Hill of Fare Figure of Eight

Not quite as good a turnout as last Monday, but still a healthy number of 6 turned up for this afternoon's ride. The bright morning sunshine had gone but it was a still, albeit cool, afternoon.

There was talk of heading towards Finzean, but Rob came up with a suggestion for a new route, which would include "just the foothills" of Hill of Fare. There were a few sceptical looks when Hill of Fare was mentioned, but we all agreed to give it a go.

There was one challenging uphill section before we crossed the main Raemoir road east in to Aberdeen, but worse was to come as we headed up to "the foothills". We headed upwards towards a small farmhouse where Rob thought there would be options of flatter routes. By the time we got there - most of us having had to push our bikes up a steep, unrelenting slope - I, for one, was knackered, and the promise of flatter routes turned out to be a bit of a mirage. Rob confessed it had been a while since he had been up this way - perhaps his memory had let him down a bit?

Plan B was to ride back down the hill we had just pushed our bikes up and then turn right towards Raemoir House Hotel and from there out towards the West Gate and across the main road again to head towards Hill of Brathens.

Some of the tracks were pretty muddy and you had to be careful which ones you followed. Archie opted out of part of it and headed along the main road instead, meeting us at the hotel.

Across the main road, there was more mud - and another hill that only Dick could ride up - the rest of us had to push our bikes up again. He may be the fittest and strongest cyclist in our group, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Dick has the best look:

It may be Movember, but that Hitler 'tache look never did catch on, did it?

 The team photo was taken at this point as we all caught our breath:

That hill you see behind us was intended to be our route up to Brathens, but it was never going to happen - even Dick would have had to push his bike up there. The alternative plan was to head east again towards Raemoir Road, which we crossed and then headed towards Deeside Brewery and then back across Raemoir Road again towards Crow's Nest recycling centre.

We had intended to have coffee at Inchmarlo, but, when we got there, the builders were in and there was no cafe or restaurant yet available, so it was onward to Tease again.

John P again supplied today's route map overview:

The distance covered was only 14 miles, but it took us a couple of hours and there was not that far short of 1,000 feet of climbing, and although we've once or twice done a little more in the past, the 3 hills we faced this time were pretty stiff tests - and the originally planned 4th climb up Brathens hill would have been beyond the pale! Full stats here - http://www.strava.com/activities/217735904

Rob is now banned sine die from planning future routes.