The weather....

[Tom]

...has enabled some cracking rides of late:

Ashton - Huddersfied narrow canal (to Diggle), and back through Manchester, through Trafford Park, Stretford, and home:

Got a lift to Audenshaw (near Bellevue, east side of Manchester) from a mate, onto the canal, all the way up to Diggle where the canal enters the Standage tunnel. Turned around, all the way back into Manchester. Through Manchester, down into Trafford Park. I was about a mile outside Stretford and about to get back on the road to head the 3 miles home, when I cycled past a group of lads on the towpath doing some fishing. One of them, tracksuited and lookin' well 'ard innit has his £50 Halfords bike lain across the towpath, with a 2 inch gap either side of it. Well I wasn't about to stop and climb over it, and he wasn't about to move it, so I went around it, and just so slightly clipped the back tyre. You can imagine the reaction "Oi watch de wheels man, how would u like it if I did tha to your bike?"

I really wanted to turn around and push the fecker in the canal, while telling him that he never would be able to do it to my bike as I wouldnt leave it lying across and blocking a towpath, but that would have spoiled my ride.

In fact, its only soured it slightly. Still, a cracking ride on a staggeringly beautiful day was fouled slightly by the gobshite from a scally.

Which political party supports a cull of this low-life?

Some piccies from my phone:

Heading to Stalybridge:

Scout tunnel (you have to walk this, its long, wet, dark, and a bit scary!):

Somewhere between Stalybridge and Delph:

Series of locks (loads and loads of these heading up into Yorkshire):

 

[Tom]

Canal heads under a railway viaduct:

Heading back through Manchester, just past Canal Street (gay village part of Manchester, the roadsign altered to Anal Treet )

You know what the best part of this ride is? Right before the end, just before I turned back to head to Manchester, near Diggle, there is an ice cream shack on the towpath. A BLOODY ICE CREAM SHACK ON THE TOWPATH I TELLS YA. Staffed by two extremely pretty young blonde girls wearing precisely the weight in clothing of one of my dustcaps. Shame I couldn't get pictures, as that would have got me arrested a bit. One of them was utterly utterly gorgeous, honestly a roasting hot day, a beautiful canal, a mint-choc-chip ice cream cone with a flake, a beautiful girl and a bike - what could be better?

 

[Tom]

Ashton canal to Peak Forest canal and back again:

This is just a mile or so away from the Ashton/Huddersfield narrow canal junction, heading south:

Odd design of bridge, it enables the horses to cross to the other side of the canal without being disconnected from the barge:

A nice little tunnel. There are a couple of tunnels, one of which has no towpath (you have to cycle over a fairly steep hill to the other side). This is the first tunnel, through which a barge was heading towards Manchester:

Marple aqueduct - stunning. Building started in 1794 and took 7 years to complete - its a tremendous structure. You wouldn't believe how high it is, it crosses the river Goyt. You wouldn't really want to fall off, its 100 feet down to the river.

 

[Tom]

Marple locks - lots of them, and it was bloody hard work climbing them all. IIRC its a 65 feet rise from the bottom to the top. It was fecking great fun coming back down though at 8 million mph!

Getting close to New Mills:

 

[Tom]

The place on the left make Swizzel's sweets:

And yes, it stinks of sweets!

Half way mark for me:

Then 3 of these:

Before turning around and riding back home. Just over 30 miles I reckon, and stunning views. Easily the best ride I've ever had. I'm going to have to seriously start looking at train timetables because there is so much more beyond the point I turned around.

 

[Tom]

Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal


This is the main reason why the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal is no longer in use:

Its a wide angle shot so quite deceiving. Basically, the ground to the left, bottom, and right, is all level. The two stone bulky items in the near distance are whats left of the walls and towpath of the canal. The canal at this point is on the side of a very large and steep hill, with the river Irwell directly below (between those walls, and the horizon, but much lower down). In 1936 this section breached, and what you can see is the resulting damage to the canal walls where the contents of the entire canal decided to cascade down the hillside into the river. There are loads of stone blocks, railway sleepers (repairs from older breaches), bits of wood, all kinds of things, stuck in the hillside that were carried down by the water. Its an amazing sight, and a bit sad, since its the reason that so much of the canal from this point towards Salford is in such dire condition.

Its still repairable though, all is not lost

The breach happened just above the Nob End Locks (no laughing at the back), the breach in the photo above is to the left of me, on the hillside. You can't really make it out since its so badly overgrown. The boats would come through the last lock visible on the left, and swing left heading over Prestolee Aqueduct (crossing the Irwell). The aqueduct is in this photo, but you can't see the spans from that angle.

Sad to see, but its also rather pretty, thats just a bit beyond the Aqueduct in the previous picture. The cobbles/sets on the towpath are a feature of the canal, much of the length of the canal has these. A fair few have been robbed away though, which isn't exactly unexpected.

 

[Tom]

No idea what that is. Bit of machinery to lower things to the industry below, perhaps? Most of the canal at this point is high along the side of the valley.

Sometimes the canal is difficult to follow! This is not far from Ringley Locks. I couldn't find those locks, and I lost the path of the canal beyond this point. I did find it again later on another path heading back, when I saw Clifton Aqueduct in the distance.

Clifton Aqueduct

 

[Tom]

Heading back to Bury, all overgrown but the canal is still in excellent condition here, just needs dredging.

Bit of a relic, I used to play on this when I were a lad Its an old crane for lifting coal from the barges, into the yard below it (over the fence and down). Its still got levers, handles, pedals, and wheels


I also discovered a nifty little utility that stores GPS info in my phone, combined with my bluetooth GPS I was able to make a KMZ file for Google Earth. Its not 100% accurate but its pretty nice. It also shows you the bits where I got lost, trying to retrace the canal!

My route on Google Earth

 

[Tom]

Thusly I lay down the gauntlet - all you other cycling nuts on here have to post prettier rides than the ones I've done this last week I have lost about 3lb in weight this week alone.

Otherwise I'll take it for granted that you're sat inside watching the telly, eating crisps

 

[throdgrain]

Nice pictures mate

 

[Trem]

I can take pics from my rides but I go with Nago(my mate) so it will mainly be of Nago's arse.

I want to ride on my own but I get uber bored so I don't go if Nago doesn't.

 

[Tom]

Get yourself an mp3 player Trem, with some chillout tunes on it. I ride to DSotM quite a bit, and Ray Lamontagne (hehe thx Trem)

 

[Trem]

I was thinking that and it will work if I were riding along canals, but I ride around the town and cars scare me I aren't confident enough to ride without the aid of ears.

I may do the local canal ride in the next week or 2 and I will take some pics.

 

[Mobius]

Wow, nice one. I cycle around my village quite a bit. Its very scenic, and relaxing. There are a few picture here ... I'll probably take some more soon. I have to sell jam at a village fair today.

 

[caLLous]

I want to start cycling to work, which basically consists of the canal between Wolverhampton and Birmingham with a bit of city on either end. I think it would work out at about 17 miles, which is quite a bit considering I'm unfit, lazy and don't have a bike yet. All in good time though...

 

[TdC]

Thusly I lay down the gauntlet - all you other cycling nuts on here have to post prettier rides than the ones I've done this last week I have lost about 3lb in weight this week alone.

Otherwise I'll take it for granted that you're sat inside watching the telly, eating crisps

hehe I do both! we'll see what I can come up with tomorrow

sadly I managed to destroy my gallery after I'd moved nearly all my pics to it. which is a bit naff :/