15000 miles reached with the garmin this morning!

Riding along the narrow ridge at the top of West Kip before we got slightly lost on the descent!

Baz strikes a pose in the mist, don't know what he was looking at because we couldn't see anything!

 A milestone, or was it a millstone, reached today, since I got the garmin just a few days short of 3 years ago, I've done 15000 miles, nearly all off road, climbed over1,045,000 feet, burnt over 671720 calories at an average speed of 7.9 mph. I think I'll have a cream bun to celebrate!

Today's ride had to be in excess of 31 miles to reach the target and we did it with an epic which took us up and over West Kip in a heavy mist so thick that we got slightly lost coming back down. A great morning's riding, now for the next 15000 miles.....

Normal Wednesday night riding resumes....

Dougie and Marc zip off down the rutted track to the gate.

Now my visitors are back home in Cardiff I've got an extra inch round my waist to remove in order to fit back into my biking shorts without the danger of the top button pinging off into the distance. Last night 4 of us were out and though it might have been shorter than the usual Wednesday night ride the altitude gained was higher than normal. Just over 20 miles ridden and just short of 2000 feet of climbing, those shorts will soon be fitting OK once again!

Now 8 year old Logan does the Pentlands

Just to show that his elder brother wasn't the only one who could ride the Pentland Hills 8 year old Logan along with his dad and me did a loop round from Threpmuir Reservoir taking in Maidens Cleugh

Logan insisted on being photographed crawling through this dog flap!

Proof that he reached the top of the 7 steps as he sits on the "throne"

We stopped at Loganlea Reservoir for a picnic and to recharge Logan's batteries for the final climb up from the Howe.

Another day of unbelievable Scottish weather, (the sun shone all day), and  another trip up the Pentland Hills with Logan and his dad this time. The tracks were hard and bone dry.....but for how long!

11 year old Duncan rides some of the Pentlands....

One of the fastest descents in the Pentlands is Maidens Cleugh and 11 year old Dunc did it in style......except when he stopped at the bottom gate to give the thumbs up!

The path along the side of Harelaw Reservoir

Sitting astride the "Throne" at the top of Maidens Cleugh 

After the embarrassing fall at the bottom of Maidens Cleugh!

Duncan who's on holiday with the rest of his family from Cardiff expressed a desire to do a Pentlands ride so to give him a little help his dad gave us (and the bikes of course) a lift up to the car park at Threapmuir Reservoir to start our trek from there. There was still a hard climb up the 7 steps to the start of Maidens Cleugh but young Dunc gritted his teeth and got there without a halt. The descent was pretty dry by what it's been lately and Dunc did his usual little jumps and tail whips at every opportunity!  

Dunc finished of the ride by showing me how this jump should be done......and nearly going over the fence before he could stop!!

Is the weather settling down........it's about b####y time!!

Last night, Wednesday, and there were 6 of us out celebrating (?) Marks wedding anniversary!! 

A remote selfie taken this afternoon, weather definitely improving.

A wicked little climb, known on Strava as Franks Climb, guaranteed to knock the stuffing out of your legs.

The rather grand Bush House, once the estate mansion for Bush Estate but now converted into offices.

Things can only get better the song says, and in the case of the weather here's hoping! After things had dried up nicely we were treated to a few days of constant rain and easterly winds that threatened to tear the skin of your face, but at the week-end the wind went back round to the west again and the tracks are actually drying up reasonably quickly once again. Fingers (and everything else) crossed that it remains like this for some time as I have some little relatives coming to visit with bikes and the last thing her indoors wants is little muddy feet all over the floors!

Got rid of that east wind at last

.

Saturday night and the bike is getting prepared for an early start on Sunday

The top of Castlelaw Cottage climb, now it gets even steeper!

The descent to Harelaw and time for a selfie!

Highest point of today's ride at West Kip.

Away at 5.45 am this morning and at last the cold, damp east wind had gone to be replaced by a slightly, but not much warmer, south westerly one. It was bare legs, not been many this year yet, and light gloves as well. Some new tracks explored and at the end of the ride we'd covered 29.5 miles, quite a few of which were quite muddy!

Thicker than very thick pea soup

Went out with Mark last night equipped with my new mini camcorder strapped to my chest determined to bring back some brilliant, exciting footage of our biking exploits........the photo above taken at the bottom of the climb to the hills as Mark arrived ended up the only one worth keeping! Once we got up into the hills the fog just got thicker and thicker and I had to remove my riding glasses as they just kept misting up with the water vapour. This didn't stop us having a cracking ride though as we did a route we haven't done since the start of the winter and with the nights getting more daylight (and no fog!) hopefully we'll be able to do a few more new tracks. 26.5 miles for me last night and hopefully by the week-end this weather will have cleared up a bit.