October week 2 - Mon/Tue

John Meaden reports on yesterday's ride:

"Eleven Freewheelers gathered on Monday  - Drew , John L , John Mor , Jack , Aidan , Jeff ,

Ken P , Dave , Chris , Ian Sh and myself -  it was a bright day but with a cool easterly breeze.

We decided to head east into the breeze towards Durris.

The Knappach and old Slug route  was taken and the peloton suffered a very  early split  as Jack stopped at the Feugh bridge to deal with his Strava then overshot the first left up the hill to Knappach and carried on to Mill of Cammie then up the hill . The group were waiting at the second left turn on the downhill section . There was some minor grumbling on the first hill which is quite steep so early in the ride with no warm up .

Aidan went back to find Jack and was never seen again although email contact later revealed that he diverted to a route exploring mission on the north side of the river .

We eventually saw Jack as we approached the T junction with the Durris road but he shot ahead - we all assumed that he he taken the huff at being left solo but it turned out that he did not see the great swathe of yellow jackets climbing the hill . We eventually rejoined Jack further on at Woodlands of Durris  .

We crossed the Park bridge and decided on the Milton as the stop . Some joined the Deeside way and the rest followed the river after the short walk under the bridge . It was very pleasant in the sun along the river .

The Milton was busy with a funeral but we all managed to sit  in the conservatory and patio area for a leisurely coffee and excellent scones .

A short sprint home concluded another fine ride .

33.9 km and 288m vertical on Strava ."

The photos below are courtesy of Johns Morton & Meaden:

At Drum Bridge

The fisherman's lunch

And the Muckle Spate was this high

I couldn't make the Monday ride but 5 other FW's showed up to join me for the Tuesday 10 o'clock Trundle - Keith Gray, John Larkin, John Meaden, Ken Page and Peter Seago (very briefly).

It was an overcast, misty morning and we decided to head for Drum via Crathes Castle. It was forecast to be a dry morning, but, just as we started off, it began to rain a bit and we had only gone a few hundred yards eastwards when Peter suddenly baled. He lives in the Wimpey estate and I think the lure of a warm, dry house was too much for him. As it happened, what little rain there was soon disappeared and conditions were fine as we cycled out towards Myrebird, then off left up the farm tracks.

We never reached Drum as the navigator accidentally passed the turn-off before realising what he had done. Never mind - Plan B was to loop back via the recording studio and Drumshalloch farm tracks then on to Buchanan's for our tea/coffee and goodies, where we bumped in to Rufus, just back from (motor) biking round Spain and now babysitting his grandchildren, one of whom seemed to be trying to literally bite his hand off.

A very friendly ride of 29 kms with 182 m of vertical work. Here's the team photo:

Ian Stewart, John Larkin (rushing to get in the photo), John Meaden, Keith Gray (half hidden) & Ken Page

Immediately after this photo was taken, Keith stepped on the log seen above and slipped and fell in what seemed like a slow-motion movie. Thankfully, only his pride was hurt.

Elsewhere, Freewheelers are on the move - Mike (and Carol) Reilly are off to the west coast to take on yet another fearsome challenge, no doubt; Les is back in the saddle in the sunshine of the Algarve, and Dick has been cycling over at Boat of Garten. The Garroll seems to be a popular local route - both Johns Larkin and Meaden have recently (separately) done it, whilst Jeff completed his annual Cairn o' Mount ritual.