Jeff's homework

Sterling work from Jeff below:

"Ian - I knew I couldn't make the rides this week, so I've done a couple of recce trips and have some data for the blog in the following report:

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With the joys of the group rides unavailable to me this week due to event clashes, I thought I'd follow up on some the speculation in the team about future rides with a couple or reconnaissance trips.

A run out to the old Church at the end of the Forest of Birse road has been mooted.  This is a regular jaunt for me being Strachan based, so first up, last Friday, I decided to go and time the run and profile it to generate some data for further discussion.  The map and profile shows the route, starting from Strachan School on the RH side.  I time-trialled myself on it, going uphill quite hard, though not hammering it, then trying (and miserably failing) to get back in half the time. Conditions were fair, light breeze with an easterly component, so in my face on the downhill run - though not really strong enough to be a fully-fledged excuse.

Data:  One way distance: 15.4km, so 30.8 (19.2 miles) round from Strachan. Add 10km/6 miles from Banchory.

Uphill climbing: 330m ascent, 180m descent, so 510m up & down on the round trip.

Uphill time 50mins, giving 11.5mph/18.5kph.

Downhill time 33 mins, giving 17.5mph/28kph.

It's a steady ascent, so you don't really notice quite how much you are climbing. Summits at Shooting Greens (207m) and Finzean Memorial (225m) are both lower than the cattle grid at the end of the metalled road at Birse (245m)!!

Run No.2 was today (Tuesday in the mist). Whenever we head up to Finzean farm shop, we usually have to cope with either South Deeside from Strachan to Finzean, which can be hard work with a strong wind in the wrong direction, or the loop up Glen Dye via the AA box. There is a cross-country route in between, but it's a bit of a thrash and can get boggy in places. There is an alternative, which I had done previously some time back, and in the descent to Strachan from Shooting Greens.  I thought I'd give this a checkout as a potential route segment from Strachan to Shooting Greens. The experiment was not an unqualified success.  Map and profile show the route and stats for my round trip.

This was quite hard work, and probably fails to meet every BVC guideline.  The 435m of ascent occur mostly in the first 8km of the route up to Shooting Greens summit - that's quite a steep average gradient, and the section from Strachan to Upper Shampher is VERY steep in parts. Ardlair farm yard area is currently extremely muddy.

There is no way up this side of the valley and into the forest that doesn't require crossing a field, and usually a barbed-wire fence, somewhere at the end of the climb. This route has the merit that the field is the flattest you would have to deal with, but it's rough, and I was off my bike a few times. Then, the first section of forest track is quite overgrown. I stopped for the couple of photos at the way point just under the "of" in "Hill of Goauch".  The selfie shows the end of the overgrown section of track - that bristly stuff would even have Mr. "Shorts" Sharp into different leg-wear! However, in the other direction, a rather fine track begins, and this is the gem section of the route - you cruise along with lovely views of Feughside down to your left - and end up on Shooting Greens tracks with which many of us are familiar. I chose to go round Muckle Ord and come up the new Slewdrum track (and that has a nasty steep bit!), finishing the climb to Shooting Greens summit on the road. Thence an easy ride back. Only 15 kilometres, but quite demanding ones - took me about an hour and twenty mins.

Conclusions re future use: only for the adventurous and preferable in the descent from Shooting Greens. You have been warned, so Red Cards will not be accepted.

Roving reporter: Jeff Dickens