Wednesday beer run

It was the second week in a row for a Wednesday social run, ending with beers at the Legion instead of tea/coffee and scones somewhere. Five of us planned to go out, but some rain round about the start time of 2 pm was enough to put Keith off, but we had a rare sighting of Jeff cycling in from Strachan to join Dick and I - plus Archie, on his first ride since his infamous fall in Glentanar a few months ago.

Archie requested we keep it fairly straightforward - nothing too technical or difficult - so we decided to simply head east along the Deeside Way, but turning right at St. Ternan's pitches at Milton, hopping over the fence and cycling along the riverside. When we got over the fence there's thickish undergrowth - and nettles - that you have to walk through. Archie thought he'd been sold a dummy at this point, but it's only for 20 yards or so, and he was relieved to eventually see the landrover tracks.

We stopped at one of our favourite spots, next to the fishermen's hut, for the team photo:

From there, under Crathes bridge and back up on to the Deeside Way again. We got to the Myrebird turnoff and gave Archie the option - onwards to Drum, or turn up here? The shorter route was chosen and up the hill we went then back through Crathes estate and down and out through the West Gate.

Time for another decision - round past the brewery and up through the woods to the Legion or straight along the paths and up Tillybrake? Again, the shorter, easier option won the day, and we arrived at the Legion much earlier than originally planned. At this point, Jeff bade his farewell and cycled back to Strachan, but Dick, Archie and I went inside for a couple of beers, where we were eventually joined by Ken and Keith. We spoke about the early days of cycling when the Myrebird hill seemed quite a challenge, but it's much less daunting now.

My Strava stats show a distance of just 24 kms, but this included an earlier loop round Burnett Park, so the afternoon journey was less than this - https://www.strava.com/activities/393544613. Very sociable however.