Wednesday wander and Thursday thrashes

John Meaden reported from last night's second night run to celebrate the Winter Solstice:

"Last night 6 of us met a 6pm for a Winter Solstice ride . Drew , Pete Seago , Ian Dring , Iain Wright , Jack and myself.

As previewed the route went up Corsee Road , down the Hill of Banchory cycle path , in the Crathes West gate to the castle and the Deeside Way  back .

Roads and paths were icy in places especially at the top of the village so speeds  were down and care was taken but there were still a couple of semi spills .

Away from the lights and out of the forest on the Deeside Way it was a really clear and beautiful night - not too cold with light winds .

Jack and Pete peeled off at Morrisons for a beer at Skinners as they both live in that direction. The  rest of us went to the Douglas where we met  Mike Reilly with Carol R and PTD ( Pony Tail Dave - known to myself Mike and Carol as a member of a cycling species known as 'Roadies' which some Freewheelers may have encountered) . Ossians was good , pub was busy  

Overall a fine evening which hopefully can become a future event - although others on that night may well be ski touring , running , hill walking , etc ?

Anyway we celebrated the days getting longer again !"

Thursday threatened us with the approach of Storm Barbara, but it was a pretty tranquil morning when we set off from the Guide Hut at 10 am. John Meaden was the guest route picker and, in view of the large numbers again, his initial choice was Drum. "Not again" yelled Jeff, whereupon John wobbled a little and said "OK - Finzean then".

The back roads still had hints of ice and care was taken on the way out. At the end of Kirsty's Brae when we met the Cairn o' Mount road, we stopped for a breather and I enquired whether we were heading for the AA box or going over Bogendreip? Our leader opted for the latter and initially it looked like a good call to get off the potentially icy tarmac.

When we got to the famous rickety bridge over the burn, this decision came under query. Getting 13 of us safely over a crumbling, icy bridge was quite a feat, as witnessed by the following slew of photos:

Dick managed to snap one of the flimsy supports. Don't think this bridge will pass its next HSE inspection.

The upstairs table at Finzean FS had been pre-booked for us by John Morton and we all stripped off our yellow uniforms, revealing this in Hugh's case:

Not one of Hugh's better looks

That's better - but why is he wearing his pyjamas?

It was still gloriously sunny as we posed for the team photo afterwards:

l-r: Ken Page, Dick Taylor, Rufus de Silva, Hugh Riches, John Meaden, Ian Dring, John Morton, Bob Elder, Jeff Dickens (at rear), Iain Wright, Ian Sharp (shaded), John Larkin & Ian Stewart

There was some discussion about the route home - 3 options were mooted:

• Straight down to Strachan and home via Mill of Cammie
• Down to the Feughside and up to Shooting Greens and down through the forest
• Up and over past the memorial to Ballogie and home via Craiglash

The latter was fairly quickly dismissed as there was a good chance of more ice on the higher route, but Jeff threw in a modification of option 2, which involved a whirl past the Soft Bear Centre then along the shoulder of Scolty. Anyway we all headed down to the Feughside Inn, where 4 of us - Ian D, Rufus, Hugh and I - headed for Mill of Cammie and the other 9 followed Jeff's suggestion.

At the end of the day, Strava showed, just like Monday's split ride, that there was little difference in overall mileage, which for most, was just over 35 kms, although the Scolty "shoulder" riders did a bit more climbing.

A grand day out - and still Barbara hadn't caught up with us.