Easter Weekend: 2015

We decided as we were heading up north for a family visit we would take the opportunity to recce some of the more remote parts that are marked as “footpaths” on the maps and investigate the route between breaks in the canal network; this was mainly around Wigan to Preston section. My plan had us taking the Leeds Liverpool Canal along to the Rufford branch which meant at Wigan we turned left… simple. This route took us along the canal to Tarleton where we would have to leave it and use the “footpaths” along the river Douglas to the river Ribble into Preston.

With the Garmin loaded with some waypoints e.g “leave canal here”, “re-join canal here”, “Check footpath here” etc. we were on our way. A few hours’ drive and we were at the point where the A59 crossed the river Ribble. At this point there looked like a very good track running alongside it so if the “footpaths” were cycle able it looked like we would be able to cycle along the river estuary to join the Lancaster canal at Preston with a minimal distance on the busy roads. We knew exactly were the Lancaster canal started as we had checked that out on a previous visit to Susan’s mum who conveniently lives nearby in Southport.

The start of the Lancaster Canal in Preston.

The start of the Lancaster Canal in Preston.

Signpost at start of Lancaster canal Preston Kendal 57 miles

Signpost at start of Lancaster canal Preston Kendal 57 miles

Encouraged by the track in Preston we made our way to the point where I had tentatively marked the point at which we would leave the canal and ride along the A59. The A59 itself although busy did have a cycle track along most of the part we drove down so it was all looking quite rosy.

The Ribble track in Preston looking good

The Ribble track in Preston looking good

On arriving at the first waypoint we were very disappointed to see locked gates, styles to climb over and nothing resembling a cycle able route. There was a footpath sign but no evidence that anyone ever travelled along it, it was just a narrow fenced off stretch alongside a field. This was no good so we got back in the car and moved to the next possible exit point about 1 mile further south.

Path what path.. initial proposed exit point.

Path what path.. initial proposed exit point.

OMG it was awful, where the canal met the road was like a bog I could barely walk along the very muddy “path” never mind cycle. It was so bad I did not even take a picture to show Susan as it would have “worried” her and do nothing to reassure her that everything would be fine. We got back in the car and went another mile or so south to look at another exit point. Here again there was to be no joy just a narrow muddy path and a lot of fishermen. To cut a long story short we eventually found an exit point where the track looked reasonable but by now we were looking at about a nine mile road stretch from the Leeds Liverpool Rufford branch to the start of the Lancaster canal in Preston.

bog

Looks a little cycle “unfriendly”

Not much of a cycle path here either

Not much of a cycle path here either

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Looks OK here but leaving the canal at this point gives us 9 miles of the A59… NOT GOOD

Having achieved what we set out to do I modified the map then we drove over to Southport parked the car at the hotel car park unloaded our bikes and had a gentle cycle along the seafront. Back at the hotel we chained our bikes to a convenient post and crossed the road to the pub, perfectly timed to see Arsenal give Liverpool a good spanking…. Strangely not many people seemed to want Arsenal to win (except me and one other) but then again we are very close to Liverpool here!

We spent the next couple of days visiting my Dad then on Sunday getting down to Donington for the first round of the British Superbikes championship which was being held on the Monday.

http://www.britishsuperbike.com/

Susan had obviously been mulling over all of the bad news re the state of the paths and on our arrival in Donington suggested that maybe there was an alternative… she knows this area much better than I do so reluctantly I was persuaded to test out changing the route. To be honest I really did not think it would work as we had already booked accommodation at our start and end points for each stage and the knock on effect of any serious modifications this close to the trip start could have resulted in a major increase in distance that day.

After the many hours I have spent (probably days by now) using Garmin Basecamp I was able to quite quickly chop out a section of our previous trip along the Leeds Liverpool canal and stitch it into the now butchered original route. I do love it when something potentially so difficult turns out to be a 10 min job.

We both examined the changes which had us still start and finish in our booked accommodation but turning right at Wigan through to Chorley where again we had to take to the road (A675) to make the connection to the Lancaster canal. We have previously cycled this stretch so know that the path is reasonable. It was almost identical…49.6 miles as opposed to 49 and 7 miles of quiet road compared to 9 miles of busy road.

All credit to Susan who had come up with a much better plan for that section than me.

Back home I stitched all the daily routes into a single file as all of these now had much more detailed mapping to account for bridges and points where we had to change bank. The route now is 399 miles but I am certain we will exceed 400 miles as there is still quite a bit of “straight lining” between points on my route.

The adjusted new total route.

The adjusted new total route.

We are now about as ready as we will be… Just one other “small” change Susan is going to ride a different bike!!!

Bring it on….

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