According to gps: trip odo 11.8 moving time 1h35m odo 11.82 max speed 24.3 moving avg 7.4
Tuesdays appear to be lieu days at the moment; it is however mid November so I didn't know whether it was a good idea or not to consider a ride. Weather forecast was variable and for showers, but we decided to go for it anyway and continue our exploration of local canals; we planned to start at Marple and then travel down the Peak Forest Canal, possibly cycling back again or possibly catching a train back from New Mills to Marple.
Things didn't go quite to plan. We got off to a good start - very very muddy underfoot/wheel, and we got spattered and very dirty very quickly. Not a particular problem, and not totally unexpected given the recent rain. The canal was extremely full!
The first excitement came just after we met two men with strimmers, who were cutting back the hedgerow and undergrowth. Now, this was good from the point of view of a walker or even a cyclist since it made the path wider, but... bad from the point of view of a cyclist who wants to get anywhere, as just after we passed them my friend got a puncture. So, we got out the tyre levers and puncture repair kit and, after various bits of consultation with the Basingstoke Puncture Repair Line (thanks Andrew!) since neither of us had actually fixed a puncture before, and getting wet since it started raining whilst we'd stopped, we got going again. A few minutes further along the canal, we found another cyclist who'd had precisely the same problem... a thorn from the strimmed debris in the tyre. Ho hum.
After the puncture fun, we were beginning to get a bit damp - and of course, since we'd not been moving, we were beginning to get a bit chilly too. We started moving but got progressively damper, which put a... er... damper on things. Imagine our delight when we spotted a large Tesco at Whaleybridge, where we could get some food. "They'll have a cafe", said I... but they didn't. Still, hot chicken and sarnies and stuff eaten on the bench under cover outside was very welcome!
At this point we had a bit of a dilemma. How to get back to Marple? Do we cycle back along the (albeit flat) canal, in the rain, through the thorns, or catch a train back? We voted for the latter, which meant two more options... from Whaleybridge to Manchester Piccadilly then out again to Marple (as Whaleybridge is on the Buxton line) or to nearby Chinley (on the Sheffield line) to Marple directly? We decided on the latter.
We progressed up a small canal arm to a place called Bugsworth Basin - a fascinating inland dock detailed here built as the original terminus of the Peak Forest canal, where limestone etc was loaded onto the boats. More info can be found here. Had it not been windy and rainy and a bit bleak when we got there I'd have liked to have spent a bit longer there investigating. As it was, though, we just wanted to get going, so we carried on (on the road) to Chinley station. To cut a long story short, the train service from that station was every two hours, which would have meant waiting there for another 90 minutes. By this time the light was beginning to drop slightly (it being about 3:15pm) so we needed to get a move on - it'd stopped raining, so we bombed it down the main roads to Whaleybridge station. This took us down the valley and was considerably faster than we'd been going for most of the rest of the day - and so was almost exhiliarating!
Safely on the train, we managed to, in conjunction with the conductor, work out a ticket combination that saved us 8 quid (two for 10 quid rather than 18 as a result of using the GM Rail Rover ticket for part of it!). He was a nice chap, actually; on the train at Hazel Grove he made an announcement that we would be waiting for 10 mins in the station (as per the timetable) and that if we wanted to nip ouside for a'fag or a coffee' that now was the perfect time to do it. The conductor, train driver and half the passengers queued up at the little place on the platform. I had a hot chocolate :-)
One thing I did notice about the ride was that in the cold weather, having lycra cycle shorts actually made a difference - they helped my thighs retain a bit of warmth, particularly when we got going and actually generated a bit of heat whilst cycling! I'm still not keep on the "wearing lycra in public" thing and I'm still self conscious but it does indeed make life better when cycling wearing the right gear! Also, fortunately, I have a new bright fluorescent yellow fleece with reflective strips. Obviously it got absolutely filthy but it did give me a lot more confidence and visibility on the roads in the grey light levels we were cycling in...
I think the overall conclusion was that we've had better rides but it was still good to get out and about. I'd like to back to the Peak Forest canal and do it again/investigate further, perhaps when it's slightly warmer and nicer though!