Friday 28 July 2017

More downpours in this sorry summer! But better times to come......

The track down the valley to the Howe was drier back at the end of the winter  than it is now!

The stream or small river as it is now is just too risky to try and bike across , the dark peaty water hides the boulders that have been washed down when it's in spate.

Kathy negotiates the stepping stones which are just clear of the water, we need another bridge here!

Out with Kathy this morning on muddy tracks, her first time for a couple of months and I can safely say it was a lot drier two months ago.
The reason for her absence is the puppy above, and if that doesn't make you go awww!! then nothing will!  She's now the proud owner of a Vizsla pup called Heidi who's taken over her life for the past two months but she assures me that she's nearly ready to do a bit more biking again. The long term plan is that Heidi will accompany her as she runs and bikes in the hills once she's an adult (Heidi that is, not Kathy, she'll never really grow up thank goodness!!)
Anyway already Heidi can probably accelerate faster than a Ferrari so goodness knows what she's going to be capable of in a year or so!   


Sunday 2 July 2017

The wettest June in Central Scotland since god knows when....

This is Threapmuir reservoir which was at the lowest level I've seen it on Wednesday night since I started riding up the Pentland Hills. Today, Sunday, the water was pouring over the overflow as a result of last Thursday and Friday's downpour! 

Barrie and I came up behind a small squad of armed soldiers presumably out on an exercise this morning and took no time in informing them we had no intention of launching an attack against them!  

Barrie trying to get a bit of air under his wheels early on this morning

Torduff reservoir which also had been well topped up with the rain this week

The river crossing wasn't too bad apart from a deepish bit that had been gauged out when it had been in spate resulting wet feet for the both of us.

The news that there had been record rainfall in June came as a bit of a surprise because generally the ground conditions have been very good with the trails drying quickly after any rain early on in the month.I can only assume the record rainfall came about as a result of the very heavy rain in the last week of the month, here's hoping for a drier July!