Sun May 21, 2017 - Forsinard Ride Long Haul Trucker with Brian

Sunday Brian and myself decided as the forecast was good we would do a ride up my way. Eventually the route chosen was a road one heading out from Thurso to Melvich and then riding down to Forsinard or even Helmsdale if we had time.
The ride was originally going to be on my Big Dummy and Brian on his TD1 Ti machine but I decided on a more randonnuer route and couldn't help but chose the ever faithful, reliable and comfortable Long Haul Trucker.
I knew we were going to have some headwind heading down the Strath valley but was not prepared for the ever increasing scale of it. It didn't feel that strong as it wasn't gusting but when you looked at the speed it was certainly hard going.
After meeting Brian and heading to Melvich we turned south and onto the gently rolling country that would have us following the river nearly all the way to Forsinard where we planned to have a look at the viewing building looking over the flow country wetlands and see how we were for time.
It may have been windy but it was a really nice day for a ride, nice temps and sunny, though the cloud cover increased as the day went on, with rain forecast for the evening.
It was our usual casual ride stopping every now and again for a picture or to check the map to see where various dirt tracks led to, etc. We spotted a Golden eagle on one section, it was further along the road being harassed in flight by a couple of crows. Very nice to see.
We spent a while in Forsinard and rode out to the viewing building, which is a bit of a way out and has a boardwalk pathway over the wet swampy ground. We rode out and shared the view with a couple of birdwatchers. We took a few photos and had a chat before heading back. The visitors centre was closed and with the hotel being long shut down there was only the tea room for something to eat. We decided to drink our water bottles and instead had a lunch of a banana, cheese twist and a snickers each, thanks Brian
By this stage the clouds had increased and the wind was picking up as well as cooling down a bit so it was decided to make our way back the way we came. We certainly made some time up on the way back as in the open section we were riding along chatting like normal, only to look down and realise we were cruising, barely putting in any effort doing 33 - 36 kph. Stopped once or twice for cars on the way back, to let them pass as this is a singletrack road, but we saw hardly any cars all day on this road.
Another nice day out just putting in some nice easy miles in a nice part of the country. Thanks Brian for joining me.
Here's some photos and as usual, if anyone wants to join us next time just drop me a line and we'll let you know when we are going somewhere. Usually it's just decided add hoc a few days before.

Jamie