On a cool and wet day over the holidays I persuaded my son to take a walk along the Lancaster Canal Trail which follows the old Lancaster Canal:
For much of the route to Sedgwick from Kendal there are only relics of the old canal alongside the path:
However most of the bridges are still in place which looks a bit odd in an otherwise ordinary field:
At some of the bridges the remnants of the canal are a lot more obvious:
The stone edges to the old tow path make a safe and dry passage along the trail:
Not all the trail is through fields. There is a section through woodland where trees have grown in the old canal bed:
Its a bit primeval in parts with the moss covered old walls:
This is my favourite ghost bridge as its not even got any obvious canal with it. The only problem is that the water and mud collect under it:
As you pass Sedgwick the towpath is well maintained as it is well used:
After crossing the Sedgwick viaduct we abandoned our walk as we had covered 3 miles and my son was whinging too much:
We walked down the lane towards the river we past a host of beautiful daffodils:
Once following the river we followed the bridlepath which at times was too muddy requiring a deviation onto the adjacent desire path:
We then turned off onto footpaths through a wood full of wild garlic:
At this point the Kent was roaring across the rocks:
Not all of the path is in the woods and we walked across some fields too:
My son was truly miserable by the time we reached Hawes Bridge so we headed up the road back to the canal:
Then we just had to retrace our steps along the old canal:
Last year I used to run along this route and got an extra workout with all the stiles:
We finally got back to where the canal goes under Natland Mill Beck Lane:
As you can see the walk was a little bit on the muddy side:
Over the summer I am hoping to walk the full length of the canal from Preston to Kendal. Quite a challenge but I am hoping that I will raise money for charity by doing so!
