Canoe with a View : : Canadian Open Canoe forum

After an extreemly busy two weeks, last Friday saw me furiously packing and loading the boat on the Car at Lunchtime ready for a Grand Prix style exit from the works car park at 16:30...

The destination this weekend was Winsford Bottom Flash, the start of the newly created Weaver Valley Canoe Trail. The purpose, to see how much improvement has been made making the run down to Frodsham easier for Canoes after a failed solo attempt in 2007...





I was scheduled to meet up with Andrew (Borgwitha) at 17:30 and with the Friday night traffic it was looking tight, but we managed to get to the Flash Car Park by 17:35, where Andrew had been entertaining himself and waiting patiently all day...

By 17:45 we were on the water and heading under Town Bridge and out into the countryside...





It wasn't long before we got into our stride and gently made our way down the canalised river...





Our destination undecided, we knew we weren't going to get as far as the 'official' campsite "Woodbine Camp Site" at Acton CW8 3QB (Tel: 01606 852319), but I had a number of options in mind for a Wild Camp depending on the available light....

Soon we were passing the Salt Union Salt Mines....





Some would call this an ugly area, however the existance of the Salt mines is the reason why the river was canalised and they provide the centrepiece of a rich and diverse historical background to the area that deserves further investigation by anyone visiting...

At 3km, and just after the mines the river opens up into what looks like a country park, is crossed by New Bridge and provides a second starting point for the Trail...





It was here that we came across the first real signs of the Canoe Trail, two pontoons with very small portage signs attached...





I'm guessing that these are going to be linked to the bank by a walkway at some point, as at the moment they are just islands and serve no purpose other than narrowboat moorings...


A little further on we came across the Bywash slucies that heralded our imminent arrival at Vale Royal Locks, the top of the bank, river left is kept well and could provide a pleasant quiet place for Wild Camping if you are pushed for light...

There was plenty of wildlife in this area, this Moorhen was chilling on a piece of flotsom....





And the Heron was happy to pose for me...





On reaching Vale Royal we were presented with another pontoon connected to the bank and an offset set of steps up to the raised footpath...





If we would have taken this option, after unloading our gear and carrying it up the steps, then loading it back into the boats, we would have been looking at a 300 metre portage down to the put-in...

Another pontoon lead to by offset steps, with the handrail on the inside of the corner.., where we would have had to empty our boats again and carry all the gear down...





Luckily there is another 'unofficial' option...

Exit the bank river left opposite the pontoon and drag your boat and gear up the low grassy bank....





Put it on a portage trolley and take it the 20 or so metres along the top of the bank and down to the bywash were there is an easy put-in....





A short paddle down the wash brings you out onto the main Navigation and takes you under the Vale Royal Rail Bridge carrying the West Coast Main Line....





The river, from here down to Northwich is wide and very, very quiet, the footpath river left is well used by runners and dog walkers and you'll get a few cheery hallo's from people....

Passing underneath Hartford Bridge carrying the A556, and home to a rather large flock of pidgeons...





...we shortly came upon Pimblott's Boat Yard, once a thriving boatyard on the Weaver, Isaac Pimblott was the founder, the boatyard is now looking a little run down, but has a variety of interesting craft to see, including, I believe, the I Francis, which, it is told, was sailed across the Atlantic (see Here http://iwn.iwai.ie/v29i2/ifrances.PDF ) ...





After Pimblott's, civilization starts to make itself felt and Hunt's Lock comes into view....





The get out is close to the the locks, River left, it was obvious and relatively easy...





Walking alongside the locks brought us to a stone road, take the road NOT the grassy path that is frequented by dogs..... following it around to the right...





After the trees there were two cuts in the shrubbery, the second one, although narrow was found to be most suitable, there are no signs indicating where this access was and I would imagine that it could be quite difficult to spot...





Andrew was wearing shorts, and suffers with a similar fear of the deadly English stinging nettle as Warthog , so while he was bringing his boat over I got to work with an expensive wooden paddle, in an attempt to make his life a little better.....





After about 3 minutes of Beating, Chopping and Flailing a perplexed looking face appeared at the bottom of the steps, there was a Fisherman just to the left of the steps who couldn't work out what the heck was going on....

Ian turned out to be a very friendly and affable chap and didn't mind at all that we were disturbing his peace and quiet....

Before we took the boats down I checked out the construction of the steps and was glad I did, they are held in place with pieces of Angle Iron that protrude ABOVE the wood and would have ripped a gouge out our lovely Bob's royalex light the size of the one that sunk the Titanic if we had slid them down , Ian informed me that they had been constructed by volunteers from the fishing community so it's understandable that they're not fit for sliding things down them....

Bob safely back on the water....





As we left we wished Ian a Cheery Bye and hoped he caught something Big and Edible....





After Hunt's Lock we passed through the centre of Northwich Town, we passed under two beautiful swing bridges that I failed to get shots of, but this is one of the bridges taken in 2007... Not sure if it's the Hayhurst Bridge built in 1896 or Town Bridge built in 1899 (I think it's Town Bridge), but they were both the first two electrically powered swing bridges built in Great Britain and were originally built on floating pontoons to counteract the mine subsidence.....





Very quickly after the bridges we were presented with this sorry image. On my last trip this was the site of the bustling "Floatel Northwich" the UK's only floating hotel, it was shut in January 2009 when the owners went into administration, sadly, as can be seen it looks like a fire has left only the pontoons visible....






On exiting Northwich we continued our journey northwards before turning left at the confluence of the Weaver and the Dane, unfortunately time and a setting Sun prevented a forray up the Dane....





By 09:30 we had reached the Anderton Boat lift and with the sniff of Real Ale in the air Andrew easily persuaded me to make this our stop for the night, there's a Visitor Centre at the Lift that I wanted to check out in the morning....





We had the gear and boats out of the water and the tents up in double quick time....





And the decision was made that Beer took priority over Food.... The trusty Oregon 300 took us the approximate half mile up the gravel path, across the carpark and over the canal bridge to the left straight to a warm welcome at the Stanley Arms, where we sat high above the Trent and Mersey Canal looking out at the countryside and Chemical Plant that looks like it was designed by the creator of The Wackey Racers, Andrew was not impressed with the design.., although I found it interesting in a wierd sort of way.....

We chewed the cud, discussing Walking, Mountain Bikes, the way the Internet has revoloutionised social interaction and how much Andrew likes Cake (forget about a Carrot, if you want Andrew to paddle faster just put a piece of cake on the front of his boat...) by 11:30 we'd sunk a couple of pints and it was time to get back for some proper camp scran and a couple of Wikky an's

The next morning dawned beautiful and bright, we got a call from FrankB and Adrian saying that they were sorting out the shuttle and would be leaving Acton Bridge soon and heading upstream to meet us, and that Phil (Liverpool Paddler) had joined them...





Plenty of people were walking their dogs, running and bike riding through the Anderton Nature Park, everyone, including our narrowboat neighbours were very friendly...





And the Chemical factory opposite looked impressive in the morning light...





The Anderton Lift Visitor Centre didn't open until 10:00 so we mosied up to have a look around there at 09:45, it's nothing to get into the Cafe/Shop area and there are good clean toilets available, it costs a measly £2.00 to get into the exhibition area, this is mostly text based and there's a lot of information about the lift, so if you want to make the most of it you need to allow at least an hour...

By 11:00 ish we were on the water and ready to pass by the boat lift, which was opened on 26th July 1875 as a commercial response to the costly problem of transshipping goods between the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal and designed by Edwin Clark, the Weaver's development being driven by the Salt industry in Cheshire and the Trent and Mersey by the Pottery industry in Staffordshire....





Not long after leaving Anderton we passed under Winnington Road bridge carrying the A533..





And then past Andrew's majestic 'Wackey Racers' Factory....





After this the River returned to it's serene way, and the short journey down to Saltersford Lock was magnificent....





The get out, River Right, at Saltersford hasn't changed much, but is not difficult if you've not got a dopy Dog, that can't swim, with you...





It was here that we were greeted by the smiling faces of Phil, Frank and Adrian and Frank promptly got a brew on for us.....





Once I'd scared the Bejesus out of Bryn, the Lock Keeper, and the Occupants of a narrow boat, by executing a perfect "shunt and drop" of the boat off the dock we were on our way....

Adrian in his Lime Green Apache....





We passed by the 'Official' campsite, it didn't look too appealing, it was chock full of white boxes, but would serve a purpose if needs be....





Another 1Km on Acton bridge carrying the A49 came into view, where the Guys had put-in that morning, there's a couple of hostelries here if you were to fancy a bit of refreshment....





FrankB was loving his latest aquisition and was in possession of a homemade blade that to be honest did an excellent job....





With another 1.5Km under our keels Duddon Locks came into view....





And here we came across the resting place of the 'MV Chica'...





After hauling the boats up the grassy bank River Right, I decided to ask the Lock Keeper (Fred Coppernail) about the sunken wreck..., I didn't plan on the answer that I got.. I've done a bit of research and this boat has faaarrr too much history to go into here so I'll give you a brief taster...

The MV Chica was built as a fishing boat and launched in Norway in 1894 with the name 'Flora'. During WW2 she was commandered by the Germans, renamed 'Bjorg Haukass' and was used to patrol the Fijords. In 1965 she was renamed the 'Lill Tove' and then after being bought by the amusingly named Straight Shipping Company (amusing because it seems anything but straight), she was renamed 'Chica' in 1981. In her life it is purported that she has been used as a Blockade runner in the Med running guns, an offshore bank with her own currency, the 'Chical' one Chical being the equivalent of £10, she's run Coca Cola to the Angolan Rebels, has been a Brothel and a Luxurious Tour boat... She sank in 1993 and is, unfortunately, destined to spend the rest of her life where she lies.... There's lots more, but that's for another time....


From the Put-In below the Duddon Lock this railway bridge can be seen, the white footbridge to the right built in 1919 and refurbished in 1994...





We stopped for a final brew at a location that Phil and Andrew felt particularly drawn to....





Before finally making our way under the A56 swing bridge...





And another railway bridge with the M56 bridge in the background....





After which we came to our Journey's end Runcorn Rowing Club...





The best get-out was just after the club house River Right and Andrew saw fit to do a little Irish Jig to celebrate completion of the trip....





Finally a group photo of our merry little band....



A little long this one, I know, but hope you enjoyed reading it....

Thanks guys, it was great to meet up with you all again, hope to see you out on the water soon.....

Cheers
Red.

aheck of a tt red... i must ask though... do my eyes decieve me or does that tent change colour? its just... in the first picture of it... it appears to be blue... only the morning after the night before it seems red? all in all... a great read with a fair bit of info crammed in there good going dude...

A very good TT Red, well done

Looks like a rather top paddle old son, 10/10.

Cheers
Tim

(27-07-10 02:43 AM)mark_mjs93 Wrote: [ -> ]... do my eyes decieve me or does that tent change colour? its just... in the first picture of it... it appears to be blue...

If you look at the first picture, Andrew is folding out the fly....

Cheers
Red.

Excellent TT Red, Was there myself only a month ago and you stopped in the same place as us for the night.

good to see Andrew out of hibernation too

Andy.

Good read Simon and thanks again for putting the trip together - my only regret is that my embarrassingly cheap flat water BA lets the pictures of me down - I may have to suffer the W/W one next time just to look good - or do a Risk Assessment a la Phil and go bare back.

regards

Andrew

Superb TT Red. Well written, descriptive, humorous, historical facts, its all in this one, excellent. Thoroughly enjoyable read and great photos.

Looks to be a great little trip. You'll all have to do it all over again so I can come too!

Nige.

Oh, by the way!

I do like the lime green Apache!

Nige

(28-07-10 10:52 PM)Nige Wrote: [ -> ]Looks to be a great little trip. You'll all have to do it all over again so I can come too!

Just give me the dates and you're on, I'll be paddling this quite a bit between now and next year....

Cheers
Red.

Useful Information - I didn't spend Friday waiting for Red at the car park - I paddled up the Weaver about an hour and a half to the weir at the gauging station - a really lovely trip with falling trees and fast water making it a challenge in places - whilst recuperating at the Bottom Flash I met a couple of old boys in a rowing boat who are local river experts - there are terrapins to be seen near the upstream entrance to the Weaver from the Bottom Flash. When I told him of the tree hazards, he said he'd go up with his snippers and sort it out - he does this every year he says. Definitely worth doing this upstream bit before the trail - with less water you can get as far upstream as Church Minshill (?) according to my rowing pals.

cheers

Andrew

Hi Andrew....

Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound like you hung around all day, by entertain yourself I meant just that...

You mentioned that you might be up for joining us on the 2011 New Year's Day paddle up the Weaver from Bottom Flash... the links to the last two are below....

2009

2010

Cheers
Red.