Specification on bike tyres says inflate to 90 psi, but chickened out at 75. Seemed hard enough to me. 
Hummed along to the canal towpath at Rode Heath and joined National Cycle Network 5. Set off south towards Kidsgrove in glorious sunshine with a light cooling breeze which was to last for the next 4 hours. Left the towpath at this place 
and crossed over the main road through Kidsgrove onto the continuing route up the side of Tesco’s carpark and along the disused rail track to Tunstall. Good surface all the way. Stopped off in Tunstall Park in Victoria Park Road 
for a sandwich and people watching for a while. Looked over the memorial clock tower there 
to William Adams’ dynasty. Rejoined Network 5 and took in Westport Lake, Bathpool Park and both ends of the Harecastle Tunnel. The tunnel keeper at the south end provided me with this map, without which I’d never have managed and after a couple of more miles of varied terrain 
reached the original towpath 
and on to Kidsgrove and home to Alsager.
Must have been one of the best days of the year as far as the weather was concerned and I was pleased to be fit and free enough to enjoy it in this way.
This sounds like a great day. I’ve forwarded it on to my colleage Clive, a keen cyclist, as he is doing a presentation on maps soon…
You make me want to do the journey too! If only I had a bike…
Hello Jim.
Thanks for sharing your day out. Sounds like it was a good one. As Beth mentioned, I’m into bikes and maps – would it be OK if I borrowed your image of the tunnelkeeper’s map? I’m interested in the way we’ve lost the habit of making helpful hand-drawn maps and this is a lovely example!
And how fantastic to have met someone whose job title is ‘tunnelkeeper’! You don’t meet many of those at parties.
Ride on,
Clive
I’d have taken the tyres all the way to 90!
What camera did you use – your DSLR carried in a pannier?
Didn’t take a camera this time, took the bike on my return with my finepix, got the Tunstall Park ones off t’internet, scanned in the map and had the others from a previous walk to Harecastle.