An Early Morning Ride

Today I dragged myself out of bed, far too early for full consciousness,
and on a rare day off, determined to go for a solo morning ride.

If you are hoping to find great technical detail, cranks length
selections, tyre
choices, you will be disappointed. If you expect to find descriptions
of my superbly skilled moments in the ride, then sorry, there were
none. On fairly easy terrain I stopped counting the UPDs at 10. I
could have probably stopped counting at 20, maybe even 30. Those
looking at the accompanying pictures will only find a very basic cheap
unicycle, so nothing to excite them there either. But I hope that
those who enjoy a simple unchallenging ride in gorgeous surroundings
will enjoy it. It contains so little unicycle specifics, that I
wondered whether to post in JC.

I had walked the route before a couple of times, and now hoped I was
finally good enough to be able to ride it. I wasn't, as you will see.
I was given a lift to the Ring o' Bells pub, in Marple, Cheshire for
the start of my ride, somewhat before 7.00AM. My driver was very kind
considering his lack of sleep, complaining only that the pub was closed
at this early hour. As I often do, I had chosen to ride a canal towpath
and this pub is but a few yards from the Macclesfield Canal. I rode to
the bridge and then descended the slope, walking. The bridge is a
fascinating curly design, which in the past enabled horses to change
sides of the canal without having to unhook the boat rope.

The slopes are steep, and cobbled, and I was neither daft enough and
nor skilled enough to try to ride them, even in the dry. I was worried
because as the car disappeared into the distance, some gentle rain had
begun to fall, and I was totally unprepared for riding in the wet. But
it eased and then stopped after a couple of minutes sheltering beneath
the bridge.
Back round and across the bridge, and the towpath is a wide, flat
section passing by some boat moorings. A few narrowboat owners are
getting their first taste of the morning air and wish me a pleasant
good morning. At the end of this section, the wall and the land behind
it have collapsed across the towpath. A scattering of pebbles has been
placed across the grass as a bypass pathway, and they cause my first
UPD of the day. I rode across them nervously, and they rewarded me for
doing so.

A few more yards and I reach the end of the Macclesfield Canal, for
here it joins the Peak Forest Canal, completed in 1804 and used in
those days to transport limestone from Derbyshire to Manchester.
Derbyshire right ----, Manchester left ----. The towpath and bridge
is again arranged so as to allow barge/horse transit without needing to
untie the rope.
I go left, which I know will take me past a long flight of downhill
locks. I want to see if I can ride the slopes down past each of the
locks. At the second lock there is a narrowboat, rising in the lock
chamber. Each of these locks has one gate at the upstream end, and
twin gates at the downstream end. I don't know why, so I asked the guy
who was opening the upstream gate. He said that, because the
downstream gates were
three times the height, it mean't that it was much easier to open the
half width gates against the water pressure. I mumbled that it seemed
to be a good logical explanation, and only realised two locks later
that it was a complete nonsense: when you open the gates, the water
level each side of the gate is the same, and so only the bottom 3 or 4
feet of the gates would be in the water. There must be a good reason
for the added complexity of a double gate though.

The canal now passes below a road, the first of two , and I managed to
ride through the oval tunnel ( horse shaped I believe ) below this
road. The stone work gets very eccentric here. Why the tunnel? The
barge rope still has to be undone. The horse could have easily crossed
the road. And right next to it is a peculiar narrow tunnel with steps
to allow a person to reach the towpath directly under the bridge. All
a bit superfluous, and quite an intriguing bit of stonework. I didn't
get through the tunnel completely unscathed. My head and hair
collected the homes of several spiders en route.

Shortly afterwards one of the home owners had to be evicted from
another place he was finding comfortable. I fished him out and hope he
also likes his new residence in the canalside dry stone wall. I
continued on down and 4 or 5 locks later reached the second roadway,
with a second barge and bargee. He didn't know either. Crossing the
road, the canal continues down through the locks, each with quite a
large lock pound. The slopes between are all quite steep and either
gravelly or cobbly or both. I UPDd on every single one, falling
ungracefully flat on my face once, grazing the heel of my right hand
and slightly hurting my right ankle.

Eventually I leave the locks behind, passing below the old stone and
cast iron rail bridge. The stonework has a vertical crack for its
entire height, but I suppose the cast iron structure above holds it
safely in place. Soon after is the aqueduct: a 7 foot wide channel
across an old stone arched bridge, carrying the canal high above the
River Goyt. In the picture you can see that the other side of the
aqueduct has no wall, no barrier of any kind. When I last walked along
here, three teenagers were jumping across the canal, landing on this
narrow strip, and stopping just before they fell over the edge and into
the river. I dropped a stone over the bridge. It took two and a half

seconds to hit the water. Those of you who miss the MikeFule puzzle
page could now calculate the distance a teenager would fall, assuming
similar aerodynamics to my stone, before he hit the shallow water at
the bottom of the ravine. For everyone else the aqueduct is 100 feet
high. Crazy kids, but the view is spectacular, encompassing the
railway bridge, which is even higher than the aqueduct. Riding is far
easier now that I am on the flat, and although the UPDs do not stop,
they are now caused through tiredness. I ride slowly and have even more
time to watch the waterbirds: Mallard, Canada geese, and moorhens, one
of which has two very newly hatched fluffy black chicks. Already they
swim well. There are plenty of fish ringing the surface, mainly very
small, and I see none more than about 4 inches long. They are hard to
see because the water has been muddied by the passage of narrowboats.
The canal continues through a stone cutting a hundred yards long, whose
purpose I can only guess at. Soon after I have to leave the towpath,
for the canal enters a tunnel that looks to be 3 or 4 hundred yards
long. The towpath , in a fit of cowardice, does not follow the canal
into the oblivion beneath the hill. I understand that, before diesel
engines, the bargees would lie on the boat roof and walk along the
tunnel roof to propel the barge through the tunnel. I pause to wonder
if you could ride the unicycle along the tunnel roof to similarly
propel a barge. Deciding not to wait for the next narrowboat and
conduct the experiment, I shoulder the unicycle and walk over the hill,
past the tea shop, to rejoin the canal the other side of the tunnel.

Once past the factory, the scenery is again very pleasant. The clouds
have largely gone, the sun is now shining and that, with the gentle
breeze ruffling the trees, makes a very pretty scene. A few houses
started to appear as I rode nearer to Romiley, some use the canal bank
to enhance their garden, and although they have done it very well, I
would have preferred the wild look had it been left to grow just by
itself. I was by then feeling tired and thirsty, my mouth very dry. I
had not thought I would be out for quite so long. But I stopped to eat
a few of the blackberries that grow in
considerable numbers along the towpath. Problem solved in a delicious
way. The whole of this stretch, from the aqueduct onwards has
woodlands sloping steeply down to the left, and might well be ideal for
a more adventurous unicyclist, but I stayed on the towpath and tried to
freemount. Bad idea, my ankle was now hurting considerably more and I
would have to rest it. Journey's end. I shouldered the unicycle, but as
I walked, it made a regular clanking noise, once every two steps. On
looking at it I could not see
any problem, and there is no noise when riding. Very strange. Kitchen
table job later.

I walked my way back to the tea shop, and whilst drinking tea and
eating scones, phoned for rescue. I expect the ankle will recover in
a couple of days, and am not too annoyed with myself for failing to
complete the journey. And UPDs: I always expect them and am never
disappointed.

All in all a very nice trip out, I saw just three people the whole
time, no silly
questions, no worries, decent weather.
There should be some pictures in the post.


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--
Naomi

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Nice write up. Is the "puzzle" that you were be surprised by rain so
near to Manchester?

The lock gates: all lock gates leak. This means that even when the
top ones are closed, water leaks into the lock chamber. This causes a
slight current that tends to close the bottom gates. The lock chamber
then slowly starts to fill.

If a boat approaches from the lower side, and the difference in water
level is only an inch or two, then the gate can be opened without the
rigmarole of raising the paddle and equalising the water level. This
is where having two small gates instead of one large one may help.

(The pressure is the same, whatever the size of the gate, but the
pressure is acting on a smaller surface area if the gate is just over
half size.)


--
Mikefule

"The world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls, and
on the other the devils in it."
Arthur "Cheery" Schopenhauer
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Mikefule wrote:
The lock gates: all lock gates leak. This means that even when the top
ones are closed, water leaks into the lock chamber. This causes a
slight current that tends to close the bottom gates. The lock chamber
then slowly starts to fill.

If a boat approaches from the lower side, and the difference in water
level is only an inch or two, then the gate can be opened without the
rigmarole of raising the paddle and equalising the water level. This
is where having two small gates instead of one large one may help.

QUOTE]

Agreed very entertaining write up. Nice pictures too.

Lock gates: suppose the last boat through had been moving up the
lock. the leaks are now from the lower gates. The current ( or
conscientious boatman ) closes the top gate. So now is someone wants
to go down the lock, he has the inch or so of height difeerence across
the full width of the canal because it is one gate. So would it not be
just as useful to have the top gate as a pair?


--
Muniacal
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Nice description and beautiful scenery! Looks great for uni-ing. But why
no pics of you? Maybe a shot of you & your uni with the nice scenic
backdrop.


--
terrybigwheel

Impotence: Nature's Way Of Saying "No Hard Feelings".

Uni is just a cycle I'm going through.

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Muniacal wrote:

Lock gates: suppose the last boat through had been moving up the
lock. the leaks are now from the lower gates. The current ( or
conscientious boatman ) closes the top gate. So now is someone wants
to go down the lock, he has the inch or so of height difeerence across
the full width of the canal because it is one gate. So would it not be
just as useful to have the top gate as a pair?



If the lock is empty, it will start to fill up because of the leakage.
The leakage through the top gate is under more pressure than the
leakage through the bottom gate.

So if someone approaches from the top when the lock is almost
completely empty, they will need to use the paddles to adjust the water
depth anyway. It is only physically possible to push a lock gate
against an inch or so of water pressure.

If the lock is full, then the bottom gates will elak, but this will
cause only a slight current, nowhere near the top gate. That means the
top gate can stay open indefinitely. A boat approaching fromthe top
can therefore drive straight in.

The lock is the narrowest part of the canal. It is 70 feet long (22
metres or so) and about 7 feet (2.2 metres) wide. Any water leaking in
through the top gates will cause a slight current at the lower exit.
Any water leaking through the bottom gates will cause little or no
current at the top.

That's my theory, anyway.

Double gates are more expensive to make. Thus, whilst two pairs of
double gates might be marginally more perfect in operation, having
double bottom gates makes more difference than double top gates.


--
Mikefule

"The world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls, and
on the other the devils in it."
Arthur "Cheery" Schopenhauer
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cathwood wrote:
I would like to ride the path or not. But it's only about one unicyclist
in width and is right next to the canal. I'm too afraid of falling in.

Cathy


In my experience, the unicycle goes in, the rider just looks silly.


--
Mikefule

"The world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls, and
on the other the devils in it."
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Naomi wrote:
The canal now passes below a road, the first of two , and I managed to
ride through the oval tunnel ( horse shaped I believe ) below this
road.

First assume an oval horse...

Enjoyable RR, BTW.


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Danny Colyer

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Danny Colyer wrote:
First assume an oval horse...

Enjoyable RR, BTW.



Cheers Danny It is actually called the horse tunnel: see

http://www.marple-uk.com/locks/bridge18.htm


--
Naomi

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cathwood wrote:
Great write up Naomi. Looks like a lovely ride. D'you know how far it
was?

Also, aren't you afraid of falling in the cannal? I work in Chester at
the moment and go home via a canal bridge. I have glanced down the
canal occasionally and thought about whether I would like to ride the
path or not. But it's only about one unicyclist in width and is right
next to the canal. I'm too afraid of falling in.

Cathy





Hi Cathy, and thankyou. With the exception of a short stretch that
was maybe 5 feet wide the towpath was at least 8 feet wide, and often
much more. The ridden track was usually less, but there was grass
either side. So I felt pretty safe, as as Mike has said, I think the
unicycle is far more likely to bounce into the water. (especially a
coker!) But keep away from the locks and the water is rarely more
than about three feet deep anyway. When I have ridden along other
sections of the Macclesfield canal, the towpath in places was very
narrow, but I wasn't really worried that I might fall in. The unicycle
falling in did concern me. But I had a 5 metre length of cord coiled
up in my pocket, and tied around both my waist and to the seat. When I
fell off the cord was pulled from the pocket, and had the uni gone into
the water I would have just hauled it out and dried it off. I would
be in more danger riding a pavement the same width, cars don't make
such a soft landing. If you can ride a pavement, a canal towpath the
same width should not be much harder, apart from that infernal gravel
covering in places!.

The ride, looking at the maps, was somewhere around 2 to 2 and a half
miles, but I take it easy in short stages, so it was more like 10 rides
of a quarter mile.

Leaking locks: I am tending to see Muniac's view more than Mike's.
The top lock gate is actually far less tall than the lower gates, the
lower part of it being solid immovable stonework. And it only has two
joints around which water can leak. Assuming all sluices are closed.
The lower gates have three joints and are probably 2 or three times
taller. So with a full lock I would expect them to leak more than the
top gates would with an empty lock, carpentry etc being equal. Left
to its own devices a lock would, I guess over a period assume a level
at which both sets of gates leak equally. Have to consider ground
leaking and leaking through stone joints to be realistic too I guess.
But what I don't understand Mike is your suggestion that similar
leakage rates through the gates would result in a higher current flow
due to the lower gate. Unless of course I have misunderstood you.
If an upper gate leakage of say 10 litres per second causes a current
past the lower gates of x metres per minute, then surely 10 litres
leakage through the lower gate would cause a current of x to flow past
the upper gate. The canal depth just above the upper gate being
similar to the depth just below the lower gate.

However, how about this for an idea? Water flow in the lock chamber,
when either filling or emptying includes a downstream flow component.
This would tend to push a boat toward the lower gates. If the lower
gates meet in a V in the middle, then the boat cannot pose much of an
obstruction to the gate being opened, once the filling or emptying is
done, because the point of the V stops the boat from going too far.
The top gate opens away from the boat in any case, so no problem.
That's my theory.


Not sure if it is THE reason. Double gates are more expensive to make,
and also need a bridge to allow you to operate them both. There has to
be a cost/advantage justification.


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Naomi

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that sounds great, and what a beautiful place to be riding in. I am
super-jealous.


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