From the 2017 plans thread...

ianfitz wrote:I'd never really looked at the explorer score on VV, but had a gander this morning. Mine is 6x6 but there's a few isolated squares that prevent it from being way bigger, so I have a nice little xmas project now...

Trip number one was to take in a westerly route via Sir William Hill over to Little Huck Low, which harvested three squares, then head south towards tideswell which picked up another one.

I left work at 3, riding into a stiff headwind and a bit of drizzle. Over the next 2 hours my high level, westerly/south westerly heading route took me through increasingly strong headwinds, heavy rain and hail. Nice! I love a bit of hail. There were streams flowing down the trails and the wind was so strong even a road descent required pedalling.

All good character building stuff. I enjoyed it

But did your score go up?

whitestone wrote:But did your score go up?

I'm riding home via a different route to pick up another couple. So it should do. But I may need a few more single ones. There a few dotted about that prevent the score from being much higher.

Shane I never used a GPS when running as pretty sure I'd have ticked off a few back then

ianfitz wrote:

whitestone wrote:But did your score go up?

I'm riding home via a different route to pick up another couple. So it should do. But I may need a few more single ones. There a few dotted about that prevent the score from being much higher.

Shane I never used a GPS when running as pretty sure I'd have ticked off a few back then

from 6x6 to 13x10 (i know that's not a square!) but a few more trip like this one will increase it further. And I get to see new places, which is actually what interests me!

Morning ride out on my Southern Liverpool loop


And now on the cloudy cider in my favourite pint glass

21 miles and 2100ft of climbing on the road bike working up an appetite for Christmas lunch. It's my family coming round today and then the wife's family tomorrow, so looks like it will be another ride boxing day morning ready for a second Christmas lunch.

A wee spin before getting lunch ready



That'll be all the snow then......

I went up into Rothiiemurchus for a spin and the Spey is into OLBs car park, hopefully it is peaking now as I am gonna be needing a beer by tomorrow evening!

Three hours out along the river bank, up to Scolty, round the back to the Shooting Greens and back.

A bit too muddy for 3" WTB tyres on the singletrack I'm afraid. Still, managed to keep upright, which was nice.

Think I'm down to ~£500 a ride so far on the Sherpa

Gari wrote:I went up into Rothiiemurchus for a spin and the Spey is into OLBs car park, hopefully it is peaking now as I am gonna be needing a beer by tomorrow evening!

I meant to ask: have you moved yet Gari?

Still pending!!

A windy boxing day turkey burner....
Wonder what's for tea tonight

After the blizzards, we had some calm.

Calm evening at Ryvoan by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Nice, I am off for the next couple of days so may venture that way on the Jones, as no one has bought it yet!
Suppose to get some sunshine tomorrow even......

We'll be heading up in the next day or two, still not decided on which route to do (following on from my Scottish route advice thread on the Routes forum), I suppose it depends how much snow has been dropped by the recent storms.

5C tomorrow. It'll be wet.

Rivers are pretty full. I'd not expect them to drop much over the next few days, so choose your routes accordingly.

Had a fun day out on a social route I made up to follow my fell running clubs traditional post Christmas outing. They run round the outside of the parish of Bradfield. The biggest parish in England. 48miles arrived the edge.

I made up a legal route that met up with several of the places where they have van support. Ended up being 130km and 2800m but plenty of time to chat to folk as they run it over 12 hours.

A stunning day for it too

Route is here http://www.strava.com/activities/813521457

Stu would be happy with this slog. On yesterdays ride this 400ft climb in 0.2 of a mile!! I done it before so I knew what I was letting myself in for :/
And yes it was near vertical in places
A nice day for it though

Stu would be happy with this slog. On yesterdays ride this 400ft climb in 0.2 of a mile!! I done it before so I knew what I was letting myself in for

and

And yes it was near vertical in places

Well yesterday's ride, a bivy and today's ride. For some fat bike training Cath and I rode from Dalwhinnie to Dalnaspidal, along by Loch Garry, a bit of bog pushing to get to the new hydro-electric scheme then down to Loch Garry to pick up the HT550 route to Ben Alder Cottage. The last bit to the bothy was somewhat damp This morning we continued over Bealach Cumhann and Bealach Dubh to Culra bothy. Progress was somewhat slow due to some deep drifts of wet sugary snow and having to build stepping stones to cross the burns swollen by melted snow The outflow of Loch an Sgoir was particularly stressful.

ScotRoutes wrote:5C tomorrow. It'll be wet.

Rivers are pretty full. I'd not expect them to drop much over the next few days, so choose your routes accordingly.

I blame the contributors to geograph.org.uk for not providing shots of all the relevant burn crossings

On a more positive note, I'm getting pretty good at getting over water bars and channels

1st ride of 2017, a wet start but 50 miles bagged and home for lunch

Wirral Way?

2 laps of Commonwealth Games trails at Cathkin Braes with my 9 year old son Fraser. A beautiful, cold and sunny day to be out. Quite a few patches of ice on the trails. Fraser was trying out his new mountain bike, his big Christmas present from Santa.