May 8th – Coming along the canal past Grange Farm in Walsall Wood (just between Black Cock Bridge and Clayhanger Bridge) I noticed the small group of deer in the coppice belt between the towpath and fields. Sheltering from the rain, they hung around and although skittish, allowed me to take photos.
One of the deer (not pictured) appeared to have a nasty sore on her snout, which was sad. They appeared to be healthy otherwise, though.
April 10th – Cycling the Netherton Tunnel is a genuine challenge. The towpath is now deteriorating badly; it’s full of wheel-snatching potholes filled with obfuscating water that conceals their depth and severity. Water continually drips on you, and occasionally pours. Although you can see daylight, it’s a long time away. And then, the relentless, unforgiving task of riding for twenty minutes or so in a 4-foot gap between a wall that curves closely over your head and a corroded, week handrail.
The relentlessness of it, the eyestrain and psychological effort of keeping alert enough to keep everything flowing is a real challenge.
But I love it every time I do it. I’d say it’s for the experienced cyclist only, and take a hat, jacket and good light. But it is fun.
April 7th – It’s that bird again, at least I’m assuming it’s the same heron I saw a couple of weeks ago on the stretch of the Walsall Canal just where it turns the bend at Pleck and heads off for Bentley.
Here was there late afternoon, enjoying the golden hour. I was trundling home from work, tired. He posed beautifully unperturbed by me, or his competition for angling rights further up.
This bird is a star and I adore it…
March 31st – At Clayhanger Bridge on the canal near Brownhills, there’s a sluice that allows the waterway to be drained into local sewers if necessary. I noticed today that it had temporary fencing around it, and that micropiles – stainless steel rods inside sleeve tubes and packed out with expanding foam – had been fitted around the sluice and along the adjoining canal bank.
This is clearly a stabilisation job, and I’m intrigued as there’s not real outward sign of such a thing being necessary – except for the fact that I suspect the bank and culvert may be subject to destructive erosion if used, which these piles may relieve.
The tops currently stood proud will be chopped off at ground level later.
Meanwhile, closer to Catshill Junction, the embankment has been falling away into the canal for over a year, and nothing has been done despite drawing it to the attention of the Canal & River Trust.
Most peculiar.
March 30th – The delightful spring day evaporated late afternoon, and the wind and rain drove me home.
Oh my days, it was grim. To quote @thestymaster, ‘Wetter than an otter’s pocket.’
Some days, you just count getting home at all as a victory.
January 23rd – A warning to fellow cyclists and walkers on the canal near Clayhanger Bridge in Brownhills. Some kind of work has been undertaken on the sluice set into the towpath, and the sheet steel covers now are proud with a void around the edges.
It’s a real trip hazard, and I can’t imagine what the people who left it like this were thinking.
Take care.
January 18th – A thoroughly gorgeous but cold morning, greying over to rain by the time I returned home – but in a convoluted series of errands that saw me go from Brownhills to Pelsall, Walsall Wood then the Ogley Hay and Burntwood, I noticed loads of great stuff. It was a fine day to be out, to be here, to be on a bike. it’s not often you can say that in January.
Small snatches of things – sun and mist over the canal at the Black Cock Bridge; the emerald green of winter crops growing well at Lanes farm; the view of Chasewater from the north heath. All perfect, really.
For the first time in a couple of winters, I note the canal towpaths are softening as they’ve been lifted by the frost. This is excellent, and how they’re designed to work. A good, hard solid freeze expands the water in the grit, leaving the track soft and muddy when it melts. This is then re-levelled and smoothed out by folks walking and riding over it, self-healing dips and potholes in the process. It works a treat.
A beautiful day.
January 12th – Just a warning to local cyclists that today, the hedge alongside the canal towpath at Catshill, next to Lanes Farm, was flailed. On the plus side, visibility is now great again over the hedge – this is important, necessary work that has to be done now before birds start nesting.
On the negative site, the towpath is now unavoidably strewn with that sharp enemy of cyclists across northern Europe – hawthorn spines.
I’ve often thought they should make planes out of the same stuff these thorns are made of – it can work it’s way through some very tough tyres, and causes about 80% of the flats I get.
If you’re not rocking puncture proof tyres (or even if you are) this stretch of towpath is probably best avoided for a week or two.
December 3rd – It was very late when I came home through Brownhills. There was a frost, and the roads, despite having gritted, were glistening in that menacing way winter cyclists know and are wary of.
I’m still rocking he new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres I fitted a few weeks ago; these revised rubbers are vastly superior so far to there older incarnation, and they’ve been excellent on wet, greasy roads. I wondered what they would be like on ice, so took them for a run up the canal towpath.
They seemed to hold the track well. Only time will tell, but so far I’m very impressed.
Watch out for the black ice folks, it’s a killer.
November 22nd – I had to nip to Aldridge in the afternoon, and on autopilot, rode up the canal, to find it still blocked off for works between Northywood Bridge at the back of Brickyard Road and the Wharf Bridge in Aldridge, between Stubbers Green and the town centre.
I had, of course, had warning of this previously from TheMadOldBaggage and Stymaster, and forgot; still, the diversion wasn’t too bad.
The closure looks set to continue for a while as they rebuild embankments. Look out for it if you’re up that way. If you remember…
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