19th July 2020 ride to Hawes Water (Page two)

- Page one - Route - Ride report -

A view of Greater Willowherb at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Meadowsweet at at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

White Clover at at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Not very good photo of Harebell at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Red Clover at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Daisy at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Marsh Woundwort at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Yarrow at side of Towpath of Lancaster Canal near Tewitfield.

Butterfly Bush ( Buddleja davidii) at side of Kellet Lane near the Bridge over River Keer.

Trees in field at side of Kellet Lane near Over Kellet.

Ride report by Simeon Orme It was one those weekends where you get good day and bad day for cycling, on the Saturday I got soaking while I was cutting the greens at work, its on of the hazards of working outside for living and tend notice the weather cycles coming and going but one thing we started to notice over past years, when gets to around the start of school holidays in England, its the start of monsoon season and does not stop raining until September when the kids go back school, this may Northern England thing, they do tell me they better weather in Southern England. On Sunday it was rare days in July where we had full day of sunshine. So getting back to ride report and if don’t live in North Lancashire, will not know that are two Hawes Water in the North West England the famous one is the Lake District National Park and other one is in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which I think is about the third smallest national park in England and often over look my those folk dashing up the M6 to Lake District National Park or the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The Hawes Water in Arnside and Silverdale ANOB was my destination for this ride, you should note that the route around Hawes Water is part footpath and part bridleway, so you need get off your bike and push it along footpath part of the route before getting back on bike to ride along the bridleway. So I was a bit late setting off, so I followed the lanes from Halton over to Neither Kellet, where I stop take photo of Wild Teasel using my new to 18 mm to 135 mm lens which looks to be good lens for most of my ride photos except those close up photos of flowers which I use my Tamron micro lens for, once the photo was taken, I headed into Neither Kellet, then followed Back Lane down into Carnforth. Normally I would have stop at Refreshment Room on Carnforth Railway Station for brew and cake but we not in normal times, so I heading out of Carnforth on the public byway to Warton and then headed through Warton. In Warton, I did stop take photo of St Oswald, before starting climbing up the Coach Road to start of the bridleway along Occupation Road. The first part of bridleway is bit of push of the bike and to ride up it would need mountain bike with very low gears. Once you get to top of the climb it plain sailing with regards riding along the track, I was soon back on tarmac again, a group were out from ladies Lancaster Cycling Group following the tarmac towards Warton, I was heading in the other direction down to the hamlet of Crag Foot and then followed the tarmac across Leighton Moss before heading up the Row for lunch stop on bench by Bank Well. After my lunch stop, I followed the lanes around to Red Bridge and then lane down to start of the route around Hawes Water. Has point out before you need to push your bike along footpath part of route before getting on it to do the bridleway part of route. It usually worth effort as some good views looking across Hawes Water which is small tarn and some interesting wild flowers to look at and in my case try to take photo of, normally when Leighton Moss RSPB nature reserve is open the route around Hawes Water is not that busy and you may see only few other folk on the path around the tarn but on today’s ride path was quite busy for some reason. I was soon back on the tarmac following it around Gait Barrow before following the Permissive bridleway across Thrang Moss and then bridleway across White Moss. This track is always quite and sometimes you may see some of local deer at side of bridleway across White Moss but I not lucky enough to see them on this ride. I was soon heading along Nineteen Acre Lane towards the A6 which cross over and then followed the lanes through Cinderbarrow before heading down towpath of Lancaster Canal to Tewitfield. Then its the slow climb along Kellet Lane back Halton in the Lune Valley. You can click here to see photos of 26th July ride up Roeburndale and down Littledale or you can click here to download 24.5 mile route or you can checkout the What’s New Page to see what’s new on the site and you can also sign up for site’s free weekly newsletter.