Lost Loch

Fun day out yesterday on our cycle to Deeside Activity Park and the tasting experience at Lost Loch Distillery. It was a hot and sunny afternoon, as witnessed by the post-tasting team photo:

It had been hard to find a date that suited everyone who had expressed an interest in attending (19 in all) but, in the end, 9 of us (including Drew who was just along for the ride) met up at the start at Burnett Park, the last of whom was Hugh who had discovered when he went in to his garage that the battery on his e-bike wasn't charged. Taking his "analogue" bike, worse was to follow when his front tyre was virtually flat when he joined the rest of us. John Meaden sorted that issue and we set off, heading first of all across the old 3rd and 4th holes at the former Inchmarlo golf club, where we discovered the usual trails were pretty overgrown - hard to find at times. There were a few moans about nettles too and I was threatened with an early red card. It was too much for Hugh and he turned around and headed home. The remaining 8 carried on, meeting Jeff at Craiglash and then across to DAP with Ali leading us via a new (to me) forest trail. Here's some of the photos from the tour and tasting:

The route back was up and over the hill and down into Kincar then along to Potarch, where we had planned to stop for a beer, only to find it closed. Up past Slewdrum and down to the quarry where we met up again with Drew who had some chain issues which were sorted pretty quickly. Back in Banchory, 4 of us - Dick, Drew, Nigel and me - made a beeline for the balcony at the golf club for a much-needed beer:

Here's the Strava route:

There was even talk of doing it again next year!

Another fun Booze Cruise

Just 3 of us made it to the start line on Friday - Stewart, Keith and myself, but Dick, who had been held up at work, met us on the Deeside Way, just short of Kincardine O'Neil as we headed out to Deeside Activity Park on a glorious day. Our first photo stop was at Falls of Dess - the first time most of us had viewed them from the other (west) side:

Coffee and cakes at Deeside Activity Centre:

We bumped into Jan Leatham there - she is now working at the impressive new distillery there, which does tastings and tours - you can make up your own gin, vodka etc:

We would have liked to have gone over the hill from there towards Torphins but none of us knew the path to take so it was back to the main road, which gave us the opportunity for a quick stop at the Peel Ring of Lumphanan, a historic site which not even Dick had ever visited before:

We eventually made it back to the Legion where we had arranged to meet Colin, Nigel and Bill for a couple of ales:

Another excellent afternoon. Here's the stats:

B team Booze Cruise

What a fun afternoon we had yesterday. Just 4 of us made it to the start point - Les, Dick, Stewart and me. The forecast wasn't particularly encouraging and Les was full of doubts about our planned route, suggesting that we should shorten it and just do a simple Park run, but we stuck to plan A and it paid off in the end as none of the threatened rain appeared. We arrived at the Durris forest, via Knappach, and Les insisted that we enter via the second (highest) entrance. It's not a climb I would have done in an "analogue" bike, but we met a young man on a non-aspirated bike at the entrance who was on his 6th loop of the trails that day! It's a nice run and merits future further exploration of some of the many other trails there. We arrived at Mains of Drum slightly early for our booked table, but there was no issue - it was fairly quiet anyway. Keith and Bill had both been unable to join us on the ride but were keen to meet us for beers afterwards so we decided that the best place might be Banchory Lodge and the easiest/quickest way of getting there was back via the Deeside Way, but first we headed towards Drum Castle. I had a bit of a senior moment as I tried to manipulate my e-bike through the kissing gate at the back of Mains of Drum but got there in the end. Les then led us round some of the trails west of the castle to a viewpoint where the attempt at a team photo produced this slightly disappointing result:

Back in Banchory, we bade farewell to Stewart, then Les, Dick and I headed down to Banchory Lodge where our initial attempts to sit at one of the many empty tables at the elevated new Sitooterie were thwarted by a jobsworth who told us they were all booked. Our other option was to head across to the lawn and the Brewdog marquee, but they didn't officially open until 5 pm. Nonetheless, Les took the bull by the horns and went over to speak to the barman there and managed to wheedle us in for a couple of pints under canvas. Before we downed the pints, however, we were invited to taste a new gin being promoted. Les enjoyed his so much he bought a bottle to take home. Bill passed his apologies but Keith had arrived to join us for drinks, courtesy of Annette's taxi service. It was all hugely enjoyable but it did start to get really cold - maybe just as well or we would have downed more beer before a wobbly ride home. Here's a couple of photos taken at the marquee:

Here's the route and the stats:

B team ride again

It started off with Keith and I planning an e-bike ride on Friday afternoon, but Stewart responded quickly and said he would like to join us. The combination of the continuing good weather and the announcement of eased restrictions on gatherings then led Les and Dick to join us too, followed finally by Gordon's debut on his newly adapated bike with front wheel drive, to give us an optimum/maximum group size of six. We headed west from Burnett Park up the old railway line and out to Craiglash, with 4 of us opting to take the rough downhill track whilst Stewart and Gordon opted for the smoother conditions of the road. Meeting up again at Potarch, we briefly considered having coffee there before heading over to Finzean via the tracks. When we got to the Farm Shop, there was a decent sized queue for coffees but we stuck it out, chatting to the Dallases and Williamsons (M) while we waited. Coffees arrived and it was time for the team photo:

Back down via Mill of Cammie (with another brief off-roader there) we headed towards Les' place. Gordon's one speed battery, apparently not fully charged before the start, finally gave up but at least it was mostly downhill now. Les was gently coerced in to inviting us in to his garden to share his "large stock" of Peronis, which turned out to be just enough for the 6 of us! Angela took the team photo here as we sat in the sun overlooking the Feugh below:

A lovely, sociable afternoon - good fun - and many thanks to Les - and Angela - for allowing us to gatecrash them. Here's our route and the stats:

The story didn't quite end there, however. The following day (Saturday), Stewart did the exact same ride again. Why? Well, he lost all his keys on Friday and had to retrace his steps to try to recover them - unsuccessfully. However - and this is where the good part of social media shone - Stewart posted a remark on Facebook, next to the team photo I had published, telling everyone he had lost his keys. Coincidentally, I had earlier spotted a post on the Banchory Rocks group page showing a photo of a set of keys that had been found at Potarch:

I put Stewart in touch with the finder (who had by now deposited them at Aboyne Police Station) and he is retrieving them this morning (Sunday). Result!

B team outings

Since my last blog post, there have been a further 4 B team rides this month:

• Nov 6th - Finzean FS - e-bikers Archie, Andrew McIlraith and myself with analogue Harry
• Nov 11th - Drum - analogues Colin and me
• Nov 18th - Torphins - e-bikers Keith, Nigel and me, plus non-aspirated Colin
• Nov 20th - Scolty - e-bikers Keith and I

Yesterday's ride was organised at the last-minute, having had to abort a planned trip to Banchory Sports Village due to equipment failure there. With just Keith and I going out, both on our e-bikes, we thought the time was right to take on Scolty.

We got so far up before the path quality started to deteriorate a bit - it was muddy, slippy and rocky, and even in turbo mode it seemed a little dangerous to us, so we elected to walk the rest of the way to the top, where we took a selfie as evidence that we did get there:

After our descent, we rode out to Crathes and looped back to the Legion for a pint with Malcolm G.

No such weather-related problems for John, out in Portugal:

More B team outings

Five of us went out on Monday - Archie, Harry, Colin, Stewart and I met up at the Guide Lodge at 1 pm, which happened to be the same time and place that the A team were gathering. We headed east while the A team went south.

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:

B team this week

Just 3 of the B team ventured out on Monday - Keith and I on e-bikes and Colin old school - so we just did the simple Torphins trip. As we were leaving Platform 22, some of the A-teamers arrived, minus a few who had taken the adventurous route up over Hill of Fare, arriving some time later.

On Tuesday there were 5 of us out for a ride - Keith, Bill and me on e-bikes, with youngsters (mere 60 year olds) Harry and Stewart on analogues. Keith suggested a trip out towards Mullach Woods, passing the 3 huge new houses that have recently been put on the market for average prices of 7 figures.

It's a bit of a slog and I, for one, was glad that I had my e-bike with me, but Harry and Stewart coped admirably. We stopped at the stone circle for a team photo, but I had some problems setting the camera up on one of the stones and timed out first time around:

OK - let's try again:

That's better.

From that high point, it was a great downhiller to the Slug Road and eventually another good long freewheel down from Durris to the South Deeside Road and across Park bridge, from where we headed along the DW to Drum. We hadn't gone far before we realised Stewart was missing. A quick phone call revealed that he'd had a mechanical problem when changing gear and his chain had somehow come off and jammed itself.

On hearing this, we all cycled back to help Stewart out. Various tools were tried, without success for a while, before eventually Harry managed to use the old-fashioned technique of brute force and ignorance and sprung the chain free. We then soldiered on to Drum for welcome coffees and cakes. It had taken over 2 hours to get to this point.

Heading home via the back roads we all decided it would be wise to utilise our lights - a sure sign of the days shortening. Of course, we weren't really heading "home" - at least not directly. Some people think that our B team moniker implies some sort of inferiority, but we know what the B really stands for as we headed to the Legion - all bar Stewart, that is.

The stats reveal the difficulty of the ride - 48 kms and 509 metres of climbing: