indeed:
(The following is little more than background information on canals for anyone who might be interested. It is not authoritative.)

I assume you're somewhere on the Leeds/Liverpool canal.

If your barge (and your nerves) were up to it, you could try "crossing" the River Ribble* , which puts you onto the Ribble link, leading through a multi-locked stream-turned-navigation onto the original Preston-"Kendal"** canal, and eventually its branch to Glasson Dock (change here for the Irish Sea).

* actually involves 5km of navigating a fairly... interesting tidal river-mouth. As far as I understand, you'd need a radio & spare engine & life jackets & flares & advance booking & calm weather at the time & suitably wet weather beforehand, if you wish to make the crossing. Lack any of that, and it's no crossing for you. In most cases; having been designed, equipped, and purchased solely for inland waterways with neglible currents, few recreational canal boats (or mariners) are ready for this.

** But it doesn't actually go to Kendal any more. It stops in a field by the side of the M6 (near the village of Tewitfield), since some daft sod built a motorway across it at level grade. Since you can't slope canals, the long-discussed plan to re-open the full length would require either:
A/ Dig under the motorway and add a couple of locks.
B/ Build an aqueduct over the motorway and add a couple of locks.
C/ Reroute the canal horizontally, as far as necessary until theres a point where they are at different levels and don't need locks.
D/ Build at least one Boat lift to raise/lower craft to/from an aqueduct/tunnel.
E/ Rebuild the motorway to gently ramp over the canal like it should have done in the first place.

Options A and B would probably require additional expensive works to supply the water to work the locks. Option C would probably require a long distance of new build canal, and certainly a bunch of small bridges & utility rerouting. Option D requires the ongoing maintenance of heavy machinery. Option E would probably require a major roadworks and a partial-to-full temporary closure of a major motorway. Every option is some shade of expensive, potentially more so than revenues would justify.

(Oddly, the canal was bridged over near Carnforth, just three miles south.)

So, for the foreseable future, you could get near the official edge of the Lake District National Park in a canal boat; but it's at least 8 miles as the crow flies.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 23:01, Reply)