Bike rides

Tuesday 3rd October - Huddersfield Narrow and Ashton Canals

Stats:

ttm 34:18 odo 342.9 dst 17.52 tm 2:12:44 avg 7.9 max 21.5

According to gps: trip odo 15.9 moving time 2h25m odo 15.86 max speed 20.3 moving avg 6.5

Route: Gmap's pedometer site

Shortish update, this one, as I've come down with a bit of a cold and don't feel like writing loads.

I had a lieu day from doing Space at the weekend; originally the forecast was terrible but by Monday evening it'd improved sufficiently to 'iffy' - so a colleague and I decided to go out for a ride along the towpaths of a canal. Rejecting the Peak Forest (since he didn't have any transport) I went over to Oldham and we found ourselves on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Upper Mill; weather was good (though there were tonnes of puddles and rather menacing looking brambles, nettles and shrubbery overtaking the towpaths in places) so we set off downwards towards Stalybridge, with the intention of turning around at some point back to the car.

We got to the Stalybridge Tesco, where we had lunch (where the canal runs straight past the front door!) and then decided that we were probably better off continuing down the canal - rahter than climbing back up where we'd come from - and joining the Ashton canal and heading into Manchester city centre where we could catch a train from Manchester Piccadilly (the Ashton canal goes right underneath the station!). So that's what we did, with a couple of tweaks... one, at some point I managed to bash my rear wheel so that the whole thing became wonky and rubbed the tyre on the frame. Slightly problematic - and so we took a slight diversion from the canal at Audenshaw, found a car shop and bought a spanner so I could adjust it. (I forgot my bike spanner, for some reason... gah.)

Every time I go down the Ashton canal, whether on foot, bike or by boat (I've been privileged enough to join a friend's family going down all of the stretch I cycled on a canal boat!) I forget just how much height the canal loses from the hills beyond the M60 down through East Manchester. Good fun on the last stretch past the Commonwealth stadium though, as there's lock after lock (and consequently steepish hill after steepish hill! Although... it was wet cobbles. Ah well.)

The other slight unplanned deviation was when we arrived at Piccadilly - whereupon we discovered that trains to Greenfield actually left from Manchester Victoria! Ah well. A quick cycle across town in the pouring rain, avoiding trams and cars and we caught the train. (I'm /so/ sorry, Mr BMW driver... I completely misjudged my crossing the junction on my bike... my excuse is that I'm just not used to city riding and me being a plonker!)

So, overall - 17.5m, very pleasant although a bit damp - didn't get too soaked but quite muddy. Good fun. I'm tired now.

Route: Started at Upper Mill, down Huddersfield Canal to Stalybridge (lunch at Tesco) then on down through Ashton (and the junction with the Peak Forest canal), down the Ashton canal into Manchester Piccadilly. From there, cycled to Manc Victoria and caught the train back to Greenfield and back to the car.

PS This ride takes my Eddington Number to 13! Hurrah. A fair way before 14 though, I think.