Wintery rides

Nobody else took up the invitation to join Dave and I on last Friday's wander up Glentanar. We parked at the Boat Inn, Aboyne - good forward planning, we thought - and cycled from there across the bridge and along the South Deeside to Glentanar, turning in to the tracks to the east of the Tanar.

From there we wandered up the valley, completing a figure of eight before emerging from the estate and heading west towards Dinnet, where we crossed the bridge and took the Way back to Aboyne. A fine ride and somewhere different - 29 kms/194m - and a nice pint of Macbeth afterwards.

The drop in temperature plus a Seniors match at Banchory meant there were no takers for the usual Monday afternoon ride, but John Meaden spotted a potential weather window in the morning and put out the call. Here's his match report and photos:

"Feeling a bit jaded after a long Sunday ride and with a poor forecast for the Monday afternoon I put out a short notice call for short morning ride .

Jeff and Bob answered and we set off into the NW wind up to Home Farm - destination Potarch .

We took a short main road section then past Chris Low's house and up the Craiglash road . We then took the farm track left before the top then the 50m push across to the parallel track down to Potarch . Only one hour to the coffee stop and fine weather .

We then took the road up to Shooting Greens then the Deeside Way to Scolty car park - catching the first snow squall on the way back . Jeff took the Scolty flank and we headed back to Banchory.

28k and 353m - a bit more than expected but a nice steady pace ."

We don't usually mention non-FW road bike rides in this blog but I think kudos needs to go to Messrs Meaden, Low and Reilly(s) for completing the epic Loch Ness Etape last weekend - 106 kms and 1,047 m of climbing - well done y'all.