Tag: 365daysofbiking

#365daysofbiking On the dark side

January 5th – Not sure what happened here. it was a decent sunset as I headed from Newtown up to Sheffield on an errand, so I stopped to catch it at Clayhanger Bridge.

This image is not how I remember it: It seemed much lighter at the time, and far less dark.

It actually felt open, light and beautiful, not dark, brooding and dramatic as it looks here.

This camera is very strange sometimes, I must say. (And no, exposure comp wasn’t turned right down.)

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2sT4IYX
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Listed

January 5th – I went for a spin up the McLean Way – the rail to trail cycleway that Brian Stringer and Back the Track have been reclaiming on the old South Staffordshire Railway line that runs through Brownhills.

It’s a bit muddy in places but easily rideable on a mountain or off-road bike. The mud is shallow, and sits mostly as a 3 inch layer on top a solid ballast base, so once you cut into in, it rides well.

On the whole it’s brilliant, it really is and a credit to all involved.

This aqueduct over the former railway conducts the Anglesey Branch Canal from it’s terminal feeder point at Chasewater to Ogley Junction. The bridge is a nationally listed building, considered almost unique in construction and style.

It’s in a sorry state, and I think the Canal and River Trust will have to do a fair bit of maintenance before too long.

But it’s a beautiful thing, and incredibly well thought out.

Unusual to see if from underneath.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2tz7OkE
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Delicious progress

January 4th – And glancing at the GPS mid-ride, I noticed a simple, delicious fact: Sunset was now over ten minutes later than it was on the shortest day, ten days ago.

Already, we are reclaiming the night.

With drier, better weather this has meant the blessed, absence of dark until gone 4:30pm.

Winter, I’ll beat ya yet, you old rogue.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/36rCHX5
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Oddly peaceful

January 4th – It wasn’t particularly late – I think about 5pm, maybe 6. I was test riding after repairs. I’d relented and cleaned the bikes and done to urgent jobs on them. So a test ride around the bounds of Brownhills was very much in order.

I’d dropped down off Castle Gate onto Chester Road to burn in new brake pads, but as I pottered up the Chester Road back towards Brownhills, I realised there was next to no traffic and hardly anyone about.

I guess it’s the post-Christmas lull, but even the Shire Oak pub looked sleepy in the evening.

A peaceful, but somewhat odd, journey.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2QpNfjO
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Signs of life

January 3rd – And then, on my way home, in a familiar spot on the edge of Clayhanger Common, some old pals have poopped up to join me in my anticipation of spring.

So glad you all made it, I shall watch your progress eagerly.

Only the second day back at work and already reasons to be cheerful!

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2FpEsb6
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking First

January 3rd – Spotted in Pleck, Walsall, on the edge of wasteland – a flowering shrub. At this time of year!

No idea what it is, it has slightly shiny leaves and pretty little white flowers in an umbel.

I think alongside the gorse, this is probably the first natural bloom I’ve seen in 2020.

What a cheerful thing!

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2Fodzo6
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking On the spot

January 2nd – Crossing Clayhanger Common on the New Spot Path, it occurred to me suddenly that this was an anniversary for 365daysofbiking.

I started this madness on April 3rd, 2011 resolving to cycle every day of April, to do the 30 days of biking project. I enjoyed it so much I vowed to do 365days continuous.

The following New Year 2011/12, I was very very ill with food poisoning, and slain for 2 days in which I didn’t ride. So I restarted the clock in embarrassment.

So this is the eighth year of cycling very day, rain, snow or shine. That’s 2,922 days, on a bike every day, sometimes with multiple journeys.

It’s fair to say I like keeping the journal and love to ride a bike. I’m slowing up and getting more cautious as I age, but I’m still rolling down the hills and panting up them on the way back.

And I’m still haunting the locality at night, on my way home from work, unafraid to stop in the loneliest, creepiest places… Like Clayhanger Common – to document my life on two wheels.

I’m glad you’ve been there by my side. Thanks. It makes me less afraid of the dark. Not the dark of the night, but the dark of the loneliness of the commuting bike rider.

Here’s to another 365days under the wheels…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/35tew96
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Post haste

January 1st – In the grey murk of an overcast, darkening evening, the McLean Way really is more rewarding than one would think: There are delights along it’s length from the A5 to Walsall, from hand made benches, to spectacular views and curios like the landmark restored signal post at Clayhanger Marsh.

For me, it always looks better on a grey day, the better to imagine locos hauling coal, rumbling through here, climbing to the peak by the rear of the Swan pub before coasting down to Lichfield.

There might have been a young boy on the Brownhills Bridge, waving to the driver and giggling at the ground shaking.

But that’s all in the past now, ond on a dull new years day, this is a great place to take a breather and remember what was lost, and what was found.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2MJ136E
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Step right up

January 1st – Happy new year you guys!

A short spin out and up the McLean Way – the former South Staffordshire Railway line that’s gradually being converted to a walking and cycle route, extending the current one from Pelsall to Newtown, Brownhills.

Back the Track, the group doing the work entirely under their own volition have sought funding for gradual improvements, and working with Sustrans and others, a new set of steps with a handy-dandy cycle wheeling channel is now nearly complete at Bullows Road, just off the Pelsall Road, making accessing the trail much, much easier for walkers and cyclists.

My compliments to the team – it’s looking great thank you!

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2rLOY9D
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking In the dying hours

December 31st – So it was in the dying hours of 2019 I found myself at Ogley Junction, where I spent much longer than expected. I watched, and listened and thought about my surroundings: An owl over the old boatyard, traffic on the A5. Headlights on Middleton Bridge. The flashes of distant fireworks.The chatter of waterfowl disturbed by a fox.

This year has been arduous, and in places, very hard indeed. Keeping this journal is and has been personally challenging in terms of time and effort required, but I’m so attached to it I wouldn’t dream of stopping now. It’s an addiction.

I may, however, do more days with one post rather than two when busy in future. But my aim is true, I still love this thing, this place and the environment I ride in.

Thank you for following me for another year. I have no idea why you do so, but it’s most welcome. And in the dark and quiet of that old bridge, it didn’t really matter: The attachment I felt was key in those fading, dying, terminal hours of 2019.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2rJo7ec
via IFTTT