Ecclesfield to Grenoside

Self & Andy Wild from SCC checked out a potential alternative route from the TPT at Ecclesfield to Grenoside.(there are problems with the current route)  - basically the route he uses to cycle up to see his mum!

 This is the railway path up to Chapeltown - due for upgrading to the Chapeltown Greenway

 This is the railway path up to Chapeltown - due for upgrading to the Chapeltown Greenway

 Due to lack of thought in design, this cycle track ends rather abruptly! 

A link is needed here to carry the route across the main road and into the back roads. 

It looks like a viable route with a bit of tweaking. 

Staveley Trails Open Again.

The Trans Pennine Trail through Staveley, whilst not complete, is open again. A new marina is in the process of being built:

 This is currently the limit of Navigation for the Chesterfield Canal west of the M1. If you wanted to

take your boat to Worksop you would have to lug it over the hill (See Werner Herzog:-)

 Although the surface is not complete people were already enjoying the ride,

 Here we are approaching the new marina.

 The trail goes underneath the new road

 Get your priorities right! Cycle Parking already in place

 This is the site of the new Marina

 I wonder if they will twig that this is the way people want to go?

 Heading E towards Arkwright Town - new road crossing. 

 People joining the trail from Polsbrook Country Park

 The end of the trail - landfill site beyond here. You can pop out on the road before this and head down to the Arkwright, a popular CAMRA pub with good food,

The trail could potentially continue across here and link to the Nutbrook Trail, taking you further south towards Mansfield and Nottingham.

Building a lock, 21st Century style. 

Derby Ranger meeting

Had a great day out with the East Midlands Ranger group yesterday. We pedalled up the superb Mickleburgh Greenway, which is very well supported and looked after by people, had some great (& cheap!) food in a Camper Van sales place, and some good beer in the Flower Pot. Derby has benefitted from Cycling City status and has some excellent off-road cycle-routes, which is just as well because the road system is highly cycle-unfriendly. The group turned out to be jsut as keen to talk about campaigning issues as trail maintenance, and we had interesting discussions about 20mph, Free Range Kids and Cyclenation.

The day was only slightly marred by a 1.5hr wait at Langley Mill for a train (don't ask what I was doing there!)