Re:
Well , I'd better chip in , so to speak , with my offering then. I believe the youngsters call this a photo blog ??
I decided to head up to Ballater on Saturday morning as I had a road ride planned and a challenging route ( well challenging for me anyways ) in my head.
I arrived in town about 10:40 and was given access to Castle Clubby by his enchanting neighbour Ian as the Clubmaster was still some time from arrival.
After a quick change into some tight lycra bibshorts and a snug short sleeve jersey I looked every inch the MAMIL that I am
As I set off the sun was blazing down. Fortunately I had applied a layer of factor 18. Unfortunately , as I would find out later , I'd forgotten to pack my large tub of sudacream which I normally use as an alternative to crotch butter !
I made my way east along the B976 which was remarkably free of traffic for such a beautiful sunny Saturday.
When I stopped to take this photo I chatted to a young lady cyclist who , on Strava , goes by the name of Krusty Bertson !! Bizarre
Before long I reached my goal , Cairn O Mount. I had cheated a bit and fitted a 12-30 cassette and it proved it's worth as I made it to the summit actually catching and passing a couple of local riders on the hill.
A fast downhill was followed by coffee and cake in the Arch cafe in Fettercairn as I prepared myself for the steeper climb back up.
By this time the day was hot and I was relieved to roll over the top and blast down the other side nudging 58mph as I harassed the motorcycles
The return to Ballater along the A93 was long and seemed to go on for ever. A pretty boring road I'm afraid to say.
I arrived back in Ballater to be met by Clubby and some freshly brewed coffee. A wee while later ZigZag arrived and we headed out for dinner and a few beers in the local pubs.
When we got back to the house we all had a glass of wine and headed off for a reasonably early night in anticipation of our day in the mountains.
Sunday morning was overcast and a bit nippy but dry and still. Breakfast was consumed and Jim arrived. With his retro Scott equipped with skinny tyres and canti bakes he looked to be underbiked for the planned route but as I realised later Jim is a master bike handler and hopped , skipped and flowed over even the most challenging terrain .
As we rolled out towards Loch Muick I was destinctly uncomfortable in the undercarraige area where , after the previous days sweaty effort , I'd developed a nice crop of gooseberries :cry:
However after a while I seemed to self anesthetise
The ride out to and around Loch Muick was flat and easy going but Clubby pointed out the trails ahead in the distance that we were to climb and decend.
The climb up proved to be pretty much a hike as it was to loose to get any traction.
Once we got to the top the views were fantastic
After a ride along the top we came to the decent known as the Streak of Lightening. It proved to be anything but for us for different reasons. KOM is 3 min 52 sec !!! We managed about 50 min
After the initial 50m or so we came across the snow and as seen in Jims photos we had to shoulder the bikes and clamber across sinking knee deep into the drift always aware of the steep drop to the left. Having negotiated that hazzard we set off again . My lack of mountainbiking in the last 2 or 3 years was beginning to take its toll as I struggled to clear the large granite kerbstones placed across the trail every 30m or so to stop water erosion but I got a rest when both Jim and ZigZag punctured at the same point. Aaron seemed to be taking a long time to change his tube. The dafty had packed 26" tubes for 29" wheel :facepalm: After some assistance from Jim the issue was resolved and we set off again. I was behind Jim marvelling at how he was gliding over every obstruction when I noticed the next big rock was bigger than the rest. I mistimed my front wheel lift and hit it square on flying over the bars. I landed in the heather to the right and for an instant thought I'd got away with it until I had rock interface ! Slightly burst bottom lip a chipped crown and a chipped tooth was the result. It could have been a lot worse :?
After that I was a bit tentative and it didn't take much to put me off riding some more rocky bits.
Clubby too was a bit lacking in confidence as this was his first big testing ride after his off at Whistler.
On reaching the bottom we continued around Loch Muick and stopped for lunch.
After rolls with cheese and ham prepared earlier by Clubby we set off to look for the landrover track leading to the Green Mile , a trail that had been featured in MBR magazine.
We eventually found the trail after some more climbing on landy tracks. It wasn't as flowing as I would have liked . The start was quite boggy which prevented us gaining any momentum.
It was about half way across the trail that I had a shoe malfunction. My cheapo Sports Direct Muddy Fox shoes failed. The whole cleat mounting plate ripped out the sole of my left shoe leaving it stuck in my retro M737 pedal. I tried to carry on but had little control as my left foot kept flying of the pedal. I managed slowly until the last section , a fairly steep downhill rocky single track.
I had to dismount and indulge in some trail running.
There followed a quick run back to Ballater on the road and a cup of coffee before packing up and heading home. I left Ballater at 5.05pm and was home by 7.40pm.
A great weekend and I'm glad I made the effort to go. I now need to get the mountain bike out more that once or twice a year and sharpen up on my skills
When I dug my shoes out the car this morning I realised the cleat plate was hanging onto the right shoe by a thread. Now that would have been interesting !
