"The 10 o’clock muster at the guide hut saw the following “Wheelers” discuss the day’s cycle route; Ian S, Dick, Jeff, John P, Jeb, Aiden & me. Ian was first to suggest a route that took in Knappach and possibly Drum for coffee but Dick was determined to head west and check out how the river bank was after the rain and all agreed with this!
The initial part of the route took us up the Glassel road, round by Inchmarlo and down to the main road, there were a few slips on the ice but no one was unseated. We crossed the main road and headed down toward Jim Christie’s house and with some talk of shotguns we chose the more cowardly route of heading west towards Woodend.
Remarkably all seven stayed in a pretty tight group and this was the case for most of the day. There was much reflection on the flood damage and several stops were made along by the river bank to spot the difference! The photo was taken at a spot where a hut used to be but there was much relief when Miranda’s Veranda was still standing! A Neanderthal man wearing Freewheelers’ gear was seen swinging by the river, photo attached.
Further discussion led to us attacking the Sluie hill and the vast majority remained in the saddle, we then headed up a rough, wet, icy track to the Craiglash Quarry road where it was decided to head back by Glassel and a welcome coffee stop at Teas. At this point I was bullied into doing the blog and I wish I had been paying a bit more attention to what was an excellent route.
John P's route map shows:
Mike supplied the Neandarthal Man photo:
and Dick the team photo:
Mike's "Jeff" looks distinctly like Ken P to me!
Dick's Strava shows the distance covered was 25 kms with 273 metres of climbing.
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