So I headed down Butthole Lane, as I can't resist it. Although there are far more walkers and other bikes than at my usual time, so I even used brakes. Madness. Took a more meandering way to get to the canal start point to see a bit more of the city, then headed off. Gorgeous day, although I was saddened to see a concrete path to bike along. Since it had been raining I'd been hoping for more excitement on the ride.
No worries! Concrete changed to gravel (wheeee!) then a dirt track (more wheee!!), so lots of fun trying to stay on that and not fall into the canal. Which at speed, with tree roots, was a distinct possibility. Lots of people on the river, and a fair few fishing on the sides.
What caught me out a couple of times were the bridges, quite low where the track was (the bridge in the photo is a lot lower than it looks). Leading to emergency braking in a very muddy section, and much excitement as to whether I'd end up very wet, headless, or a bit of both. As I'm writing this, obviously my head is still attached (my touch typing isn't that good), and I avoided the drink too.
Quite a few pubs too, which I avoided. This time. And after a very fun ride, ended up in Quorn reasonably close to the railway (hence the link below). Pottered around there until I decided to head home, taking a slightly different route than normal. This had the win that I found a cycle track to Leicester, which is apparently only 12 miles (figure that's 16 from my place), so might do that next weekend. That ties in to me finding, online, what looks to be an excellent offie in Leicester. Came back through Nanpantan,which also involved more dirt tracks, woohoo!
Here's some pics, to prove it was a lovely day...
The map isn't the route I took (no canals marked) but gives an idea of where these bits are.
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