Monday meanders

John Perry was first to report on Monday's ride

"A Balogie Clover-leaf and Two Jeff Wiggles

I thought, oh well, a nice ride out with t’lads; but oh no I faced a tsunami of responsibility! Apparantly, it is important to read ones emails right up to the muster time, as there is always a risk of being fingered for (dah, dah, drum roll) route leader, aka Der Gruppenführer… So, donning my teflon-coated shoulders, I proceeded to not define the route. Except, except to say there was a good opportunity for plenty of off-road, (sorry Mike). We did achieve a Freewheelers milestone of (pretty much) being off-road from the get go all the way to scones (@Potty). It was along by Blackhall (past a few scowling fishery thingy folks) and along by the river. ‘Wiggles’ are part of the offcial Freewheelers lexicon (Page 45, para. 15 - I think) and Jeff had a couple to offer for this ride. Once by the river there are a number of options of getting to Shooting Greens or below onto the Old Military Road bike track. One involves staying low, keeping left and then a subsequent left turn up a short sharp uphill; and this is the least climbing to get out of the ‘Quarry area’. (I might do a map, but it is better to keep these dark secrets away from publicly available interweb sites). A good route and a tick, I think.

As Gruppenführer, I made the Executive Order that only those that rode the dirt track to Pottarch could claim to have completed the ride. Despite my unquestionable authority, there were still two individuals who took to the tarmac, not to name names, but… predictably, Riley and Larkin. Descent to Potty was added to by a rain shower, I think it was hail stinging my face or perhaps it was the graverl being spat up by Iain W.’s back wheel. Having landed at Pottarch we caught-up with Bob who had had a late start and arranged to meet us there. This did cause unnerving confusion of numbers as Der Grüppenfuhrer couldn’t keep up and had precious little idea about who was where. Potty, mmm, slightly disappointing, the service was all a bit hit and miss; nice location and vittals OK but short on scones.

As a listetening, empathising Gruppenführer, I picked up grumbling from the body of the kirk about too short a ride and Mike suggested a loop up to Balogie (which has been suggested in the past). Add to this Jeff Wiggle 2 and we established the Balogie Clover-leaf. The highlight of which is a great bit of off-road from up by Balogie down to Pottarch. Again please!

After that it was pretty standard fare; along the Deeside path right up by Tillydrine and again right past Craiglash Quarry. By this point any semblance of control or numbers awareness from Der Gruppenführer was gone, though I think we all got back to where we needed to, possibly with a couple of late arrivals home. 

Now Obergrüppenfuhrer Sharp quite rightly doesn’t want to shoulder all the burden of route planning, so in a male-bonding, supportive empathetic manner we should help with this task… and there are many ways to skin a cat as indeed there are of approaching a bike ride :) 

(Mmm, thinks, are there really many ways of skinning a cat…)

Oh, sadistics:

• ‘bout 40 klicks
• Seemed to be out quite a while
• Cadence, my usual 75 rpm (average)
• Calories somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 depending on App. (How do they calculate this?)
• A couple of yellow cards, but I assert there was no red card; history is written thus…

John P."

Mike supported this with some photos

John Morton then supplied a few more along with the following words:

"Hi Ian:

Hope golf is going well.

We had a superb run to Potarch today with a Balogie ''wiggle'' under guidance of JP.

Also joined by Alan Watson (in the blue jacket).

Photo's attached - lower res phone shots, but hopefully capture the occasion.

Mike Reilly has the 'official team pics'...

Cheers John Morton"

As if all that wasn't enough, John L also added an alternative narrative:

"Eight Freewheelers gathered at the GH for a 13.00 hr. departure and the volunteer route-picker was JP.  Those who gathered were, John P, John L, Mike R, John M, Ian S, Iain W, Jeff D, and A Watson. Bob E, couldn’t make a 13.00 departure from the GH, so he went ahead to the Potarch and we all met up there for a coffee and scone.

 JP announced the proposed route which was to proceed from the GH, then along the river bank and up to Shooting Greens and then down to Potarch for coffee and scones. The Potty was busy and they ran out of fruit scones.  On the return trip, we headed out of Potty towards Shooting Greens and then turned right after a few hundred yards towards Butterworth Gallery at Ballogie. We then headed back to Potarch, then along the Deeside Way, crossing the A93 for Tillydrine Bump, Quarry, Glassel, Brathens and then home.

 The weather held up fine for us although it did threaten to rain a couple of times."