Tue/Wed/Thu rides

Aidan was the only one to take up the offer to join Keith and I on yesterday afternoon's Booze Cruise. We headed for the Feughside Inn and risked the cross-country route from Bogendreip, where we attempted a team photo on the old bridge:

Autofocus failure. It was pleasing to see, however, that the route itself, past the little lochan with the zip slide, was passable again. It was dry and easily cyclable and the overgrown vegetation, which had made the route virtually impassable late last year, had been cut back to ease our passage.

Arriving at the Feughside Inn, we were shepherded in to the bar, where we were told that they had been cleaned out of scones by a group of 15 the previous day, but they had some cakes and shortbread they could provide us with - and they duly arrived, beautifully presented on a 2-tiered cake stand.

The second destination was the Legion, where we met up with Archie and Jas for a couple of beers. My purpose was to present yet another local CAMRA Club of the Year award to the club, so Keith acted as official photographer as Jas and I, as CAMRA members, handed the award to one of the bar staff:

Our ride was 32 kms with 204 metres of climbing.

The outlook on Thursday morning wasn't hugely promising, but a reasonably healthy number of 7 showed up at the Guide Hut, including debutant Chris Low. We tried to judge the wind direction and most of us thought it was coming from the south east, so, wanting to have the wind behind us on the return journey, we headed over the Dee towards Knappach, then Durris, across Park Bridge and on to the Drum for coffees etc. We posed for the usual team photo afteerwards:

l-r: Ian Stewart; Robin Brodie, Dick Taylor; Jeff Dickens; Scott Hunter, Chris Low & Ian Sharp

We then discovered that we'd made an error of judgment - the strengthening wind would be in our faces on the way back. A self-satisfied smirk appeared on Robin's face - he had been the only one to demur on our planned direction of travel. Duly inspired, Robin set off at the head of the peloton at a fair lick - along the narrow path beside the main North Deeside road, joining the Deeside Way just past Drumoak.

It was my 3rd ride in 4 days and I found the return trip, in particular, hard work, but we all made it safely home in due course. The distance covered was 38 kms, with 302 metres of climbing for most of us. Spare a thought for Jeff, who regularly has to put in additional kms and metres to get home to Strachan - on this occasion he had to do another 9 kms with an additional 96 m of climbing.

Elsewhere, other Freewheelers in action since the last blog were:

• Tuesday
• Ian Sharp - Elgin circuit - 11 kms, 75m
• Peter Renwick - Echt - 36 kms - 290 m

The clocks go forward this weekend, so Ian (Sharp) advised us that we would be starting at the slightly earlier time of 9 am next Thursday.