Route 63 to Moira and beyond

Last week I had a proper chance to ride Route 63 north west through Measham and on to Moira and Church Gresley where the route currently ends. I thought I would share a few thoughts and some pictures that I took...

Going west from the Route 63 junction with Route 52 (south of Heather) the route heads through Newton Burgoland and arrives in Measham by quiet country lanes. At Measham (by the library) the route becomes traffic free and uses the Ashby Woulds heritage trail to Moira and Conkers. Beyond this there is more offroad riding through the National Forest to the current end of the route at Church Gresley.

I really enjoyed riding the route - especially the offroad section which I think would be an ideal venue for future child / family friendly cycling events.

The route was well signed and maintained (well done Shawn) and all I did was to clip a few branches overhanging branches. There were just a couple of issues as I saw it:

1. The trail was difficult to pick up in Measham (Keith and I have put up some signs now, would be interested to know if othrs think this works)
2. Route 63 currently follows two different routes around Conkers (straight through or a canal detour to Conkers Waterside).- You can see this on one of the slide show pictures and map - I found this confusing. Having spoken to Patrick he says that current best practice is that there should only be 1 route and that we should "unsign" the canal loop. This seems a shame and I would like to find an alternative. I will discuss with Shawn.

If any of you have not cycled the route before I would recommend a trip out. A personal favourite spot for me Moira Furnace on the Ashby canal section.

Happy cyclin

Alan