adventure hoping it would be a bit of a surprise. Earlier that day I had telephoned Overdale Crematorium to enquire the location of the memorial stone for our dear friend Phil who’d sadly passed away far too early . The lady had kindly given me directions, so when we arrived I looked at her instructions, ( through the gate follow the path on the right and the granite memorial is on the left) . The trouble we had was that there were 3 paths to our right. So we went up and down each one in turn to no avail. We decided to extend our search but sadly without a positive outcome. We sat on a bench and had a little catch up whilst thinking about Phil. I was personally very disappointed not being able to find Phils memorial but Graham consoled me by saying Phil would be having a good laugh looking down on a couple of idiots riding around a remembrance garden. Don’t worry mate as the famous line from a film says ” I’ll be back ” with Graham and we’ll pay you an overdue visit for a catch up.
Now we retraced our way back onto the Middlebrook trail with the brook on one side and the railway on the other. We rode along enjoying the views in the pleasant evening sunshine. Before long we were at the derelict remains of the Lostock Arms pub which has been in a sad state for a number of years . Riding up to Tempest Rd I spotted a friend of mine , Adam, so I thought it would be rude not to stop and say hello. After a quick chat we were on our way once again heading now towards, Rumworth lodge. We spotted what looked like a path to our left and decided to head that in that direction. Firstly we had to negotiate what can only be described as a fence with a big hole , it not being quite big enough to get our bikes through. Extreme bikers always find a way , well almost.
Once that obstacle was overcome we rode along a narrow path at the side of some football pitches in Chew Moor. Now going downhill it was a nice change from the climb up. Part way along we were met by a couple of young lads who cheered us on as we went by,” you’re doing great keep it up “ . Not long after we met a man with a couple of dogs , one of whom took a shine to Graham and attempted to follow him before being called back by its owner. “ think he wanted to be my friend that dog” Graham stated delighted.
At the end of the path we came to a tee junction, left or right, right or left. Eventually we decided on left. Just as we turned we were met by yet another dog walker , but this time this dog was a barker, barking at us as we rode past ,”don’t think that one wants to be my friend “ Graham said with a smile.
The road we’d taken soon took a turn for the worst, it was uphill again but not only that it was cobbles, Graham doesn’t like cobbles!! Eventually though we were at its end and at the top of Hunger Hill on Wigan Rd, here to our right we saw a Pelican crossing so we utilised it and crossed over and headed towards Westhoughton. Just before the roundabout we took a left turning down a small road, at the end of which we found the access to a pathway , it was very overgrown but we decided to take a chance. This proved very fruitful if a little challenging. It soon opened up and we found ourselves with yet another obstacle, a narrow gate leading into a field of sheep. After a quick survey of the area we spotted a gate over in the far corner of the field and decided that was the way to go. With the gate now securely closed behind us by Graham ( we always abide by the country code) ,we slowly pushed our bikes through the field as not to disturb the sheep too much. Once at the far gate and through we didn’t have time to remount our bikes before we came to a stile to negotiate. Once back in the saddle we were thankfully heading downhill, much to Grahams relief. Passing through yet another gate the land opened up into fields, the one on our right was occupied by a lovely herd of cows who followed us at pace down the hill much to our amusement. Through yet another gate we were met by a large herd of sheep and young lambs, a great sight at this time of year as they frolicked around. The road itself was like a forest road just compounded gravel which was quite easy to ride on until we turned a bend , and it began to rise up yet another hill with Graham commenting “ lot of hills on this adventure pal, certainly gets the heart going,” and by eck it did.
It was along this section of road we noticed little fenced off areas in the field and on our right we saw numerous metal venting structures. Apparently it had been a mining area and these were there to let the gases escape. It wasn’t long now before we started to descend and gathered speed enjoying the thrills of at last going downhill. This was soon replaced by a sense of caution as the compacted gravel turned into larger pieces of loose stone which proved to be tricky as it moved under our wheels causing us to be buffeted all over the place, but thankfully we reached the bottom in one piece.
At the bottom of the hill we were met by yet another gate but this one was chained shut so we once again lifted the bikes over . It was here we saw one of Graham’s least like vehicles, a Hummer , I don’t know why he doesn’t like them but he doesn’t. At this point we contemplated where we could be seeing a road in the near distance. We assumed it was the A6 but much to our surprise it was actually St Helens Rd that meant we only had to ride down Plodder Ln and we would be nearly home.
The ride along Plodder Ln is a nice one as it is mainly downhill . As we merrily rode along we were passed by numerous vehicles most of which passed by without incident, that was until a little Fiat 500 car passed us on the opposite side of the road giving us by more like 6m instead of the advisory 2m safe passing distance, this was a bit excessive and Graham riding behind me couldn’t contain himself he just had to shout out ” Blinking eck why don’t you give us a bit of space pal ?”, I sense there was a little sarcasm in his question.
It wasn’t long before we parted company at the top of Bradford Rd with Graham continuing down Plodder Ln and myself down Bradford Rd homeward bound, with each other promising to text when we were both safely.
