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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071 |
7th June 2018 Mt. Biking: Montgomery Canal Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods and warm. Max Speed: 15.49 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 15 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 7th June – travel, relax and bike **** Lower Frankton along the Montgomery Canal to the end of the navigation – sunny periods and warm. No problems in the carpark at Dale End Park, Ironbridge - we didn’t think there would be anyone enforcing the no overnight camping rule. Headed off mid-morning, checked out Coalport and Much Wenlock but we had been all Heritaged out so didn’t stop at either! Then up to Shrewsbury to pick up the A5 which goes all the way to the North Wales coast. We are keen to bike to the apparently stunning Pontcylite Aqueduct so headed to Frankton Junction in hope of finding a quiet spot. We ended up at Lower Frankton accessed by some very narrow country lanes and one of the steepest humpback bridges we have ever crossed! We found the perfect carpark right by the Montgomery Canal, unfortunately there was a man with three noisy terriers parked in the best spot. He was a nice man and we had a good chat and he said he was leaving mid-afternoon so we had lunch, read and when he left we moved over. A canal boat then moored for the night just above us and he showed us his canal map book and said that the Pontcysyllte on the Llangollen Canal was 11 miles from here so doable on a bike and that the Montgomery was lovely. The navigation for this canal had been allowed to grow over and stopped after 7 miles and that a section towards Welshpool was undergoing restoration so that seemed worth exploring. So, well rested, we left the van at 3.30 and biked over the steep bridge and headed up the Montgomery which was indeed very pretty with little access from the road. There were long straight sections and for the most part the tow path was good, a little hard going on a grassy part but whizzed on a nice hard-core section! We only saw a couple out searching for a kingfisher, some fishermen and the odd narrow boat. We came to three locks at Aston and a couple of old lift bridges finally reaching Gronwen Bridge and the end of the canal for narrowboats but the tow path continues all the way. We continued to another bridge with a board blocking the way with a canoer just about to turn around but we carried on. This section was very clear and shallow but full of fish and tadpoles. After about a mile we came to where they were working and it was interesting to see the canal empty, some had been cleared by diggers then the next section was completely overgrown with no water, to think there must have been many hundreds of miles of canals like this before the Canal Trust did some amazing work to open them up again and, as important, maintain it! Then all we had to do was bike 7 miles back, after stopping for half a kit-kat each near a lifting bridge just as a narrow boat went through. We think it is the first time we have seen one of these working :) we fairly shot back covering 15 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes with a top speed of 15.49 knots. Should be in for a quiet night with only a few narrowboats for company and then if the weather is good tomorrow we will go Aqueduct hunting! Photo Gallery Here |
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