22nd June 2017
Journey Length 12.4 ml
Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS
Holidays over it was time to start our adventures once again. Meeting at Grahams to borrow his old bike again Val asked us where we were going, but neither of us had a clue, we had both presumed that the other would have sorted something out. Now began the debate of where to go, up to Middlebrook, towards Black Leach, Farnworth and Kearsley or up through Bolton. Eventually we agreed on Philips Park, so off we set nice and steady after our holidays,which were now just distant memories.
We took a slightly different route to join the canal at the bridge on Mythan Road then following the tow path along the Bury arm of the canal we dropped down onto Mount Sion Street until we came to the bridge over the river Irwell, crossing the bridge we rode up the hill until we came to the monument at the junction with the Outwood Trail part of the cycle route No 6, the old railway line from Prestwich to Radcliffe. Turning right we decided to follow it as far as it went, this turned out to be a good shout. As it is an old railway line it is on a slight decline so down hill all the way Yippee. When we got to the motorway we turned left up to Philips Park Road. At its junction with Park Lane we noticed a small path straight opposite, so instead of turning right into the park we continued straight on up the path, which actually is the continuation on Phillips Park Road, after a few hundred metres we came to its end in a housing estate, rather than turning round we went onward and eventually came out at the roundabout at Prestwich. Knowing where we were we circled around up passed Mc Donalds and up Higher Lane back passed Sedgley Park to the entrance to Philips Park.
Down the hill we rode taking us over the bridge an up to the fork in the road where we chose the right fork which turned out to be wrong and we had to make a decision whether to continue down some very steep looking steps or do a u turn, but being extreme bikers the latter was not an option, so down the steps we went with disastrous consequences for myself ( see photo).
Undaunted we carried on eventually making it to the gardens at the side of the old barn were we sat on some , as Graham described them “contemporary” stone benches, chatting about our holiday tales, from quad bikes, beer prices, drunk Russians an eventful boat trip and the characters we’d met. Time was getting on even though neither of us bothered to ask what time it actually was.
Out of the garden we rode across to an open field where Graham mentioned that it was here his daughter had first learned to ride a bike without stabilisers. We both turned and headed back to rejoin the path but within 5m we had managed to lose one another. I waited a short way down the path for Graham, as I waited a number of down hill bikers came passed asking I was OK, they were kitted out for the downhill mountain bike track that runs through the park, after a couple of minutes Graham appeared and we rode on heading home. Shortly we were at a junction of a number of paths, unsure which one to take we just blindly continued until we realised we were actually heading the wrong way around the mountain bike track. We hastily turned around and found the path we should have taken thankfully that we hadn’t caused a terrible pile upon the track.
Soon we were approaching the bridge over the M60 here we noticed a sign post with various destinations on it, one of them was Salford Quays this was dully noted a possible adventure for the future. Once aross the bridge and heading back down the outwood trail wondered if we could actually cycle under the fallen tree, but on closer inspection it was obvious it was impossible . After travelling up the trail we were once again at the monument were we turned left down the hill towards the bridge to Mount Sion Road but not before Graham had almost come off his bike hitting some loose gravel, but thankfully he was able to gain control and we safely got to the bridge. Once across the bridge we followed the way we had originally come, only deviating along Boscow Rd eventually cutting through to Edinburgh Rd and back to Graham’s for a well earned brew.
