Mmmmmm......

No biking this weekend, as Maz is working, but as it's been a gorgeous day, got the BBQ out and tried something I've been thinking of for a while, pizza. A revelation!. I'll be doing this again!.

 

 

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Racing the storm!

A wee pre-nightshift spin tonight, with no jacket or anything....

Which was fine until I got to the viewpoint atop carrick hill, and saw the storm moving in from the north, very fast, and complete with biblical thunder and lightning. Crikey.

I never managed to beat it...

Midweek Lakeland escape...

 

As it has become evident that my shift pattern is changing, after 16 years of having a week off every month, I decided that I'm going to use the last remaining ones to best effect. So a wee plan was hatched, friends were invited, but I knew they were all working, so off on my tod I went to the Lakes.

After a reasonably early start, and a quiet 3 hour drive south, I pitched up at a lay by just outside of Glenridding, next to the mirror like ullswater. First up was a long farm track which terminated with the rocky climb up toward grisedale tarn, and then on up the steep pitching steps to dollywaggon pike.

 

 

This part of the trail is pretty busy, as it's part of the coast to coast route through the area, from grasmere over to patterdale, so there were lots of incredulous looks at a big sweaty scot carrying a bike up a mountain, all cheerful though!. Once up on the plateau, and heading over nethermost pike toward helvellyn itself, the views were absolutely astounding all around, from high street in the east, scafell pike in the west, Skiddaw and blencathra to the north, and even Blackpool tower and heysham nuclear power station to the south!.

 

Looking west over the langdale pikes

 

Path up Ill bell

As I was on my own, I had made the decision to ride at maybe 70%, to avoid a tumble on what can be very exposed and rocky terrain! but to be honest! I wouldn't do this again. The lakes cannot be ridden at 70%, full concentration! commitment and a bit of speed is required. Lesson learned. Once up onto the summit, the views were even better.

Ullswater from helvellyn

 

Striding edge

 

And again...

 

Descent off helvellyn..

All that was left was the descent down sticks pass, and as I said earlier, I took it too easy going down there too.

Sticks pass

20 minutes after getting to the car, I was in Ambleside YHA, for a bath, change and then a well earned bite and beer, before retiring early due to a bigger day the next day.

A quick bite for brekkie, and I parked the car at the bottom of dubbs road for a wee cheeky assault on some footpaths above kentmere!. The plan was to climb garburn, but instead of descending down the usual route into kentmere, carry on up Yoke, over Ill bell, froswick and thornthwaite crag, before turning west over Mardale Ill bell, and descending the famous Nan Bield bridleway, then taking the high Borrans route back to the car. Cracking day, I'd definitely do that again.

Leaving garburn pass

 

And off up onto Yoke

 

A wee pal...

 

Windermere to the south

 

Path up into ill bell

 

Ill bell summit

 

Nan bield switchbacks in the centre of picture

 

Ill bell from thornthwaite crag

 

Western fells

 

Harter fell down to nan bield

 

The lakes in one picture. Sweet.

As everyone I know knows by now, I love the Lake District. Haste ye back...

 

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Who says there's nae hills in the shire?

 

I've been trying to get some of my fellow Glasgow MTB club members down to ayrshire for a while now, and the mayday weekend possibly wasn't the best time to ask again. Anyhow, my mate Graham made it today, and joined Robin, Stu, Julie and I for a day of quality pity trails, real ale, and good food.

Weather was surprisingly good, 13 DegC for most of the day, which made the huge amount if climbing tough. As we were showing Graham around, we wanted to show him as much as we could, which meant a hell of a lot of climbing. A baw hair short of 4000 feet to be precise.

Great day, great trails, good food and beer. Home for a shower and a curry, and plans for heading up to Yorkhill children's hospital tomorrow to see our wee niece, the wee soul.

Good weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

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Something a bit different...

 

I've taken a while to get this post written, but to be honest, with the weather being so good of late, sitting down doing this hasn't been top priority.....

Anyway, last weekend Robin, Klaus, Steve and myself all departed from the ferry terminal at Ardrossan, bound for Arran and a wee jaunt up the west coast to fort William. Captain no-show was supposed to be coming too, but another call off put a stop to that!. Our first priority, before we could even begin to enjoy the trip, was to make the ferry at the north west port of Lochranza to claonaig over on Kintyre. It's not what you'd usually consider tight, time wise, as there's 75 minutes between getting off the Brodick ferry, and making this one, but a toughish headwind and bikes laden down with gear made it tighter than it shoud. 11.59 for the 12.00 sailing is indeed cutting it fine.

This bought us more time to enjoy the ride on the other side, and time also for a spot of lunch in the wee fishing port of tarbert. Our intention for the next few days was to follow the cycle path, NCN78, all the way to Fort William, via a nights camping in Lochgilphead, and a cheap hotel stay in Oban, and then the train back home.

 

As we had decided not to carry food (there's plenty stops along the way) we were travelling reasonably light, with around 9kg of packs on my bike, this meant no need for a back pack, which takes a lot of weight off of the body and is far more enjoyable. I'd taken a bit of a gamble on the weather, and only really packed light weight waterproof kit, and no spare clothes, so all the diners around us along the way would just have to put up with the 'fresh air' we were creating.

 

Fortunately, the weather was reasonable pretty much the whole way, except the odd shower on the first day, and a constant drizzle on the last day, which wasn't too bad, as the pub in FW had nice big radiators, and the train home was warm too!.

Our first day was over 60 miles and took us through North Arran, crossing the Kintyre peninsula to kennacraig, and on to tarbert, before taking the longer route around the whole knapdale peninsula, and eventually up and over the long climb from loch caolisphort and dropping us down into ardrishaig, and finally Lochgilphead a few miles further on. It was a pretty long day, and the food in the marina inn was destroyed in jig time, before retiring to 'camp' for the night. It was a pretty long night, as it rained constantly from about 4am, and the wind battered my wee tarp on and off in loud squalls.

 

Next morning, we waited out the rain til around 9am, meaning a late start to the day. This was another long day too, which starts off with a flat 15 miles all the way along the crinan canal and north through the beautiful kilmartin glen, before heading along the hilly northern shore line of loch awe.

 

 

Another nice lunch stop (there's a pattern forming here!) in dalavich, and then on and over the hills into taynuilt, before another undulating road over into Oban, by this time it was nearly 8pm, and another day of just under 60 miles under our belts. I'd booked a cheap hotel, the regent, in Oban, which was perfect for our needs - clean, central and with a decent breakfast in the morning to look forward to.

Our plan was originally to head back from Oban on the train, but klaus had talked us into headin on to fort William instead, which I'm glad he did. The last day wasn't too long, and was far flatter than the previous two. We were in the town for half past two, so had time to dry out before making the 17.37 connection to Glasgow.

Great weekend, I can't be bothered typing any more, and the pictures aren't great either, as I had the camera at the wrong setting all weekend!.

 

 

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Day of the triffids.

Saturday was a day I was looking forward to all week, a days biking and then meeting up in Glasgow for food and a comedy gig. I got on the train early on to meet Graham, a mate of mine from GMBC in the west end, then pedal out to milngavie to meet the others, and Robin who was driving to the start.

There were only five of us, as the club social was the night before, so hangovers possibly made some folks minds up. Off we went, along the west highland way to carbeth huts, but to be honest, I'm not really sure where we were after that!, as Graham and Chris knew these trails, the rest of us just followed along. Our aim was to get up and over auchineden hill, aka 'the whangie' a wee hill popular with Glaswegian climbers for years as it has a few accessible scrambles and is not far from the city.

 

The hill itself is a tale of two trails, the climb up being grassy and quite wide, whereas the descent was a hoot of tight, rocky singletrack, I'm sure this won't be the last visit here. After that, we had a wee bit of road work, before heading over the moor to auchengillan, where a scout camp was in progress. Great to see youngsters embracing the outdoors, fires being preferred to iPads for a change.

Back onto the WHW for a wee bit, and familiar trails such as Rosie's, fire breaker, boardwalk and eventually the riverside back into milngavie. Robin then decided to show us his flora identification skills, whilst pedalling alongside me, pointing out weird looking triffid like plants down by the allander water. So amazed by these triffids was he, that he veered into me (you know I'm right robinho!) and the two of us ended up in a tangled heap on the Tarmac path, much to amusement of a forty something ned. I think we made his day!.

So 40k later, back on the train home to get scrubbed up for the evening ahead, great day.

 

 

 

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Locally sourced....

I've had a really good weeks riding this week, just riding around my local trails. On Monday I headed out for a nightride up to dundonald hill, but got sidetracked in the 'secret woods' trails in the middle of Troon on the way. It's just a little woodland area in the middle of troops most salubrious area, but at night it does feel far more rural. There must be around 2-3 miles of lovely rolling, rooty singletrack, which is perfect for some XC training laps. I'll need to fit some interval training in here this year.

Tuesday was an even nicer ebpvening than Monday, must have been one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen in the shire, but I forgot my camera. Idiot. I had an hour or two messing about on the jumps at Auchincruive, before meeting Julie and two old riding mates of mine, Craig P and big JC. I've not been out with them for ages, so it was great to show them my local stuff, as they are from Kilmarnock, so anything is better than their local trails.

Thursday was our usual figure of eight loop at fairlie, accompanied by Robin and my puffer buddy, kaiser klaus. The trails up there are still muddy, but not as slick, so hopefully they'll continue to drain and show us how good they are in time for summer.

3 nightrides, no rain. Great week.

 

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