Indian summer

Bright sunshine, paddling in rivers, climbs to Thor's Cave (no bears ... this time), duck feeding, ice creams, blackberrying and 14 miles of cycling on the Manifold Trail from Hulme End.

2 children on solos, one chilback tandem, one tag along, one tailgator, one burley trailer, one child seat, one brompton ...

The intention is to carry on doing a family ride on the 3rd Sunday of each month, but make it more of a gathering of like minded families who meet and go for a ride, as oppose to their being any particular leader. We should meet at some stage and agree wehre we would like to ride and then details can be put on this blog. They won't be advertised in the newspaper.

Having said that; On 18th October there will be a family ride in conjunction with a CTC ride and a Women's ride, all Tram-Assisted. You can join the ride by meeting at the Cathedral tram stop for a 10:00 prompt departure (adults £5 return, children £2) to the Waterthorpe tram stop from where we'll cycle, traffic-free, to Rother Valley.

Alternatively you can meet the ride at Rother Valley cafe at 11:00. From there we'll ride north through the country park and Woodhouse Washlands, all on good off-road tracks, to Treeton Dyke for a picnic. The woods around the water are lovely and there are boardwalks we'll cycle on across parts of the reedbeds.

We'll get back to Rother Valley for about 2:00 and then ride back to Waterthorpe for a 3:00 tram pickup, arriving at the Cathedral at about 3:45. We can arrange to pickup/drop off at other tram stops between the Cathedral and Waterthorpe by prior arrangement - just let us know (polytone@doctors.org.uk) where you want to get on or off.

Hope you can join them: its fun taking your bikes on the tram!