# Transpennine trail Didsbury to Jacksons Bridge.



## I like Skol (8 Jun 2012)

Yesterday we had a nice trip out along the Transpennine trail from Ford Lane in Didsbury to just beyond Jacksons Bridge, Rifle Road, Sale. After a little experience of the NCN route 62 last week when I was in the area on my road bike it was decided to return and explore a little more with my 2 sons in tow. The youngest is only 6 but an enthusiastic rider and the older lad is 9 and a very capable rider. We were lucky with the weather, the worst we got was light showers which was just as well because when we unloaded from the car I discovered I had left all our coats in a pile on the hallway floor 





Obviously no fashion aspirations here!

Rather than following the strictly correct route of the TPT I opted to ride along the north bank of the Mersey out to Chorlton Water Park. This meant ignoring Simons Bridge at the bottom of Ford lane and sticking to the grassy track. If you look on a map it's a fairly torturous route that meanders around the houses but is more pleasant than the alternative past Didsbury golf club. The only down side to this is that it gets quite sandy in patches which can be hard going for some, and in other places the surface seems to be made up from roughly spread builders rubble including full house bricks. Definitely a route for MTBs. We diverted around Chorlton water park where my son had a bit of a springwatch moment....




Stangely we could see a heron moving around on the edge of Heron Island and my oldest son also swore blind that he saw a kingfisher when we passed Kingfisher Island at the other end of the lake.

I had intended to include a lap of Sale waterpark once we got there and then head back but as I was navigating from memory I thought I had missed the turn, so shortly after passing Jacksons Bridge we turned back and headed into Jacksons Boat pub for hot choccies.





The return journey was a bit different as we headed up onto the Princess Parkway to follow the official route of the NCN R62 into Northenden. This is actually slightly perturbing because as you follow the path it leads you down what looks like a possible motorway slip road but actually turns out to be just a bus lane to avoid the motorway junction. This eventually leads you around to a lovely old church on Church road/Ford lane and from here it is simply a matter of following the quiet road past Didsbury golf club and once over Simons Bridge retracing your steps back to the start.

On the whole not a bad trip for travelling with youngsters. Would be lovely on sunny day but i am not sure how less capable cyclists would cope with the sandy stretches and the rubbley bits?


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## 400bhp (8 Jun 2012)

Nice pics mate - Jacksons bridge can be a right PITA when you have a child in a child seat. 

I await the mess that will be made around there once they start constructing the tram bridge across the river.


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## skudupnorth (8 Jun 2012)

Good write up matey,looks like you got away with getting glooped up aswell ! The route is nice from Sale water park under the A556 and further along towards Warrington and not too bad even when it rains.


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## potsy (10 Jun 2012)

Nice write up ILS, glad you enjoyed it.
Like 400bhp says it will be a mess I'm sure with the Metrolink work, there's already a section you are meant to walk thru, though I see plenty that don't 
I only started exploring this trail a few months ago so don't know it that
well yet, but the bit after Jackson's bridge if you carry on the river trail is a decent length of all offroad stuff


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