Last Saturday I was looking for something a bit different to take Holly out for a ride on. I wanted to do a long ride without too much climb and not bumpy for my back. I did think about going up into the Peak District to do one of the long paths which are based on old quarry railway lines but I wanted to find something closer to home. A quick google around and a check of the Sustrans website found me the Isobel trail. This follows the old railway line out of Stafford towards Gnosall and beyond. To start with we had about 600 metres of road from home to get down to the canal side but from there it is cycle paths of varying surface quality all the way from Milford into Stafford!
Some of the signing isn’t great if you don’t know where you are going but Id definitely do it again, though the canal path could be a little muddy in winter in places.
We had a quick ice cream stop in the park before heading out onto the Isobel trail itself which starts a little secretly behind Stafford station. It is very straight and very flat but you do get good rural views from the path, particularly when it comes up onto embankments.
With a tiring Holly we decided to call it a day in Gnosall and turned off into the village to find some food. We found a fantastic little café called Gastronomy and had really good lunch before heading for home. I had a little trouble getting Holly going again but after moving the Garmin from my handlebar to hers and getting her to concentrate on keeping the speed over 12 kph we soon found ourselves back in Stafford after retracing our wheels for another break before the final stretch back to Milford and an up hill finish
The Isobel trail is not up there with those in the Peak District but for a local one for kids with little or no climbing its great (with an excellent café!)
Total ride time was about 4 hours – 39 km - nice one Holly!
http://www.cycle-route.com/routes/Old_Railway_Line_Stafford_-_Gnosall-Cycle-Route-3479.html
http://thegastronomyshop.blogspot.co.uk/
