Our route through the West Gate at Crathes took us up the hill, taking a sharp right down from there and left along the trails down to the main entrance. My original plan was to then head back up to the castle on the other side of the lake/pond but we were stymied by the tree felling operations going on, so instead headed back to the Deeside Way and along to Myrebird. From there, it was the conventional Park route, with a plan to eventually head out to Inchmarlo for coffee.
Archie warned that Inchmarlo might be closed on a Monday so suggested stopping at Milton. Unanimous agreement.
We did eventually get out to Inchmarlo but my Strava failed to record the full ride, so I don't know exactly how far we cycled but I reckon it must have been in the order of 30 kms.
Today (Wednesday), just 3 of us were available for the planned longer ride out to Aboyne - Harry, Keith and I. It's a fairly tough route - it was picked partly because of Harry's comments that Monday's ride was too short/easy. Young Harry was, of course, the only analogue rider.
Through Inchmarlo and out past Craiglash Quarry, down to Kincardine O'Neil and then back up to the Deeside Way past the Falls of Dess and out to Aboyne, where we stopped for coffee and cakes at the Black-Faced Sheep. So far, so good - Harry was coping comfortably.
Across the river and over the back road towards Birse. Time for a team photo next to this stranger:
The toughest part of the route was up to Slewdrum Forest from Potarch - Keith and I really appreciated our pedal-assist bikes here. Harry was blowing a bit by now but still coping OK. At the usual viewpoint on the Scolty trail, Keith took this photo of me as we awaited Harry climbing up to meet us:
The rest of the ride was fairly comfortable and we finally made it to the Legion for well-earned beers. Archie was waiting for us and Dan arrived too.
Full stats for our 50 kms ride:
No comments:
Post a Comment