Look what I have found...

[ThinAir]

Less than 30 seconds ride from my back door....

Only lived here for 3years, and have drive past the entrance to this and never even spotted it... (The entrance, not the track).

Not had chance to find out exactly where it goes, but I am guessing that it probably follows the route for a nearby river (which I also had no idea was there until I found this), and goes on for around four-five miles.

I hadn't got anything planned for tomorrow, but I certainly do now.

Owning a bike rules. Especially my new hard tail....

Here is another photo of it....

Lots more exploring to do I think!

 

[Keith Oates]

The photo certainly makes the trail look interesting so I hope your recce ride fulfills the expectation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Snapper88]

Care to give me your bike? ;P

 

[ThinAir]

Care to give me your bike? ;P

If I win the lottery, you can have first refusal

Only got it last Friday, after waiting 6 weeks for the LBS to get it in from Germany. First MTB I have owned in a while and I love it!

 

[potsy]

Whereabouts is it thinair?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

If I win the lottery, you can have first refusal

Only got it last Friday, after waiting 6 weeks for the LBS to get it in from Germany. First MTB I have owned in a while and I love it!

It's a nice looking bike, what is it?

 

[ThinAir]

@potsy, it's in, Bolton. Off Hag End Brow.

If you stick 'Hag End Brow' (I'm guessing there is only one in the UK), into google maps, you will see a wooded area immediately off the road, to the north. It's in there.

From looking at the aerial photos on google maps, I'm figuring its probably around 2-3 miles before it hits another main road, but obviously the path of the river goes for miles!

I'll let you know some more when I've ridden it, hopefully tomorrow, weather permitting as I have heard its not going to be great.

 

[ThinAir]

It's a nice looking bike, what is it?

Thanks, buddy. It's a Felt Nine 70, so pretty basic, but for £500 ( with a pound change), I must say, I am more than happy with it! Not had chance to give it a full working out yet, but first impressions are very good.

 

[Snapper88]

Is a very nice bike. The matt black look is hot on the right bike (this being one of them)

 

[ThinAir]

I shall pass the compliments on to the bike. We are flattered

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Thanks, buddy. It's a Felt Nine 70, so pretty basic, but for £500 ( with a pound change), I must say, I am more than happy with it! Not had chance to give it a full working out yet, but first impressions are very good.

Looks great, I love the Matt black look.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I see I'm not the only one to love a nice looking Matt black bike.

 

[potsy]

I see I'm not the only one to love a nice looking Matt black bike.

Ping @vickster

 

[ThinAir]

Here's "kind of" a ride report... I was having way too much fun to actually take in where I was or what was going or what I was doing. I'm not sure if that is an indictment of the activity or the route itself.

I was out for about an hour, and covered around 9 miles.

I got onto the trail near to hag end brow, in Bolton, and took an easy-ish ride along the bit that I had already explored, then just kept taking random left and right turns into what looked like interesting bits of the area, where it looked like other people had been.

I ended up crossing the River Tonge near to Leverhulme Park. There is a bridge that takes you over here, although the water is pretty low and (appears to be ) fairly slow moving on the top, and the river bed looks to be made of some kind of shingle. I wasn't taking any chances, although the temptation was pretty strong, I resisted

Ultimately,I ended up on the Leverhulme Park Trail, which looks to be a way marked trail, however, some (I assume) little genius has spray painted over some of these making it tough to see which way the arrows are sending you!

Found some interesting sets of steps to descend, and some great little climbs that had me looking for all sets of gears quite quickly, but this has enabled me to get a grip of these pretty damn quickly!

I came home soaked through, covered in mud (as was the bike, which was lovingly washed when I got home ) and felt pretty awesome.

Can't wait to go out again tomorrow, probably to the same place to see what happens when I take different turns to what I did today. Hopefully will get to know the routes and will be able to pick out things to make them more interesting.

Looking forward to getting out further afield. If I can have this much fun in Bolton, I can only imagine what it will be like in north Wales and the lakes!

Here are a couple of pics I took along the way....