Wednesday afternoon booze cruise

It was the same 3 as the previous Monday - Keith, Archie and I - who set off from the start of the old railway line at Burnett Park this afternoon. If only we had known Rob was going to be there too - he showed up but failed to locate us and went off and did his own thing - including the following selfie:

Rob contented himself with doing some route recces in a 16 kms, one hour solo ride - https://www.strava.com/activities/273909706

Keith, Archie and I headed up the railway track to Brathens and east towards Raemoir Road, turning left then right on the road that leads through Catterloch Wood down towards Burn o' Bennie, where we eschewed the easy option and turned left up Bardshillock Brae - a steepish climb, but it was mostly downhill from there out to the recording studio where we turned right and headed towards Crathes.

Note to self - don't do this run midweek mid-afternoon, when all the Yummy Mummies are picking up their precious little ones in their 4 * 4's at Crathes Primary. It was the busiest we'd ever seen that road - and it's not wide enough in places to accommodate a few shaky old cyclists and some dodgy driving.

We went down the hill at Myrebird on to the Deeside Way. Archie loves this stretch and zoomed off, but the speed must have affected his bladder, as he had to take relief at Milton of Crathes, where there was a convenient container loo. This gave us time to consider the route home - Archie had arranged to meet Jas in the Legion at 4:30 pm, but we would have been there too early if we'd just gone straight along the Deeside Way, so we decided on a little detour up to Crathes Castle on the trails. We stopped at the high point for the team photo:

We should have known that we would still be at the Legion too early for Jas - we were on our 3rd pint when he finally showed up, but that gave us plenty of time for another (blurry) team photo:

Morning rides mean coffee stops, but mid-afternoon departures are more likely to tempt us to have a beer - or two. Keith reckoned this could be the dividing line between the A & B teams!

We did 26 kms in 1 hour 44 mins, with almost 900 feet of climbing - https://www.strava.com/activities/273914164