Milton Keynes to Paddington, via Grand Union Canal

[Tink1978]

Good luck! Take an Airzound for the fishermen!

tbh if you have the whole day you can get in some decent miles before anything is liable to get too busy and not be frustrated by it. At least if there's folk about people watching can liven up the ride.

In terms of being busy on nice summer days, I think the worst section by far is from when you hit Watford, thru Rickmansworth and up to around Maple Cross. There's plenty of permanently moored barges around here and people just seem to like hanging out by the canal on nice days (god knows why - I wouldn't find it relaxing to sit next to a busy towpath). It's not unusual to have people BBQing, sat round in folding chairs, etc. The good news is, should you wish, you can quite easily bypass this via the A421 and pick up the canal again after Maple Cross. The A421 isn't exactly scenic, but it's not too bad either. The canal should calm down after that.

Can you advise where we can join the A421 to avoid this part, and where do we re-join the canal? Thank you.

 

[Bodhbh]

Can you advise where we can join the A421 to avoid this part, and where do we re-join the canal? Thank you.

Hopefully this link will work. Literally the first thing you do when you hit the town via the towpath is pass under the A421 bridge. I just noticed Watford is on a bit of a dog leg anyhow, you could almost bail out at Hemel Hempsted and rejoin after Maple Cross - it would be a bit nicer via the lanes and villages....but takes quite a chunk out of the canal ride. I make 5miles thru Watford, Rickmansworth, etc via the canal - suppose, if you stuck to the canal and even if you had to walk the whole lot (unlikely) it wouldn't take much more than an hour to get it over with.

Sorry I think I'm starting overthinking this! GL with the ride however you do it

 

[Tink1978]

Hopefully this link will work. Literally the first thing you do when you hit the town via the towpath is pass under the A421 bridge. I just noticed Watford is on a bit of a dog leg anyhow, you could almost bail out at Hemel Hempsted and rejoin after Maple Cross - it would be a bit nicer via the lanes and villages....but takes quite a chunk out of the canal ride. I make 5miles thru Watford, Rickmansworth, etc via the canal - suppose, if you stuck to the canal and even if you had to walk the whole lot (unlikely) it wouldn't take much more than an hour to get it over with.

Sorry I think I'm starting overthinking this! GL with the ride however you do it

Thank you, I did have a look at the maps last night and had pretty much come up with that same route.

Perhaps if we have a couple of alternative sections planned, we can opt out of the Grand Union Canal route here and there if we need to make some time up if we're finding it's taking longer than planned.