Perfect I thought!
So after being up early and dropping a visitor to the Dyer household into Thurso for the train at 8.30 I kept heading south to Brians at Dingwall.
After a warming coffee we headed out into the nice autumnal day that was slowly becoming overcast. While it was sunny in places, the heat had definitely gone for the year as it was very cold. This was not helped by snow on Ben Wyvis and snow clearly visible on the high ground to the west.
I was on the trusty Long Haul Trucker while Brian was on his Alfine equipped Voodoo.
We headed out over sections of the Black Isle to North Kessock where we dined in style at Harry Gows :lol: (It was fuel)
It was not pretty and it wasn't healthy but it was warming as I was really freezing despite having several jerseys on. I put my jacket on just after this and that really helped but I had made the mistake of not packing my Buff. I knew from the ride on the weekend that it was colder the last few weeks but didn't expect it to be this biting so early on.
We then rode back through North Kessock, Redcar along the shoreline before turning up the quiet single lane farm roads to zigzag our way cross country before turning back up onto the main road to Dingwall all the while taking small detours to explore. Some paved and of course, some dirt/gravel 'short cuts'. One of these was through a local woods on some singletrack that while the usual nice treelined detour it was definitely boggy in places from the recent rain. Discretion won out and we cut this section short for now, either until it freezes, dries out or we come back with the fatbikes.
A cold ride but as usual a good ride and it seems that winter has returned quite quickly. It has taken the heat and the daylight out of the day making it a bit colder and darker, the low light being quite noticeable especially since the clocks went back on the weekend.
A good laugh and despite the cold it was a really nice ride. Good to have my riding buddy back from Oz as well.
Jamie
brilliant, as always.. do you or brian log your adventures on strava or any of those sites.. would like to check out the wonderful routes you and brian take to incorporate some of those trails in my next visit to the north
ReplyDeleteHi Graham, I don't normally log my rides even though I use a Bryton GPS unit for my cycle computer. I do log the audax ones both organised and DIY. If there's any in particular you were looking at I am sure I could upload the route to either log my ride or ride with gps, even to a google map. Most of the routes we take we tend to take the back roads be they gravel or tarmac but try and stick to the scenic but also the less traffic the better. Thanks for looking in and message anytime. If your up this way drop me a line and we'll go for a ride :)
ReplyDelete