The bonnie, bonnie banks...

Saturday morning saw me heading up the M77 to Milngavie, to meet up with the club for our annual 'sociable ride' out the West highland way to the Oak tree inn at Balmaha. This was the clubs fourth time doing this ride, but my first, so I was looking forward to something new.

We left around 11am, after some pretty good coffee at bullands cafe, and kept a reasonable pace for a group of over 20 riders, reaching Drymen at about 12.30, just in time for more liquids!. Half the group made for coffee and a spot of lunch at the Drymen Inn, the other half opting for beer at the Clachan. You may be surprised to read my opting for coffee, but the night was young...

After some pretty shoddy service and frozen scones at the Drymen Inn, beer filled bellies were dragged up to garadh ban forest and the beginnings of Conic hill. There is actually a pretty decent rocky descent to conic hill, but that was quickly forgotten as the trail turned to a treacherous mix of bedrock and inch-thick ice. Pretty much most of the climb was covered on the heather at the trail side with bikes up on shoulders. It was all worth it though, as the view over the bonnie banks opened up in front of us....

This caused us to pause awhile, to soak up the vista, you just don't get to see the loch like this very often. I'd never ridden on Conic hill before, but looking at the ice laden path down to Balmaha made me long for a return when the trail can actually be tackled, as its a right rockfest. We had another stop on one of the wee whale back tops on the way down our chosen grassy descent, which was incredibly fast due to the rock hard ground beneath. We actually stopped quite a few times, as if to almost suggest that we didn't want to hit the bottom, and give up on the beautiful sunset....

The last wee section is super steep, but loads of fun, and then drops you onto the lochside path, the it's a couple of miles along to Balmaha, for beer, dinner, beer and a well earned sleep. The food was pretty much your average pub grub, but the 70 shilling was a lovely pint, and the bunkhouse itself proved fabulous value considering a full Scottish was included in the morning. After dinner I had a blether with lots of different members of the club that I hadn't met before, as I've only been a member for just under a year.

We headed back along the westie the following morning, fuelled by haggis, sausages and all the other MTBers favourites, no stops in Drymen this time though. Sunday wasn't as nice a day as the previous day was, and was a fair bit colder due to us having turned around into the chilly easterly which had been at our backs the day before. It was a pretty split up group which rolled back into milngavie, for many reasons, but mainly a liberated pannier, which had gone undiscovered, hangovers and weary legs!.

More coffee and cake, and it was time for the drive home. Really good weekend, I'll do it again, and I'll definitely be back up for a return to Conic hill, probably doubling it up with a wee mission up Ben Lomond. That's one to really look forward to.

 

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