Mike's meanderings etc

Prior to Thursday morning's Freewheelers ride there were as many as 8 solo rides recorded on Strava since the last blog report on Monday's events:

• Monday - John M - Glassel - 10 kms - 115 m
• Tuesday
• Jeff - Feughside - 16 kms - 307 m
• John M - Finzean - 34 kms - 356 m
• Malcolm L - Torphins - 45 kms - 434 m
• Mike - Crathes - 17 kms - 160 m
• Wednesday
• Mike - Myrebird - 21 kms - 162 m
• John M - Knockburn - 23 kms - 311 m
• Iain W - Knockburn - 20 kms - 231 m

So to the main event - Mike is today's "volunteer" guest reporter:

"Eight Freewheelers met in the usual place and two options were proposed; the first was heading east into the haar and a coffee at Lairhillock or the second was to follow Mike along by the river, into the sun then over the Sluie to Platform 22.

 Partly because of the fact that Mike had meticulously planned the route but also because of the prospect of a bit of brightness the decrepit eight set off west, along the High Street, past Home Farm and down past Inchmarlo towards the river. A couple of stops were taken to allow the elderly to rest and whilst they surveyed the new fishermen's hut by the river Iain was tempted to have a swing on the rope:

The group then made their way back to the main road and with the precision of a Swiss made watch Mike led them up a slightly less arduous climb over the Sluie. The group were questioned by a local resident as to why they were there and someone unkindly said it was because they were lost! Only joking, and a bit of smooth talking the group emerged from the woods on the Craiglash ascent. With the smell of coffee in their nostrils the Wheelers headed for a nice refreshing cup and scone in Platform 22.

The return trip took us by the Torphins Golf Club loop and on to Campfield Garage past Glassel and Brathens with a finishing downhill section to Burnett Park. All eight seemed to enjoy themselves despite mutterings of red cards - don’t know what they were on about, they’ve never had it so good!"

The team photo was taken at the new fishermen's "hut" that Mike referred to above:

l-r: Mike Reilly; Iain Wright; Scott Hunter; Bob Elder; John Perry; Ian Sharp; John Meaden & Ian Stewart

John P provided the route map:

Our wander took us 37 kms with 449 m of climbing.

Jeff wasn't with us on this outing - he made a run for the sun to tick off more Munros. He carbed up in the Grog & Gruel in Fort William on Tuesday night (An Teallach, Lomond Bonnie & Blonde) before hitting the hills on Wednesday. He sent the following clarification report on his Strava stats:

"Ian, for blog-clarity as Strava isn't good at capturing these things, my outing yesterday was an ascent of Gulvain (Munro to west of Fort William from the Mallaig road), with a 6.1 km ride in, and same out again (200m of ascent descent total) after a 10km round trip walk with 1100m of ascent/descent.  Map and stats attached:

and a view from the summit down Loch Shiel towards Ben More on Mull":