We Tried Riding the Lancaster Canal Path and This Happened!

The can towpath isn’t visible on OS maps, but very much exists on the ground. Follow the tow path code and have a great time. It is an excellent gravel bike adventure.
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers/lancaster-canal

it is almost 100% off road and quite bumpy in places. There are plenty of places to stop for proper lunch, but not many places to just pick up a snack.

We started from Kendal town centre, and joined the canal where the towpath starts just outside the village of Sadgill. Aside from 2 places where there is a well signposted diversion, you can follow the canal the whole way. There are sections with lots of people where you must be respectful and give way a lot. There are also long stretches where almost nobody goes and you can rip along quite happily.

Thanks to the @canalrivertrust for maintaining these great riding trails. Their website has loads of information.

The bikes used were:
@fiftyonebikes4568 Assassin with the i9 wheels and Pirelli Mid Gravel tyres in 45c.
@TheTimeSport ADHX45 with Goodyear tyres in 44c.
@AvantiWestCoastRail were so helpful transporting bikes and there was lots of space. The tickets cost £36

Going on an adventure. Today we’re going to try and ride
to Preston via the Lancaster Canal. It’s an adventure
because it’s not really marked on the map. It’s kind of a towpath on the Lancaster
Canal website that you can ride the whole way,
but I don’t know if it joins up or not. Maybe even joined up to gas and docked. Anyway, we booked a train from Preston
to get us back to Kendal, and this is an unassuming signpost
just there. It’s the start of the go, so, it’s cool little thing. So I’ve got a train booked in six hours. Vic, Texas. And here in the UK,
you have to book your bikes on a train. So we missed that train. We’ve got a problem,
so we’re brought back. It’s about a hundred. It’s about 100 K. That’s got to see
it. There’s a few links up. you’re going south and you come across, a trail that looks like it’s, well,
not where to try it anymore, you have to come off
and do a little shimmy. I’ll try and record
a little shimmy across the road for you. Basically,
I think we’re gonna try cross the M6 motorway, which you might be able to hear
just on the side of that fence. Oh, cool. Even a little bike push bit. For this. It looks like
it’s not being maintained too much, but it’s just like a common dog
walking around some houses. Just over to our right. About $5 off to our left. So it looks like it’s on track of being in Bruce. Okay, so that was about an annoying case
worth of, like, grassy singletrack. Now I’ve got these rather knobbly
tires on fixed. Got a slightly more aggressive file tread. In all honesty, I think you would do that
in mostly a file tread. Don’t need a maybe a gravel slicks. Probably a bit
ambitious, especially if it’s wet. not to pick this up. There’s a field full of alpacas. This is also a bit of trial, isn’t it? It’s really good. Like downhill
singletrack, gravel gradient. And in the dream, this one. I’ll tell you what I know about you. I feel very English right now. Yeah. All the little pretty houses by the side. And the barges
and the barges and the people. Our dog walking and stuff. And that smell of roast
beef as you pass the pub. Yeah, it cost two pubs now,
and they both smell amazing. Yeah. Oh, I’m a history.
Like every little bridge. Will be stone bridges. Just. Yeah. So English. decay in and we’re just going through the city
of Lancaster City. That’s way more mils, more people. The surface is now completely
paved to the bridge. There’s more ironwork on all of the infrastructure. I like this evidence, all the old stuff
that would have supported the canal. might have noticed we’ve switched
to the other side of the river. There’s a little blue sign
that says glass and dogs. So, dudes, we’re told to follow the sign. Security cone, get a navigation two wrong. We’ve left the comfort of the canal
and I left hand side. So just looked at the map. Or actually we saw the blue signs to Glasson,
and we just noticed that up this hill. Yeah. Hill. First
bit of major elevation of the day is, look, looks like a little Sustrans route,
which is a cycle way. It’s actually going to run down
the estuary and take us to Glasson, and then hopefully
we’ll pick up the canal again. So rather than going out
and back to Glasson. Hopefully
this will be quite pretty by the seaside. Made it to glass and completely
housed a cup of coffee at a Cornish pasty. Anyway, this is the dream. We came here thinking,
oh my God, where are we going? To find some snacks. Anyway, there’s a motorcycle snack bar. There’s a pub over there.
The pub over there. There’s a cafe.
There’s a smokehouse. So much choice. What a cool little place. Anyway,
now we’ve got to get onto this canal. This is all the lock system here. But to Lancaster city center. Take a right on, you guys. Preston. Head south. Hey, Preston. Let’s go. Let’s This is so cute. This is the stretch from Glasson
to back to Lancaster. Hardly anybody on it. And it’s super fast,
like single track canal path. It’s being quite a lot of fun. And just over there
that you guys can’t see because it’s GoPro,
but there’s a heron to stalking a fish. Okay, so we turned off. Back in Lancaster. That stretch from Grafton was wicked fast.
Love that. Anyway, now we’ve got a right hand turn. If you’re going to be following this
route yourself. We’ve done 70 odd k. It’s now like 3:00. We got 2.5 hours to get to Preston. So, but if you were following this
and you’re a little bit behind schedule, you could easily
just jump on the train in Lancaster. But we’re going to try and hit
that train in Preston. 2.5 hours might be fairly ambitious. cone, get a navigation two wrong. Head south. Head south. Like I just track from, class on the latest. But I say this because, yeah, we were back
on it kind of the same way we k because it’s super fun just having a great time. Go back to Lancaster and was like, oh, we went too far. Now we have to ride back down. It to try and fight
the turning that we should have taken. Take us to Preston. But it’s really, really. Because right here on my way
home, there’s a big compass that says we were going due
north the entire time. We should have been going due south. I thought the it like having fun doing it. is what we missed. Big sign up there that says Preston went all the way to Lancaster
and then back again. It’s a good stretch, though. Yeah. Oh, we’ve come from Kendal a ton to the
whole way down to Kendall, to Preston. That’s what
we’re eventually going to get to Kendal. Oh, amazing. I got it, Preston. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. And how many days to take walking? We just. This is our second day. Okay. Brilliant. This is where we want to go. Look over there. Such a cute little bridge. Room. So we came down there
and we went down over there. I would just bridge. We the wrong way. Hey. We’re in Garstang. This is the little village of halfway
between Lancaster and Preston. Loads of canal bikes. It was so cool. Hey! Hello. Hello. Hi. To the size of this 124 39. Cycle of coupling. We are exactly two hours away
from our train. We just left the town of Garstang,
which is our last village, before we get to Preston. We’ve got to put the hammer down a little
bit, so I’m got to get train tickets, which you guys something
to eat on the train on the way. We did not make it too stressful. but exactly one hour to go. We are not in Preston yet. That last section was brutal.
Really bumpy. Draggy. Grassy. It really well not maintained until now. We’re back for something
a little bit faster. I’m a race against time. Let’s get into the city. Oh, yeah. This is all like it. Fell for me. At least I feel like the president now. Update time. 40 minutes to go. But to be honest, Christine
almost does not pack. Would put it properly. Virtually pavement. We’ve got to make it. Let’s do that. Preston. Oh, the old mills. Almost missed it. Look. That’s it. There’s water and then there’s not water. And that’s the end. Hold on. Vik. We did it! That was hot. So now we, We did Fun station. Yes we do.
Without mistakes. No mess. Let’s go. We made it. 20 something minutes to go. Platform four. Let’s go and get a fun drink. Talk about it. Okay, good. Excellent.