Grahams Crash & High Rid
18th August 2016
JOURNEY LENGTH 14.2ML
Sorry No Route Via Strava
It had been a couple of weeks since our last adventure and with the weather being kind to us, it was a lovely night for a bike ride we met up at mine and after a few pleasantries we set of on our adventure to High Rid. This was the first adventure to be captured on my helmet cam which added extra excitement to our adventure . I had planned a route using Strava but unfortunately earlier in the week I had broken my phone, my new phone is an Android one and I’m pretty useless with it at the moment and accidentally cancelled our route.
I had arranged a bit of a detour to take in a few places the first being the old footbridge over the railway near Orlando bridge. This was where as a young child my mother brought me to see the steam engines,running back and forth as the trains ran beneath, sadly the area has changed drastically with only a couple of tracks left the rest now a car park.
Onward we rode back to Manchester road over the newly refurbished Orlando bridge on our way through Bolton. We once again stopped off at the new bus and rail interchange being built to see the progress, it is now looking quite impressive. Onward from here we headed towards Middlebrook passing the market on our way, picking it up at Randolph St. It was a beautiful evening and cycling along the Middlebrook trail was indeed a pleasure. Soon we arrived at the now dilapidated Lostock arms from here we turned right following the signs for the cycle path. We rejoined the path off Regent road heading up through Regent Park Golf course ,we rode along the path until we came to the junction with Ox Hey lane. The lane is used for access to BWFC academy training facilities and has little speed humps with a small gap either side that we could use to avoid the humps. Now unfortunately I was in front with my head cam because as I passed the last hump I noticed there was a pile of dog shit just after the gap but with a bit of skill managed to avoid it but Graham on the other hand didn’t but unfortunately for “ You’ve Been Framed “ I was in front and was unable to catch it has he lost control and ended up in a heap on the floor after getting his front wheel stuck in the grass. Thankfully he was OK but had been distracted by something which caused his crash. After a quick inspection of his bike we were good to go.
At the junction with Chorley New Rd we crossed straight over up Fall Birch Rd, this was quite a steep hill but as we reached what we thought was the top we breathed a sigh of relief, but this was short lived as a little way along the road became a cobbled surface and a step hill. The view at the top was well worth it looking over the High Rid reservoir, a beautiful place indeed.
My intention was to visit the Bolton steam museum off Chorley Old Rd but unfortunately on our way down the wind had picked up considerably and was now blowing directly in our faces and the weather looked like it might turn, so we headed straight down towards the town centre, as we did we were passed by a number of police cars rushing in the opposite direction. We rode across the precinct passed the town hall we were soon near the road but there were some scaffolding and pedestrians in our way I was just going to make a quick turn left , then spotted just in time the road was blocked of with metal fencing, a lucky escape for me this time.
As we rode along Manchester Rd on our way home we passed a lot of stationary traffic, obviously caused by the closure of St Peters Way as we did we were passed by 2 ambulances racing up the road. We couldn’t see anything ahead and saw the disappear into the distance , hopefully everything turned out OK for everyone concerned. Back across the viaduct we soon arrived back at mine , as per usual we said our fond farewell till next time and Graham would text as soon as he was home safe as he duly did.
