This week I cycled 60 miles from Stafford to Runcorn on the Trent & Mersey Canal, watch how I suffer in the rain and observe many interesting historical canal landmarks and industrial heritage.
#mtb #biketouring #canal #trentandmersey #britishwaterways #fatbike #surlybikes #narrowboats #canalhistory
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] morning. So it is 10:45 on Sunday 14th September and I am outside Stappford train station in Stafford Victoria Park and I’m about to cycle down Trenton Murzy sorry up the Trenton Murzy all the way to Runorn and then from Runorn to Hunts Cross Station in South Liverpool about 68 mile route the weather forecast there is a weather system coming in around about 2:00 so I’ve got my waterproof jacket in my backpack it is going to be really really wet today. But uh there’s a nice tailwind which will push me up the canal and mean that progress will be a little easy today. I need to ride about 5 or 10 miles to get to the actual canal itself. So come on, let’s get going. See you in a bit. [Music] [Music] Yeah. So on something called the Isabel Trail, which is like the Liverpool loop line, the W way. It’s like a dish railway line. Turns through cycle stroke walking stroke running path. Uh yeah, pretty impressed with Stafford so far. It’s only been a a mile in, but yeah, it’s good cycling facilities here. Yeah. So, I’m on this now for about another 5 miles and got to pick up the road. This takes me down to the canal. pick up the canal just south of Stone and uh yeah, head all the way up through Stoke on Trent uh through a couple of nice little bits on the way uh near the Anderson boat lift all the way up to uh Runorn and then beyond Runghorn we’ll go to uh alongside the river Murzy and down to Hunts station where I’ll get the messy rail train back breath. It’s probably because I am. I’m not in the actual best shape at the moment uh cycling wise. Just uh work commitments, family commitments, and my whole days meant I’ve not done anywhere near as much time on the bike as I should have done. So, yeah, we’ll see how we get on today. I’m not going to push it too hard. And thankfully, I got that tailwind, so I’m clinging on to that for salvation. [Music] [Music] That was a bit unexpected. But then I just realized I could have probably cycled round there and up the bridge up the uh up the road, but never mind. We’ll carry on. [Music] Yeah, I’m on the road now for a bit, I think. Unfortunately, the other thing I forgot about Staffordshire, it’s full of hills and this is by no means bike which you go uphill on. Going down, I’m fine. So, in for a tough ride to the canal, I think after that should get a bit flatter. [Music] [Music] up the second part of this climb. [Music] Keep it in easy gear and spin my way up it. [Music] heart rate up anyway. 200 ft climbing so far. Let’s pick Figaro. Looks like we’ve uh finished the climbing now. And uh according to this, it’s relatively downhill. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Jesus Christ. These bridges all over. I can even drop a hose on the next one. [Music] Another way bridge. You slow down. Right hand. This one [Music] abs are going to get a decent workout today. That carries on. [Music] Lots of overhanging trees. [Music] God [Music] train. Yeah, it’s not ideal. Anyway, yeah, I just stopped by uh Aston Marina for a quick minute or so. Uh need to catch some hydration. It’s very difficult to ride and uh drink at the same time. I don’t have a hydration pack. So, if you watch my videos regularly, uh you’ll see that I had a hydration pack issue where I bust it using bleach and uh yeah, I’ve not had time to replace it and I’ve had bike parts needed to buy, so they’ve taken priority. Anyway, um what I was going to say was definitely riding this canal. You can see the improvements that the Canal and River Trust have made to Le Liverpool. That is a lot better than the Lancaster. And so far, my first impressions of this, I’d say it’s a lot better than this as well. I mean, yes, there are parts which are tricky, but um yeah, the CRT definitely made considerable improvements into Le Liverpool. So, hopefully this continues to make the canals more accessible for people on bikes. Um but, uh we’ll see. Uh this ride anyway today was supposed to be a three canal challenge. Um going down the Rodale Canal all the way across to Heton sorry Sbury Bridge then from Sbury Bridge following the Huddersfield Canal back down the ash back down to the Ashton Canal and then back to Manchester starting off in Manchester. So I didn’t really fancy it with the weather conditions coming up. So I decided to do the Trenton Murzy and follow this all the way back to Liverpool with the tailwind. So, as you can see with the uh with the ripples, the wind starts to pick up already. A much better surface to ride on this. It’s just outside of Aston. Not Aston Birmingham, not to be confused. [Music] Lots of boats all over here. [Music] Doesn’t look like I’m too far from stone. But, uh, what I’ll do is if you haven’t really ridden much on canals and you’re thinking doing canal rides, a little tiny bit of, uh, canal etiquette. [Music] Oh, yeah. Thank you. So, yeah, just a quick double ring of your bell. People mostly get out of the way. [Music] [Music] I was going up this lock flight before my uh 360 camera was overheated so it needs to cool down. And I think this is the lock flight that’s called uh Heartbreak Hill. Anyway, just park your arrows outside your house. That’ll do. [Music] There’s the uh Wedgewood pottery factory. Been there with my kids training going past. So, I went there with the kids a couple of years ago to uh paint some pottery and we send it back to you. Uh really nice experience. Definitely recommend it. Just come on to uh Stoke on Trent. So, there’s not been really much to film here. It’s obviously in a city bit. So, at least the toe path ridable. I can film uh riding one-handed. It is a bit bumpy, but uh we can cope with that. But yeah, there’s just not been much to uh much interested to film. So, I’ve uh also had to let the camera cool down. It’s full battery, full storage. Just uh temperamental 360. So, give it a little break, go again later. It’s nice smooth surface to ride on this. There’s definitely been some investment in here. It’s about a mile or two outside of Stoke. As you can look at the ripples on the canal, though, it’s uh wind’s picking up. And uh so there’s my average speed. 15 mph at the moment. Not too bad. Make us some time up. [Music] stop at five just to uh quickly refuel with some tank plastics which are uh which are incredible. Yeah, absolute lifesaver them. [Music] So this is uh Victoria Junction and uh that way I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, tastes towards the uh Colden Canal I think. Um could be wrong. Burnon Flint Mill 1857. cracking little places. This is [Music] highlight. [Music] Oh, [Music] heat. come through stoke there and uh it has started raining so I’m going to have to get the waterproof on now. Uh so I’ll find a place to stop and get that sorted but uh yeah cool little place like a chura junction. obviously never been there before and I missed filming a couple of bottle kil sort of you know bottled kils where they used to dry pottery years and years and years ago or hundreds of years ago and yeah I’ll see if there’s any any more of it further along and I’ll try and get some videos of them. So there’s one of those bottle k there on the side of that building. How cool is that? So, yeah, the rain’s not uh too bad for me to start worrying about it just yet, but I think maybe in a mile or so it’s going to pick up. So, I’ll uh get the waterproof on soon. [Music] The uh Middleport Pottery Museum. [Music] Thanks, Mike. It’s like a fishing competition or something. [Music] Yeah. So, it’s probably started raining now as the water boosts come out, but um I’m just at Miller Pole Pottery. Now, I was going to stop here for a coffee, but already had a coffee this morning, so I just popped some Tastics instead. I’m going to push on towards um Big Lock in Middle Witch. So, I’ll show you Middleport past. It’s proper cool place. So yeah, some peaky behind us. So I got about 80 miles to get to Middle. So I’ll press on from here. [Music] Bottle kils over there. Let’s see. [Music] There’s the back. [Music] I love seeing all this all the little uh bits of history. It’s a shame about that built. You can do a lot more with that. Just going to disregarding [Music] booze. You know, I did see a couple of guys with dogs with a couple of cans of Stella. I did wonder where they got those from. That explains it. This is the uh entrance to the hair castle tunnel or is known to some bothers Scare Castle. But yeah, doesn’t look like anyone’s here today, so I don’t think any will be going through it. But um yeah, if you watch some canal videos, there’s like a load of fans in there which kind of suck all of the diesel fumes out of the boats. Look at the color of the water as well. Anyway, so we have to go up over the top and then find our way back the canal on the other side of there. [Music] on the road again. But yeah, sit rep just had to uh take a detour to go over the uh castle tunnel and I’m in place called Bathpool Country Park which is like a part of National Cycle in triple 5. So, uh, I’ll be on this the right turn in a second and then we’ll, um, yeah, hopefully get back onto the toe path pretty soon. [Music] See, I’m just on this uh, country path. There’s a lane to me to the left of me. I’m on this path for a little bit just to get me round onto the other sides of the tunnel. So hopefully it won’t be too long. There’s a railway line to the left as well. Okay. Yeah, the side of the hair castle. So, uh, it’s the kids grove. So, I’ve got to go that way. Rain’s not too bad at the moment. Look at the color of that water. It’s a builder’s tea. So, that sign there says uh Middle 12 miles, Anderson boat lift 23 miles, and Runhorn 35 miles. all that way. I have no idea where that takes you some sort of branch, [Music] but yeah. Anyway, something that we uh was seeing quite often is that the canals closed. I reckon that’s got to be due to falling water levels. Uh yeah. So, it’s going to take a while to get this reopened, I think. This looks like a uh another lock flight. This is Heartbreak Hill. I’m going down it anyway. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] See there with the canal’s closed doing mock repairs. [Music] [Music] Oh, wow. Thought we drained it. [Music] I just think he drained it to repair the lock like interesting. [Music] Yeah, this definitely must be the Heartbreak Hill. Uh the famous Heartbreak Hill. [Music] If you can confirm that in the comments, that would be great. Yeah, let’s read them on now as part of national cycle route number five. [Music] Ny Ferguson looking in the field there. [Music] He’s got his Bernie ping around. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Yeah, I haven’t been blessed with the nice top path to tried on for quite a while back to uh this sort of surface. It’s not too bad to be fair. It’s not Lancaster bad, but uh still a couple of gnarly bits. Just test your handling skills. [Music] The weather’s very coming in Hey, [Music] [Music] on the M6. [Music] Yeah, I just stopped for five. Uh, excuse the noise of the M6 in the background. Yeah, these conditions are quite bad. Uh, the toe path itself is uh gnarly in places. It’s not too bad. I have ridden on worse, but yeah. So, uh, I’m 30 miles in now. If I want to finish the ride, it’s 38 miles back to Hunts Cross and I’ll get the train from Hunts Cross. That’s whether or not I decide to make it to Hunts Cross. I might just get to one corner and be fed up by then. In which case, that’s uh 28 miles. So, still a fair bit to go. I’ve got about another eight miles till I get to Middle Witch where I’m going to stop for some food cuz I’m hungry. Think about your bike choice if you’re going to do this. Um, I would definitely recommend a mountain bike. But first impressions of this canal, I really enjoyed it. It’s been uh mostly smooth. The There’s lots of canal heritage and history around here. Obviously went past the pottery bits in Stoke. Uh, Stone’s a nice little canal village. There’s a lock flight here, which I think is Half Creek Hills. Yeah, it’s just a cracking little canal. There’s lots to film. So, um, I’ll catch up with you a little bit further along and see how we’re getting on. But yeah, I need to top my water up cuz I’m running low. See you in a bit. Technical. No getting through that anytime soon. It’s quite cool that yard. Know what it’s called? Let me know in the comments. This is Wheelock Warf. There’s a nice little restaurant here, but it’s closed. Yeah, just be aware you got these gates and I get to negotiate. Uh that’s Wheelock Warf there. So, just be careful. You’re going to do what I’ve done and go try to go over and round because you end up on an industrial estate and I said to turn around and go back. So yeah, under the bridge straight down that way. Canal takes you back down there. Just approaching Middle Witch and uh the section of canal hasn’t been too great to be honest. As I say, probably now that the last five miles or so, it’s been uh a proper slog, especially when you haven’t got the fitness. Hey ho, you crack on. better [Music] and on the left hand side somewhere further up here should be the middle witch branch I [Music] with a sharpie. It’s a shame the chip is not open though. Let’s go. Fish and chips. Not mine. [Music] You ride up this do you think? Is it advisable to ride up? Nope. Middle friends from the shops union. does negotiate those steps toward. So, just done a bit of research there. There’s no McDonald’s. [Music] So, now I’m going to have to try and find out where this big lock pen cafe is. If it’s still open 3:00, [Music] the cafe will be closed. The pub [Music] [Music] Oh my god. Stopped off outside the Little Lock Cafe. It’s just outside Big Lock. I’m going to get a bacon and sausage sandwich and I’ve had a bottle of Coke to give me enough sustenance to get me back to at least one corn if not beyond. And uh yeah, just wish the weather conditions were better. It was absolutely visual. But hopefully a little bit more interesting than the Black Bull rides anyway cuz uh I like this canal actually. It’s got a lot of um bits of heritage unlike the Lancaster which just adds quite a lot of bridges and an aqueduct. Hopefully I got some good footage and yeah, we’ll get this down me. Catch up here a little bit later on the cup. Yeah, I think I’ll be staying here till that calms down. If it if it does, I’ll give it 10 minutes. So, I finished me coke. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to breathe it. So, yeah, sit up. It’s uh as you can see, very wet. There’s hair in there. That was the cracking little cafe. The little lock cafe it was called. And that bacon and sausage sandwich just really hit the spot. So I’m 40 miles in and uh yeah, it’s absolutely blasting down, but I’ve got the winds in my favor which still giving me that mental boost. So, I’ve got enough fuel, I think, to get me to at least run corn, if not beyond. [Music] Yeah, this is a proper slog. So, yeah, sign there. Shard low 78 miles in that direction. Preston Brook 14 miles in that direction. start to uh shelter under this tree to take my hood down. I had my hood up, but it’s forcing my neck sort of forward. Like I say, wind’s gusting now. It is a yellow wind warning, but it’s gusting in the right direction that way. So, if you’re on a gravel bike, which which part you choose? section with lots of roots or six inches from a Duncan. [Music] I know it’s one I’ve chosen the roots. [Music] Yeah, it’s another difficult section this. So, according to the map, this is uh Oakwood Marina and uh I don’t think the people in those safari hubs are going to have a good night if they stay if there’s anyone staying there. Anyway, wind is with us, but the toe path is uh not great. I’m not stopping for beer today. Sorry to disappoint Dave, if you’re watching. I know you like a beer or three. Just kind of want to get this ride over in dongers, especially now the rain stopped. Think chemical works though. [Music] Bike is absolutely filthy. Noises coming out of it as well. negotiate this little bridge. Now, [Music] of course, round here is famous for uh making a salt. [Music] And you want more information about that, I suggest you go check out Kieran’s channel, Bimbleism. He does a a little bimble to the salt works. Really good historical piece about it. So yeah, I recommend you check that out. [Music] Ah, Lion Salt works on that side. Yeah, definitely uh check out Kieran’s channel. He goes into detail about all that. I haven’t got time today or the research he does. [Music] So yeah, I’m just uh contemplating whether I’ll be able to make it beyond Runcorn. I don’t honestly think I’ll have the energy left. I’ve got enough fuel and hydration to get me there. I just don’t think I’ve got the fitness to get me to um to get me to Huntscross. So, I’ll probably start to get a train from Runorn. I’m not an anti- train. I’ll try and get another one which is uh going to be a bit more bike friendly, I think. [Music] Here we are. And there some boat lift. It’s uh closed at the moment because apparently it’s broken, but it’s it’s good to at least pay a visit. I just had to stop and stretch my legs for a couple of minutes. I’m um struggling a bit. Well, having said that, not as much as what the bike is to. Yeah, not looking forward to cleaning that. Let’s give it a rinse as soon as I get home as well. So, I’ got about seven miles to Preston Brook. So, let’s uh get cracking. Get a better view of it from up here. That’s the River Weave and Rever navigation down there. So only narrow boat fans will uh know the significance of this boat. I don’t want to give him a knock. See if he’s on board though. Looks like it’s all shut up. So he must be out. a sit rep 50 miles in. I’m probably on 5 miles from Preston Brook where I get to turn left to go to Runorn and uh yeah, I’m going to call it call it there to be honest. I get to run station, get a train because I’m just I’ve just not got the fitness. And that’s all right for me to admit that with the time off the bike I’ve had in the summer and the fact that I’ve not ridden this bike for uh a good five, six weeks has been off the road. So yeah, it’s a shame, but it is what it is. I’ve got the Trenton Mazy done, so I’m happy with that. Also got a little very little battery life left on phones chart. Got no charging cables again. So uh yeah, I think it’s best we just get home. So just arrived at the Preston Brook tunnel. You can see the little light at the end of the tunnel, which means there’s light at the end of the tunnel for me in a metaphorical sense. So this is officially the start of the Trenton Murzy. So can’t wait to get to Rugcon. So it’s 1.1 km this tunnel. So I’m going to get 1.1 km over it. Right, let’s get ourselves to corner and let’s uh get on our train. So fans of the show Two Pints will recognize that pub. It’s now a uh Indian restaurant and in Monorn. So, time to get the train. Yeah. So, that’s a distance total distance of 60 mi today. Absolutely knackered. So, I also dirty and the bike’s rotten as you can see. So, got another 20 minutes wait for the train. train back to South Parkway and then uh from South Parkway up to Formbby on the Mey service. So, thanks for watching. I’ll see you on the next one. Take care. [Music] [Music]
1 Comment
Now that was a wet dirty slog, well done, Sir 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 and that was what you call a sausage and bacon bap 👍🏻