Saturday Bike Ride

The other day I spotted a new Letterbox series just south east of Manchester not far from Stockport.  It looked perfect to do by bike as it was along a new cycle route.  We'd originally planned a walk in the Lakes this weekend but the weather wasn't looking great so we decided to head over to Stockport to do this series instead.

First things first

We parked at Stanley Green Retail Park in Cheadle Hulme to start the series.

The series starts off on the bike route that follows alongside the original middle section of the A555 that was completed in 1995.  Once you reach Woodford that's where it joins the newly opened section which continues on to Hazel Grove - this new section was only opened late last year.

The series was really well thought out and all the caches were easily found - apart from this one >> which took a few minutes to spot.  I won't give anything away here but after 12 years of caching we have never seen a hide like it, it was one of those 'hidden in plain sight' caches and very hard to spot as it blended in perfectly with the surroundings.

The series is a linear route and we cycled 12 miles.

One of the caches we couldn't search for due to a group of walkers that had stopped for a break so we found that one on the way back - that's one of the benefits of a linear route.



We rounded off the day by having a walk around Chadkirk near Romiley which is just east of Stockport.

Chadkirk Chapel

A bike ride round Sandwell Valley Park

Last night Mark had asked me where I wanted to go caching today, my feet were feeling really sore so I suggested we do some cyclo-caching instead to give my feet a rest. A quick look at Memory Map and I spotted a series in Sandwell Valley Park which looked fairly bike-able, so this morning we headed off with the bikes on the back of the car to do the Valley Series.


20 caches + 10 extra on a 13 mile bike ride.

We parked in the car park near to Valley Series #12 - Hole In One, found that one first, quickly followed by Forge Mill Farm & Lake

Forge Mill Lake

Nice clean bike near the start

We then followed the track on the south side of the river doing the five caches down as far as Trunkoflage thinking there would be somewhere to cross over. There wasn't!
After a bit of a slog back along the river, we continued on the north side of the river round to Valley Series #13 and beyond

Choo Choo - but where is it?

Has someone lost an ear?

After finding #20 we made our way round to Bluebell and through the very fancy gate into Sot's Hole Nature Reserve

Very ornate gate

Carved bench - Sot's Hole Nature Reserve

Aww so cute

Ice House Pool, Priory Woods

Had to lift the bikes over the stile at #1, apart form that the series is pretty bike friendly...

My bike wasn't meant to do this sort of terrain!

... as long as you don't mind a bit of mud! :-)

Muddy at the end of the ride

Completed the 13 mile bike ride in 5 hours 39 mins and found 29 caches.

A great caching weekend with fantastic weather for January!

Sandwell Valley Park