Scorchio Potarch ride

The hottest day of the year so we had to find outdoor locations for coffee - and beers later - so I mooted a cycle along the south side of the Dee, up to Slewdrum Forest and down to Potarch. This came with a bit of a health warning - it would be fairly tough for the non-aspirated bikers and Colin consequently decided this ride wasn't for him, so it appeared that our numbers would be down by one from the original 10 who wanted to ride - which would have been the largest B team turnout ever.

There was, however, one further late cancellation when planned debutant Tony Price had to withdraw due to the late arrival of a tradesman at his home, so it was just 8 of us who headed over the Dee bridge - four of each: Les, Keith, Nigel and I on e-bikes and Malcolm L, Stewart, Harry and Dave on analogues.

The initial part of the trip along the river bank was comfortable for everyone but when we came to the short additional loop at the end, Dave decided not to do it and headed directly up the hill, thus missing out on the first team photo of the day:

Most of us have done the climb up to the viewpoint before but this was my first time doing it on an e-bike - and I have to say what a delight it was. Dave was there to greet us and we e-bikers watched as the other 3 made their way up:

We enjoyed taking the view in:

It got a bit tricky after that. Les and Dave had advised heading up to Slewdrum Forest via "the middle route". Les dashed off down the hill initially and I lost sight of him but ploughed onwards, thinking I was following him. Behind me, but out of my earshot, Dave had taken a left turn up a narrow, overgrown track but the others followed straight on - as I had.

The track I was on came to a sudden stop, so I called back to the others to stop, but they carried on climbing until they met me at the dead end. So now, it was back down the slope and up the route Dave had taken, which meant walking the first part of it through the undergrowth.

Eventually we did all meet up again at the top of the hill, back on the Deeside Way, with the prospect now of a fast downhiller to Potarch. When we all arrived at the Potarch Cafe garden, we noticed Dave's legs had come out in some kind of rash after fighting his way through the bushes:

It was very hot so we opted to sit in the shade for our teas and coffees, although Keith and Dave preferred Bitter & Twisted:

Full team photo this time:

The route back was via Craiglash Quarry, followed by Les' insistence of doing a technical section along the old railway line at Brathens. The sensible ones stuck to the tarmac. From ITE - or whatever it's called nowadays, we headed back through the forest, past the back of Archie's, through Burnett Park and on to the Tor-na-Coille where 6 of us baked on the lawn in the afternoon sun, while Dave and Malcolm headed back to their cars.

The attempts at a (reduced) team photo here were less than successful - Harry is completely hidden in this one:

Here's the stats: