Three to Spike Island

Shent and Andrew.

 This Friday I was joined by Shent and Andrew on the Friday Night After Work ride to Spike Island, at Widnes.
Its just a 5 mile ride there but seeing as this was Andrews first ride out with us I thought 5 there and 5 back would be a nice distance.

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Trans - Penine trail at Sankey with Fiddelers Ferry power station in the background

We set off from Princess St. and rode past Gateworth Tip to enter the Trans - Pennine Trail that runs along the Sankey Canal.

Heres a view of Daresbury science lab that you may remember seeing in a previous post.

The Ferry marina

Across the River Mersey towards Daresbury.

On finals for John Lennon. Gear down

Runcorn Bridge comes into view.

Spike Island

 Arriving at Spike Island which is where the Sankey Canal meets the River Mersey.
This is where we were to return back due to Andrew being a new rider and we thought that 10 miles would be a good distance for a first time out, but he was keen to press on a bit further and extend the distance so we decided to ride over Runcorn Bridge and return back on the opposite side of the river.

Lock gates joining canal to river

Runcorn Bridge

Starting the ride over the bridge, a plane can be seen on its approach to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

 Above is a photograph of the footpath that goes over the bridge. Its good to be completely separrated from the traffic. There was a sign asking cyclists to dissmount but as can be seen there was nobody about so we rode it.

looking down at the Mersey below.

The power station from the opposite bank of the river.

 This is actually a shot of the Manchester Ship Canal which runs more or less parrallel to the Mersey on its southern side. I took the photo from the end of the wooden pontoon seen below.

20 miles in all.  NOT BAD FOR A NEW LAD.