Tree mendous cycle paths and other stories

Day 10 Sun 14th Sept

We spent a lot of today's route off-road on what proved to be an eclectic mix of surfaces. This was in an attempt to get through an area of the country increasingly full of towns, cities and roads. A far cry from our days in the highlands where we could go for miles without seeing another soul. Some of my concerns about the day were bourne out. Off-road routes, even if they are part of major NCR (national cycle routes), can be poorly surfaced, inconsistently labelled and in some cases far worse than being on the road. We saw all of this today and more!

Our bikes prop up the bar at Whoop Hall

After breakfast, we retrieved our bikes from their luxury accommodation and got on the road. The day started cool and overcast as we headed towards Lancaster by a direct and rather good road across rolling countryside at the edge of the Pennines. As we came into the outskirts of the town, we picked up the Lancaster canal at the impressive Lune aqueduct, then down onto an excellent cycle route along the banks of the Lune itself. This took us right through the town and out the other side, including a brief stop for food where we had a nice chat with a cycling lady who had done a Lands End to Lancaster cycle ride. Definitely an example of how to do off road routes here. 

Lune aqueduct nr. Lancaster

On the way through we saw lots of city regeneration. Here, John C could not resist a run around a BMX park on his fully laden bike, until his front panniers popped off that is. John H was finally mollified after the Stornoway incident (see day 3!). Little did we know that we would all need some of these skills later.....

John C plays on the BMX course in Lancaster until his pannier came loose!

The route merged with a disused railway and carried on down the coast to Conder Green, where I took the team on a brief detour for some excellent views of the coast (not a navigational error, honest)! We then continued on good roads, never too busy, but with noticeably less patient drivers. We crossed the A6 into Garstang, where we had a lunch stop, and then on, briefly along the A6 (which we had used for a lot of the route 10 years ago and resolved to avoid as much as possible on this one) before getting back onto quiet back roads. We were very conscious that we were making good progress south. Coming into the outskirts of Preston we tried to pick up the canal side route, but had difficulty initially before happening on a way on by accident. Here I took the guys on another detour, this time to see a short lock staircase. This canal side route was, however, not so good, having a rough surface, so we were quite pleased to come off it. By now we were using iPad navigation to deal with the complexity of the route and found ourselves getting through Preston quite effectively. We had a brief chat with a bloke who wished us luck given that the ring road came through the town centre!

JR enjoying the run from Kirby Longsdale to Lancaster

We were heading to pick up NCR55 which would provide, we hoped, a backbone to our route for the rest of the day. As we headed towards its start I took the guys on another detour for views of a park.... Eventually we found the start, which was very encouraging as it took us across the river on a high viaduct then on to a tree-lined run across open countryside. Perfect! 

Great cycle path south if Preston - but it soon got hard going

But all good things must come to an end and it wasn't long before we were zigzagging along short bits of quiet road, up and off pavements and across side roads all whilst keeping a look out for the next sign. We ended up going through a country park, which was nice, before we briefly abandoned and headed down on the road again, fortunately quiet on a Sunday afternoon. We had a stop for hot chocolate where JR finally atoned for chocolategate! Then in one final go on NCR55, we joined the tow path to the Leeds and Liverpool canal. This was an excellent tarmacked surface which had unfortunately been laid on very rough ground, resulting in us and the bikes getting a bit of a pummelling. 

John H negotiates a stretch along the Leeds Liverpool canal before really
going off road ...

We left the canal at Adlington supposedly to join a disused railway route. No sign of signs. Then we came across a young man, possibly slightly the worse for the can of beer he had, but with a bicycle. We asked if he knew of a cycle route and he did. Following his directions, we headed down a grassy bank then along a dirt track (this is where the BMX skills came in handy), up a very steep stony track before getting onto what was indeed our route; NCR55 signs confirmed it. It was as if they were trying to hide it. This stretch could have been very good, with a bit of care and a good surface. We were lucky it was dry as we could see that it would be a mud bath in the wet. The final ignominy was when we came across a fallen tree right across the route. We could just squeeze past by going in to the ditch. That was it, we'd had enough of route 55! As soon as we could it was on to the roads with a smooth run in to Wigan with no further problems.

Our "off-road" route is blocked south of Chorley

Quote of the day, nicked from breakfast on Monday:

John C on being reminded that it was an all-you-can-eat breakfast (a very dangerous thing with us): "I think I've done a pretty good job with that already".

Today's favourite bits

JC: the off-roading bit

JH: going along the canals and seeing the variety of the canal environment, particularly how different people embrace it differently

JR: arriving after a hard day's navigation! Otherwise the Lune aqueduct

Today's stats

Distance: 64 miles

Average speed 10.8 (max 33.9)

Climb: 780 m

Energy: 2931 cals